BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Teams generally don't draft by positional need in the NHL Draft. Since most of these players are a couple of years away from even playing professionally, you take the best player available.
Still, it would sure benefit the Penguins to come out of this month's draft in Nashville, Tenn. with a strong center prospect, given the lack of high-end center prospects currently in the system.
Nate Danielson might be that guy.
Danielson, 18, is the captain of the WHL's Brandon Wheat Kings. He's one of the players who the Penguins interviewed in a meeting at last week's scouting combine in Buffalo, N.Y. With pro size and a strong 200-foot game, it's not hard to see why the Penguins showed interest.
Danielson led his Wheat Kings in scoring this season with 33 goals and 45 assists in 68 games. That's a pretty good leap in production from his first full season in the WHL in 2021-22, when he scored 23 goals and 34 assists in 53 games.
The prospect website Dobber Prospects says that Danielson "possesses a strong shot and some goal scoring upside but will have to diversify his offensive attack to reach his full potential," and is someone who can "can set up his teammates with slick feeds through traffic or finish scoring plays on his own with his heavy release, but he is more efficient than he is flashy in the way that he generates offense."
Danielson called that shot something he's worked on "for a long time," and said that it's still one of his biggest focuses today.
"I'm just working on changing the release," he said of his shot. "There's all different types of shots now. Quickness and accuracy is a big part of it."
Danielson's skating -- both in terms of pure speed and his mobility -- is one of his strengths, but he still pointed to his quickness as another part of his game he really wants to focus on improving in order to find success at the next level.
At 6 foot 2 and 185 pounds already, he also has pretty good size and strength for a prospect his age. That's mostly muscle, too -- his 8.19% body fat is the 19th-lowest of the 100-plus players who attended the combine.
Danielson impressed many of the other fitness testing measures at the combine. The NHL makes public the top-25 players in each category, and Danielson stood out in a few categories. His vertical jump was the sixth-best among participating prospects, exploding for a 22.05 inch vertical. His squat jump was fourth-best, at 18.3 inches. His no-arm jump (standing up straight to start with hands on hips) was the ninth-best at 19.24 inches. His standing long-jump forward was the 10th-best at 111.5 inches.
Part of the musculoskeletal portion of the fitness testing involves a player bench pressing 50% of their body weight and pressing the bar up as fast as possible, and Danielson had the 10th-best velocity. He tied for the sixth-best number of consecutive pull-ups at 13, two shy of the record for this draft class.
I asked Danielson what he thinks sets him apart from other prospects in this draft, and he pointed to his strong all-around game.
"I think I'm a skilled, 200-foot centerman," he said. "Just defensively, I play really well in my own zone. I'm very responsible there and have all the little details to do what that takes. Offensively, I think I'm creative and have good offensive instincts."
He likes to model his game after that of other reliable 200-foot centers like the Flames' Elias Lindholm and the Canadiens' Nick Suzuki.
One executive told me that Danielson projects to be a "third-line center, a hard two-way player." He added that one scout compared him to Flyers center Scott Laughton.
Many mock drafts have Danielson being selected right at or around No. 14, the pick the Penguins have on Day 1 of the draft on June 28. Danielson is still surely a couple of years away from being NHL-ready, though. Because of the NHL's transfer agreement with the Canadian junior leagues, Danielson's options are either the NHL or back to the WHL until he's 20 years old. He's not eligible to play in the AHL yet.
Whenever that jump to pro hockey does happen for Danielson, his size, strength and reliability should make for an easy transition.
This is the sixth story in a series of player profiles from the NHL's Scouting Combine in Buffalo, N.Y., focusing on potential first-round picks for the Penguins.
