RinkWise podcast: Central Scouting’s David Gregory talks NHL Draft

Ben MacDonald of Noble and Greenough could be a pick in next month's NHL Draft. (Dave Arnold/NEHJ)

It’s NHL Draft season.

The league’s annual player entry showcase will be held July 7-8 in Montreal. It’s a big day for hundreds of kids across North America, and especially here in New England, where there are several prospects hoping to hear their name called.

We welcomed David Gregory of the NHL’s Central Scouting Service onto the RinkWise podcast to help us prepare for the draft.

Gregory has decades of experience evaluating players and will discuss his ratings for local players in this year’s draft and the work he does at Central Scouting.

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On what New England prospect he likes best:

“I like (Ben) McDonald. He’s a player that just checks all the boxes. The more I watch him … in our business, we say ‘Is this guy going to play?’ This guy is definitely going to play because he’s just a complete player. He’s got hockey sense. … Ben to me was just a pleasure to watch his development during the course of the season.”

On Northeastern’s Jack Hughes, the top-rated local prospect by New England Hockey Journal:

“What Jack accomplished as a young player in college hockey was really tremendous. … Jack was the highest-ranked player in the Northeast for us on our list. And that was a consensus of all of our scouts. And Jack is a player that we’ve known for a number of years as an underage player playing in prep school and then going through the development program. He’s just the consummate player. He knows the game and inside and out. To step in and play top-line minutes on a big-time program that Northeastern is, he’s definitely solidified his chances of being a first-round draft pick.”

On local prospects Ryan Healey and Cam Lund, who played in the USHL:

“Ryan Healey is the kind of player that NHL teams look for now. He’s he’s going to be able to jump into a college program and develop into an NHL player where he just has the skill and the sense to have an impact. And Cam Lund, he’s the kind of player you see in any game and you realize this is one of the best players on the ice because he plays with pace. He’s dynamic. He thinks the games well. He can create opportunities for himself and his teammates. Both those guys had a big impact on the teams that they played for this year, for sure.”

The podcast can be streamed at hockeyjournal.com/podcast and on major platforms, such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

“RinkWise” is brought to you by Lovell Academy, Quincy College and Bando Hockey.

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