Every prospect at the NHL draft carries at least a bit of uncertainty or risk with them. What NHL teams have to decide is whether the reward is worth the risk. Roger McQueen has spent the past three seasons showing NHL teams what the reward might look like: a 6-foot-5, right-handed power forward with elite puck skills and a nasty side to his game.
The NHL draft combine, however, was a chance for McQueen to show that the risk with him (a back injury that’s been bothering him going back to the 2023 Hlinka Gretzky Cup) is not a cause for alarm. In that sense, he had perhaps more riding on the combine than any other prospect. And in that same sense, the combine was perhaps more successful for him than any other prospect.
Cleared for all workouts and with a clean bill of health, McQueen was a full participant in the fitness testing at the combine. He also had a chance to sit down with NHL teams, field questions from their staff, and even catch up with some old friends from his previous international tournaments.
“It was cool being able to see familiar faces,” McQueen said. “Going back to the U18s, I saw some guys there that I’d seen back in the day at those tournaments. The meetings were good, the media was cool, the combine was awesome. In the sense of testing, I didn’t really know what to expect going into it but I thought it turned out pretty well and I was happy with it.”
In the interview process, McQueen said he didn’t get any of the true curveball questions the combine is famous for, though he did get asked what kind of animal he would choose to be if he were one (his answer: a horse because they’re good with people and can do lots of jobs). And he certainly had his fair share of chances to be asked unusual questions, as 24 NHL teams interviewed him.
“They were all pretty nice, easy to talk to, and there weren’t any crazy, intimidating questions,” said McQueen. “The teams were good and I felt like I did a good job of talking to them and having a bit of fun with it.”
One team in particular, the Pittsburgh Penguins, took McQueen out for dinner away from the event and he found himself sitting at a table with Penguins General Manager Kyle Dubas, Assistant GM and former NHL star Jason Spezza, and their Vice President of Player Personnel Wes Clark. McQueen and Spezza had some common ground not only in their size and skill but in the back injuries they’ve had to overcome.
“I loved going out with them, Wes Clark was a really nice guy,” said McQueen, “Spezza was awesome to talk to because he talked about his back a bit and what he’d been through twice in his career so it was nice to talk to him about that. Dubas was a great guy to talk to as well, he’s kind of a hockey genius. It was a great dinner.”
Discussing back injuries became a crucial part of McQueen’s combine because, give his size, skill, and mean streak on the ice, his back injury was just about the only worry NHL teams have about him. But McQueen has been cleared for contact and full workouts for some time now, and he was able to put a lot of those doubts to rest in his interviews.
“Going in, if I was getting asked, it was nice to be able to clear things up,” he said. “Doing the testing really helped with that. It kind of gave some people some relief. For the first time, the medical doctors and physicians went (to the combine) so I could see them and talk to them. It was good for teams to kind of clear that up.”
During that testing, McQueen showed he hadn’t just been sitting around waiting for his back to heal. He got nine pull ups, finished top-ten in the horizontal jump, and completed all testing in full.
“That’s been a big goal in going to the gym for the last month before,” said McQueen. “It meant a lot to do pretty well at the testing and it really helped for people to see that I’ve been in the gym, and not just going (to the combine) just for the sake of doing it. It was a big relief for me.”
That’s good news for Brandon Wheat Kings’ fans, and during a media scrum McQueen provided more good news. At a time where players are debating between the CHL and the NCAA, with several already choosing the latter, McQueen has reaffirmed his loyalty to Brandon. And if he were returned to the Wheat Kings by his eventual NHL team, he has no doubt about what he wants to achieve.
“I appreciate what we did in the offseason, taking those two guys from Swift Current, they’re great players,” he said. “Knowing the guys, I know they want to win and I know Brandon is a city of winning. Bringing that to them is the number one goal. As a team, we’re ready to go all the way and bring home the Memorial Cup. I think Brandon deserves it.”
If the Wheat Kings fans needed further indication of McQueen’s stance on next season, he actually gave it to them a month earlier. When the Wheat Kings completed their WHL prospects draft in early May, McQueen personally reached out not just to first-rounder Cruz Jim but to every member of the Wheat Kings’ draft class to personally welcome them to the team. Because these are players born in 2010, they are players with whom McQueen, in all likelihood, will never play. Yet he felt it extremely important to contact them all to follow the example another highly-drafted Wheat King once set for him.
“I remember when I got drafted fourth overall to the Wheat Kings, Ridly Greig reached out to me and I thought that was pretty cool,” he said. “Being able to be in his shoes now, to be able to welcome them, I think it gives them a sense of the kind of organization Brandon is and how good of a place it is to play, how good the guys are. It gives them that first step in the sense of welcoming them and having that feeling that they can come to camp and be welcome to talk to older guys like me. I want them to be able to talk to me and see me as a normal guy.”
The first round of the NHL draft, in which McQueen seems certain to go, will be on Friday, June 27. If selected in the first round, McQueen would be the 25th Brandon Wheat King in team history to achieve that honour.
