A serious back injury limited Josh Anderson to 39 games last season but it won't keep him from attending the 2016 NHL Scouting Combine.
Anderson, a draft-eligible defenceman who skates for the Prince George Cougars, is among 114 players who have been invited to the combine, May 30 to June 4 in Buffalo. The event gives NHL teams the chance to interview top prospects and see them go through rigorous fitness testing.
Anderson, however, is still recovering from the injury so he will skip the fitness component.
"It's a huge honour to be invited to Buffalo to attend the combine and it will be a great experience being able to speak with general managers from the NHL," he said in a media release issued by the Cougars.
The six-foot-three, 210-pound Anderson missed most of the second half of the WHL season after he was hurt during a Jan. 16 game in Vancouver. Late in the first period, he attempted to lay a bodycheck on Giants forward Radovan Bondra but crashed chest-first into the boards after Bondra escaped contact at the last second. About a month after the incident, in which Anderson hyper-extended his spine, he had shown no real sign of improvement and underwent MRI and X-ray exams in Vancouver. Doctors determined he had sustained a small spinal fracture and estimated he would require four months of recovery time.
Anderson had one goal, five assists and 86 penalty minutes in his shortened 2015-16 season. Last month, when NHL Central Scouting released its final pre-draft rankings list, he was 60th among North American skaters.
The NHL draft is June 24-25 in Buffalo.
"I'm a little nervous for the draft, but I'm very confident with the way that I've played up to this point that I should get drafted," said Anderson, who has three goals, 10 points and 140 penalty minutes in 83 career WHL games.
Outside of the WHL, Anderson played in the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in 2014 and was on the ice at last summer's Hockey Canada Under-18 development camp.
