The Blackhawks are focusing on 6 players for the No. 3 pick. Here are 4 factors that could sway their decision.

Buffalo, N.Y. — The Blackhawks have less than three weeks to decide whom they’ll select with the No. 3 pick in the NHL draft.

No, they're not revealing names. But on Friday at the NHL scouting combine, Hawks vice president of amateur scouting Mark Kelley revealed a number.

“I would say the net right now is probably six players,” he said.

It’s widely assumed the teams drafting ahead of the Hawks — the Devils at No. 1 and Rangers at No. 2 — will select American center Jack Hughes and Finnish forward Kaapo Kakko, likely in that order.

While Kelley wouldn’t share names, the Hawks’ list almost certainly includes four players: American center Alex Turcotte, Canadian centers Dylan Cozens and Kirby Dach and Canadian defenseman Bowen Byram.

The group of six likely includes two of these four forwards: Americans Trevor Zegras, Cole Caufield and Matthew Boldy and Russian Vasili Podkolzin.

Kelley, Hawks general manager Stan Bowman and their scouts have spent the last week in Buffalo meeting with about 80 to 90 prospects, who on Saturday will go through rigorous physical tests before leaving town. The Hawks also have a second-round pick, two fourth-rounders and one each in the fifth, sixth and seventh rounds in the June 21-22 draft in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Testing results Saturday could alter the makeup of the players they're considering at No. 3.

“Sure, absolutely could,” Kelley said. “It’s a case to be made.”

What factors will the Hawks consider before making their pick? Here are four pieces of conventional wisdom and whether they are likely to hold true.

1. The player needs to be NHL-ready.

As much as fans want the No. 3 pick to make the roster immediately, it's not likely to happen. While the top-four picks in the 2018 draft made their NHL debuts and played in at least 71 games, their impact was not dramatic.

No. 1 pick Rasmus Dahlin, who made the largest impact of the four rookies, led Sabres defensemen in scoring with 44 points but was only fourth among his team's defensemen in ice time.

Dahlin will be a superstar soon enough, but even he had growing pains. Kelley said the Hawks aren't making their pick with the 2019-20 season in mind. That could mean Podkolzin ends up wearing a Hawks uniform even though he is under contract with his Russian team for two more seasons.

“On a wish list, yes, that would be nice,” Kelley said of the pick playing immediately. “But that can’t come into play. All these players ... when you get up close to them, you realize they’re 17, 18 years old. I’m looking at them and I’m saying to myself, ‘He doesn’t even shave!’

“And I'm looking at their bodies, and they've been training two or three years but you just see how immature physically they are. They’re at a point in their life where the maturity is coming in.”

2. The Hawks won't take another defenseman in the first round.

The Hawks have selected three defensemen in the first round over the last two drafts, including Adam Boqvist at No. 8 and Nicolas Beaudin at No. 27 last year. Henri Jokiharju was the 29th pick in 2017 and played 38 games with the Hawks in 2018-19 before spending the last half of the season with Rockford.

Boqvist had an excellent season in the Ontario Hockey League and could play for the Hawks next season. With so many blue-line prospects close to making the jump to the NHL, it would seem the Hawks would go in another direction. But Byram has the potential to be a No. 1 defenseman — and those don't come around very often. As good as Boqvist could be, Byram has a higher ceiling.

It wouldn’t be a surprise if the Hawks were to take another defenseman with their first pick, but it would be uncommon. Since 1992, only three teams have used top-eight picks on defensemen in consecutive drafts: the Senators in 1995 and 1996, the Kings in 2007 and 2008 and the Hurricanes in 2014 and 2015.

“Right now with this we’re evaluating them (and) it's my job to come up with some kind of a draft board ranking for Stan,” Kelley said. “And then in discussing team needs, they can come in. But really at this point where we’re picking third we’re going after the best player available.”

3. The Hawks already have an undersized, goal-scoring winger.

The Hawks were fortunate when Alex DeBrincat fell to them at No. 39 in 2016. At 5-foot-7, teams weren't sure his success in junior hockey would translate to the NHL.

With 69 goals over the last two seasons, DeBrincat has helped pave the way for the 5-7 Caufield to be a likely top-10 pick. Caufield scored a team-high 72 goals in 64 games for the U.S. Hockey National Team Development Program last season and added 14 goals in seven games at the world juniors.

“(Caufield) gets to a spot, he opens up and he shoots the puck,” Kelley said. “A lot like Alex. The similarities, they’re uncanny.”

The Hawks weren’t turned off by DeBrincat’s size three years ago. Caufield’s size won't deter them this year if they decide he’s their guy.

4. Centers take precedence over wings.

Turcotte, Cozens and Dach all have the potential to be No. 1 centers. They're powerful, play a 200-foot game and will be expected to play in all situations. At 5-11, Turcotte — a Buffalo Grove native — is a few inches shorter than Cozens and Dach, but nobody has suggested he’s undersized.

While some centers move to a wing, these three are not expected to move.

“Typically centers can have more impact over wings,” Kelley said. “But in saying that, when you start looking at players like (Alex) Ovechkin, he certainly has more impact in Washington than the top center. But I think as a rule of thumb, you do look at centers — centers are really important on an NHL team.”

Does Bryam get the nod over Turcotte? Do the Hawks like Cozens more than Caufield? Chances are they’ll have a much better idea after this weekend.

“It’s close,” Kelley said. “I don’t think the decision at any point (is) going to be difficult. What we want to do is get all the information so that when we do make that decision, we’re very comfortable with it.”