A look back at Prospect Camp
The Red Wings held their prospect camp back in July when I was taking some time off. Fortunately George Malik over at MLIVE not only covered the camp - he provided incredibly detailed coverage on four of the days. If you haven’t checked it out now is a great time to do so with hockey news slowing to a trickle prior to the start of training camp.
Here’s a brief overview of the first day’s festivities:
The Detroit Red Wings opened their “strength and conditioning” summer prospect camp on Monday morning [July 8]…their first day of on-ice activities [included] power skating drills, serious work with skill development coach Tomas Storm’s increasingly intricate exercises in puckhandling, and a set of practice drills which evolve into a shift-on-the-fly scrimmage, courtesy of Grand Rapids Griffins assistant coach Jim Paek and Red Wings director of player development Jiri Fischer.
The players are then educated in the levels of physical fitness required to become a professional hockey player, and they get a taste of “life as a Red Wing,” which happened to include a short visit with the Stanley Cup on Monday.
After the morning skate Malik said that Thomas McCollum made a good first impression, and Daniel Larsson’s ability to direct rebounds was noted. Malik also made note of the fact Logan Pyett is a superb passer, which will certainly give him a good shot at making the Red Wings roster in a couple years. There are some other observations on players from Day 1.
On the second day Malik notes that Ken Holland and Jim Nill were in the stands to check out the camp.
In the stands, Ken Holland and Jim Nill sat together, watching intently and speaking to each other in hushed tones, sometimes quite literally placing their hands over their mouths so that the eagle-eyed players couldn’t get a “read” on those who were assessing their pluses and minuses. No joking with scouts, no talking “shop,” it was all business.
Here is the complete roster of participants:
Detroit Red Wings: Sweater # Player Pos DOB Birthplace
31 Daniel Larsson G 2/7/86 Boden, SWE
38 Thomas McCollum G 12/7/89 Amherst, NY
15 Cory Emmerton C 6/1/88 St. Thomas, ONT
21 Francis Pare* C 6/30/87 Lemoyne, PQ
32 Corey Elkins F 5/23/85 West Bloomfield, MI
36 Brent Raedeke* LW 5/29/90 Regina, SASK
45 Dean Chelios* F 7/14/89 Montreal, PQ
48 Max Nicastro D 3/2/90 Thousand Oaks, CA
54 Jesper Samuelsson C 6/13/88 Stockholm, SWE
56 Bryan Rufenach D 4/15/89 Cameron, ONT
57 Nick Oslund RW 11/15/87 Burnsville, MN
58 Randy Cameron C 1/28/87 Cornwall, PEI
59 Zack Torquato C 6/8/89 Sault Ste. Marie, ONT
60 Logan Pyett D 5/26/88 Balgonie, SASK
61 Jan Mursak LW 1/20/88 Maribor, SVN
63 Kyle Verbeek* 9//16/88 [hometown listed as Bloomfield Hills, MI on USHL website]
64 Anthony Ciarulo F 6/7/85 Clinton Township, MI
65 Brandon Gentile* D 4/23/87 Clarkston, MI
71 Stephen Johnston LW 2/24/90 Guelph, ONT
72 Brendan Smith D 2/8/89 Mimico, ONT
73 Derek Roehl* F 4/20/88 Clinton Township, MI
* - invitee
Tuesday’s coverage goes into some detail on Jiri Fischer’s role with the team as Director of Player Development and Jim Bedard’s work with the goaltenders. There is also some more commentary on prospects, including Cory Emmerton, Jan Mursak and Jesper Samuelsson.
Fatigue began to set in on Day 3 but it isn’t all on-ice work. Here’s a brief snippet on some of the stuff they did away from the rink:
They shower, get a quick lunch break, and it’s back to work at 2:30, when they’re transferred to the Wings’ trainers, led by Piet Van Zant, for off-ice workouts and lessons in nutrition, building muscle, and maintaining their physical shape.
…the prospects usually have a full afternoon or evening of planned off-ice activities–they took in a Tigers game with the Stanley Cup on Tuesday, for example, and attended the premiere of the Red Wings’ 2008 Stanley Cup Championship DVD on Monday evening.
Here’s another nice observation from Malik after having a chance to chat with Jim Nill: [successful prospects] “tend to have two key characteristics: they’re always developing their skills, and they’re more than willing to embrace lesser roles.” The blogger comes away from this conversation providing a really nice overview of the Red Wings philosophy.
Day four includes interviews with Cory Emmerton and Jan Mursak. Both players will move up to Grand Rapids and play in the AHL next season.
NHL.com also had a really detailed article on Red Wings prospects last week. Other than calling Jakub Kindl a stay at home defenseman it has a lot of really good information.
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