Bruins development camp day 4: The Irony epsiode

Bruins development camp day 4: The Irony epsiode

Qual fans qual Bruins team, welcome back. Day four of the dev camp is complete. We had the big scrimmage today, which we’re going to chat about a little bit, which is going to be kind of funny. This car is honking outside cuz we’re in Boston and that’s how that works. And today is my last day here. So, I know some people have asked about if whether or not I’m staying for the 4th. We’re flying out the morning of the 4th because we think it’s going to be easier traveling on that day. And we have so much work we have to catch up on. So, we’re not going to stay for the celebrations, unfortunately. But all’s well, that ends well. This has been a great trip. Again, I want to thank everyone who had come out and said hello. It was really great to meet everybody. There were so many of you that like the shout outs would be exorbitant at this point, but I really really appreciate everyone who took the time to come out. And of course, everybody who came out also got to watch some good Bruins prospects. We hope they’re good prospects. One of them is supposedly speaking to the brass about getting signed and potentially having a chance to move to the AHL or up to the NHL this year. Not surprisingly, that is Hagens. I don’t like that idea. I like him staying at BC again because this year is going to be weird and I would like for him to continue developing at a pace that feels more comfortable rather than getting shuttled up to the league where I mean, let’s be honest, I think expectations need to be very simple for this upcoming season. I don’t see the point in rushing an 18-year-old into the mix. I don’t think that’s a crazy crazy point to make. Some of you might be like, “Get him in. Get him in right away.” I don’t know. I’m I’m super cool taking taking time here. Uh today we’re going to talk about every single prospect. We’re going to have a moment, at least a oneliner about every prospect who attended the camp. Uh some of you might ask about Walsh. Walsh was invited to the camp, but only for off ice stuff. He wasn’t on the ice at all, so that’s the only one really we’re skipping. Uh, I have notes on everyone, but before we get started, I want to talk about today’s scrimmage, which disappointed in a couple ways, if we’re going to be very honest. Uh, not to say I didn’t enjoy myself. I had a great time, but the physicality actually never showed up. I was super wrong about that. I I thought it was getting chippy towards the end of day three. I thought with some of the size we were going to have on the ice, really, the the size differences we were going to have on the ice, that things were going to get really emotional and they were going to get heated. And there were very few players that I thought were kind of dragging people into that fight. I thought that William Moore was one who when they were getting mixed up with people wasn’t afraid to to try to throw down a little bit. Obviously not throwing the gloves off and and chucking them, but uh just more aggressive physically like that. I thought Ylanov was one of those as well who I don’t think he was looking for it, but he certainly wasn’t shying away from any of that. Uh and then Blar as well. Um, again, a reminder that the pronunciations of these names, I’m I’m just not at my full research abilities up here and making sure that I’m saying things correctly. I I don’t think it’s time to overemphasize that stuff anyway. So, if there are things that I’m not saying correctly, we’ll get there. I just I’m aware of it. We We’ll get there when we get there. Um, the scrimmage disappointed because the physicality doesn’t get where I was kind of hoping it would. And I know we don’t want our prospects beating the hell out of each other, but I wanted to see that kind of level of fight from a couple players in particular that we will talk about the scrimmage also. So they did what was it? They did eight minutes at five on five. Then they did 10 minutes of four on four and then I want to say it was another eight at three on three. I don’t remember the minute total for the last period. That would end with zero goals. So, this scrimmage really mirrored the Bruins in some ironic ways. There were a couple close calls, right? There were players who I would say did kind of dominate their shifts, but no goals. People are going to read too much into that. Don’t It’s okay. It is hilarious, but it’s it’s kind of disappointing that they’ve never actually buried a puck during the scrimmages. Uh, and I I even said when it ended, I was like, I’m sure the comments will be really friendly about that. The only other point I’m going to make before I start going through these players is I said this last video, development camp is a development camp. It’s called development camp because the expectations right now are these guys have a ways to go. I want to make it very clear that my comments about the players are about what I saw right now and it’s not going to absolutely bury them for future conversations. I might mention where I see their ceiling at or their current performance things that I want them to work on. Uh but at the end of the day, I’ve spent 4 days watching what is mostly drills trying to get a better understanding of specific players. Some of them I’ve already felt like I have a good idea who they are, some of them less so. Some of them I’ve walked away from camp being more confused than when I started. That’s just kind of a nature of a 4-day camp like this. There’s a lot of off ice work they also go through. But at the end of the day, this doesn’t determine their fate at all. There will be players that I really love that will never even sniff the NHL level. And there’ll be players where I go, I really don’t see it with them and and they just might make that leap. So development is just a very strange process. I’m going to kind of go in the order of the the roster that was given to us. So, we’re going to start with Braftoft. Braftoft is one of those players who I think a couple of people have asked about, but he’s not like a fan favorite, a well-known kind of guy, but he falls under the category of had a couple nice moments in a couple drills, but didn’t excel anywhere enough to stand out. There’s no simple thing that he did that I can point to and like I liked this, I disliked this. He stood right in the middle on on virtually every skill, right? Had a couple good moments, but other than that, there’s just really next to nothing to say. There will be a few prospects who that’s what the conversation is going to be. I just simply don’t have anything to say about them. They didn’t stand out in any regard that would put me over the edge anywhere. with 30 something like that 30-ish players. There’s going to be certain ones that I just didn’t get a long look at and I going to be honest, I wasn’t going out of my way to look at some of them and Bankrooft fell under that that umbrella. Moving on, we have Cole Chandler. Overall, I want to call this a good camp for him in general. Uh he likes to shoot the puck and when he has time to pick his spot, he is fairly accurate. Doesn’t shy away from physicality, which I like, and certainly wasn’t intimidated when facing bigger guys. I thought one of his uh most rewarding moments or a few of his most rewarding moments were when he would push his way to the front of the net despite the traffic in front, despite the physicality in front. He just didn’t care. He wanted to get there. It also meant he turned the puck over in a couple of ways that you don’t love to see. He tried to do too much. That’s something that I’m usually not going to knock players for at this age because that’s part of development is finding out that everyone at this level can stop you in some way or another. you have to find that next gear where you can beat these guys. You’re suddenly playing with a bunch of other NHL hopefuls. I know in certain leagues you’re seeing that, but not across every roster. At a development camp, everyone is there with the same goal in mind. So, I thought he was learning some some good lessons throughout. Uh, but I like the fact that he doesn’t shy away from contact, doesn’t shy away from the dirty areas, and overall, I thought he had a pretty good camp. Uh, especially offensively. Uh, Andrew Gassau, also, did I write Andrew? Isn’t Andre? Whatever. Gasso, also a player I would say, uh, had an overall good camp. He has a nose for the front of the net, much like Chandler, and wants to get into dangerous ice as quickly as possible. He plays low to the ice for a big guy and wins a lot of board battles because of it. Uh, he’s one of the more successful board battle guys in the camp in general. I especially like how shot ready he is. It’s pretty interesting how basically any position he’s in, a puck’s coming his way, he’ll get it to the net and usually in a pretty effective manner. I think this is a guy who probably grades out to be a bottom six trigger man, but he takes that role seriously. He has a ton of energy. He’s a a dog on meat all the time, and he shoots and shoots and shoots and shoots. I really like that about him. Uh I don’t know why I can’t remember his first name right now, but I certainly will look it up right after this video. Don’t jump in and correct me, please. I will look it up after this video. I don’t have the editing ability that I usually have to like cut things out when my brain freezes. Uh I like to blame all my past concussions for that, but you know, uh but Cassau seriously is one of those players that I think a lot of us really enjoy. Uh we’re hoping that his college career leads to something bigger. Uh I I just I I like the way he plays the game with his eyes to the net at all times and really doesn’t hesitate to go where he thinks the play needs to go. Hagens is next on our list. I’m not saving him for last or anything like that, but he is an elite skater. He’s always ready to challenge defenders. He shows create creative handling and vision, and he has a lethal shot. He seemed to be coasting for moments, which I which I found really interesting. The during the three on three or during the uh five on five, you would see him kind of on the outside looking around, not skating very hard, things of that nature. And it’s weird because part of you goes, is this just him being casual? Right? Is he just figuring out what he wants to do? And so it looks very aloof or is he legitimately just struggling with the fatigue of the whole week from the draft, getting here, the late nights, everything like that. But as the moment you actually would have that thought and you go, man, is he not really going to get involved? He explodes. His rate of acceleration is nutty with his skating. And when he decides he’s making a play, that’s what’s next. and he flies by a defender, goes through another, and he’s got a chance to score over and over again. His vision is ridiculous. So, anytime I saw him coasting and I wanted to take a mental note of it, within seconds, he explodes into the play and I go, “Oh, that’s just me being overly critical, too quick to judge, things of that nature.” Uh, I really can’t think of a way that this camp could have been much better for him. Um, obviously during the scrimmage you were hoping to see more from him directly, but he was also really trying to get teammates involved as well. I’m I’m certainly not worried that he didn’t finish the scrimmage with a with a bunch of goals or anything like that. Um, all these players are working on very specific things as well. He is, as I said earlier in the video, they are talking about potentially having him signed by the time this video comes out. Maybe, you know, I I don’t know right now, but I don’t like the idea of it. like this this Bruins team has so many question marks that and we know that their ceiling right now is not true cup contender or at least most of us assume that I can’t say we know everyone has their own opinions about this but I think for the most part many of us believe that this will be another downish year just depends where they land um I don’t see the point in in pushing Hagens into this early doesn’t make a ton of sense to me uh next on our list is Hendrickson very Very little stood out from Hendrickson. I didn’t think he did poorly. There wasn’t a lot to criticize in his game. He had really strong play along the boards, which I liked. He likes to try to leverage players, get underneath them, things of that nature. But that’s really about it. He didn’t complete a lot of the things that he was attempting. Um, he skating, his skating doesn’t really stand out amongst the amongst his peers. There isn’t much to say about him, so we’re going to kind of gloss over that pretty quickly. Latero comes next, which is another big conversation point here, which unfortunately is not a positive one. Now, we’ve talked about the fact that he had a really bad year last year. He had a hand injury last year that came out at the end of the season, um, but in general struggled with a lot of aspects of the collegiate game and looked like maybe he needed another year at lower levels before moving on. I wanted to see today his physicality ramp up and his board battle success increase. He did look more physical. He was ready to lay the body, especially uh trying to snuff out opportunities in transition or leading the forche, which I liked. Uh he has that heavy stride. He has that long stride that allows him to cover ice well. Again, I don’t think his skating is overly impressive right now, particularly the edge work, but there has been improvement there. But he’s way too easy to beat on the boards still. Players can get underneath him. They can leverage his height against him. They rip the puck away. Gassau will do it. Mela will do it. it’s it’s too easy to beat him in those situations. By the end of the scrimmage, he started to hit harder, realizing that if I don’t make the initial impact that truly knocks these guys off balance, they’re beating me. I need to, you know, compensate in some way, which good, yes, that’s what I want to see. But it’s very clear he still has a long way to go in a lot of the the specifics of how to be a winning hockey player. The puck handling though and the shot are still there. I mean, he he’s got a lot of creativity. He’s got a lot of skill with his hands and his shot is absolutely lethal. I did think he was slow to make decisions. He was overthinking a lot of his possessions, would skate himself into dead ice or get the puck ripped away as he was trying to make a play. Uh, and I felt sometimes that he might not have been seeing what the play was building into and caught too far behind it. There’s still a ton of growth to be had and he still flashes things that make you feel like he has a high ceiling, a really high ceiling. It’s just very far away. It’s okay to sit there and go, “Gee, this first round pick from last year, what the why isn’t there more growth?” I think that’s okay. But again, when we drafted him, and you can go back and look at those videos, he was a multi-year project minimum. It was going to be at least two to three years largely. I think most of us said three to four. I wouldn’t say we’re on pace for where we want to be. I would say that we’re still in a position right now where he’s closer to what he was last year than you really wanted. But this is not a player that you’re just going to cut the rope on after one year, one really bad year. This will be a very interesting year at BC. I’m hoping that my expectations are that he starts the year slow once again and by the end of the season he’s found some real momentum and you start seeing more of that offensive flare and winning more of those battles at the college level. Um but right now I would say Lerno is closer to a no update guy uh considering we just had a year to wait to see if he’s developed more. So, uh, not the best news there, but also development camp. Long way to go with this. Uh, Link. Link is an interesting camp invite because he didn’t stand out in the large majority of the drills. And usually camp invites just don’t. But during the scrimmages, there was one thing that I thought was really, really cool. He can fly. He is a very fast skater in open ice. And in transition, that makes him very, very deadly. He does try to look for moments behind the defense when they’re not paying attention to try to rip a puck away or sit back there waiting for a pass. Uh but really the most impressive thing about him was when he’s in full flight, it’s kind of hard to catch him. So I want to shout him out for that. Beyond that, he’s a very confident puck handler, but not a very effective one. He loses he turns it over a lot. He thinks he can do more with it than he currently can. Once again, let’s go back to that point of sometimes people are learning that the next level is that difficult. So, we’ll see what he can uh what he can move forward as. He is a very frustrating player to watch, I think, but man, can that guy fly. Hell of a skater. Um the next on our list, William Moore. One of the most interesting guys in camp by far. I thought today what he was really showing off is how clever defensively he can be. He fains attacks when possible and drops back in coverage to to make sure that when he fains that attack, if they make the play too quick, he’s there for it. If he fains an attack to try to disrupt a uh offensive player and they don’t fall for it, he’ll do it again and he’ll do it again. And if they continue not fall for it, he’ll just go after him and then he’ll strip the puck away. He basically tries to lull them into a false sense of security, which I find kind of funny. uh he seems like a really frustrating player to try and go around. On the other hand, he’s also a frustrating player to defend. The tighter the ice and more chaotic the situation, the more he stands out as he uses that kind of chaos to disguise the play that he wants to make. He often times is seeing things that I’m pretty surprised he was able to see through the forest of legs and sticks. I was genuinely impressed with his play behind the net, something that we had been told he’s very good at. Uh, so I I definitely want to see more of that from his game, more growth there. I actually also thought in transition he used a lot of head fakes, a lot of pass fakes. He tried to move the defense in front of him to open lanes. That’s something that if you remember after the draft, a lot of the scouting reports didn’t have. They said he was a very intelligent player, but not one that shifts the defense quite like that. And even when I went back and looked at a lot of his tape, I really hadn’t seen a lot of that. But it was on full display today at a closer level. So, I’m really fascinated by that. I’m really excited by that. Many of you know that Lo Mills is one of my favorite uh prospects. Again, a name that we’re hearing different pronunciations for daily, but it is because of the way he shifts defensive coverage, his intelligence, his ability to read the play. Moore is showing a lot of that during these scrimmages. He is again though one of the hardest players on themselves. He’s pissed off after a lot of these possessions that don’t go the way he wants them to. He can get too clever with the puck and skate himself into dead ice. Again, something I mentioned earlier this week and something that was on the scouting reports. So, that is very clearly a fault of his, but he’s also very, very quick to instruct players around him. He’s shouting things out. He’s communicating. This is a guy that I mean he almost felt like a captain on the ice at times and he takes it very very seriously. Through the four days, not once did I see anything that resembled a player who took shifts off or who was lazy. I am so glad to hear that and to see that because the previous reports were a little dangerous in that area. Um like I mentioned gets pinned too easily at times into dead ice. So, that’s kind of a he’s figuring out the pace there. I don’t see him taking a leap over the next year or two, but there’s a lot to like there as a future NHL player. He’s also very physical, like very physical. Often times without the need to be, he wants his presence to be known. I really like that about his game. Another fan favorite as far as my my favoritism is Jonathan Mel. We talked about him a lot last year. uh and another guy who actually came into camp with this reputation that he wasn’t going to care as much and then the camp seemed very different. He once again thrived once the 3v3 and the full scrimmage started. You’ll remember that I said during the drills he doesn’t typically stand out all that much. His skating, his handling, things of that nature don’t aren’t so good that you’re sitting there going, “Wow, he looks way better than those around him.” But he is an absolute pest on the boards. He gets underneath players. He uses a smaller stature to really leverage as much as possible and he actually seems a bit stronger than you would expect. Uh he waits on the outside to sometimes badger as well if another player has always has has already driven in and they’re pinning the the defenseman against the wall with the puck. I know it’s standard to have another player sit behind them and wait which way they go, but he sits in tight and he wants to immediately when that player makes a decision, his stick is there, his face is there, he’s ready to go. Everything about him seems like just such a pain in the ass to play against. He has creative vision uh in transition especially and he always has eyes on offensive opportunities. He does need to be able to handle the heavier defenders. The ones that he’s not able to leverage just knock him to his ass, but that’s kind of to be expected. So, he’s going to have to learn how to protect the puck at a higher level. I think these are fair things that just come with development. But I am a big fan of Mel. I really hope that there’s some forward progression this year as well. Um because I think there’s something there. There’s something middle six center just ferocious. Might end up being more of a winger if he caps if he gets the NHL level. Um but there’s still a lot of growth to be had there. Now Logan Morurell, not Morell O, but just take the O off and you get Morell. He was another camp invite who struggled to set himself apart. He had some nice moments in transition offense. Uh guy who can get the puck to the front of the net effectively. Uh feels like a shoot first kind of guy. That’s it. That’s all I got. Good work. Uh Casper Nason, who I’ve just been told is now Nassen and yet broadcasters say all sorts of words here. I just couldn’t find a moment that I was excited about. Um yeah, nothing through the camp that really struck me. uh one of the players that I mean they did what they were expected to in the moment. They they utilize quick simple passes. They shoot when there’s an opportunity and try to stay in front of him of his man defensively. Like nothing shiny, nothing special, but also was effective in the simpler place. There’s obviously compliments to be had all over that. It’s just you’re not also setting yourself apart from the people you’re competing with to get to the higher level. So, I’m really not sure what that future really looks like. Um, there’s always a few players at the camp who don’t move the needle, whether it be forward or back, and I felt like Caster was one of them. Chris Pelosi, you could probably put under that same category, but I thought he quietly had a good camp. He was really strong decision-m. It feels like he’s always making the right play, more or less. He doesn’t hesitate to go to the net front. He doesn’t hesitate to shoot. He’s an annoying player to try to go around defensively because he’s going to make some contact with you and he’s going to stay in front of you pretty well. He didn’t separate himself from his peers. Exactly. But everything he did was subtly on the higher end, right? Not elite, not even very very good, but like just good. Just consistently good. What you like to see? I know a couple people asked about Pelosi. Didn’t set himself apart in my eyes, but an effective player throughout. Cooper Simpson, I guess you could see, is the exact opposite. We’ve said this all week, but we’ll do it again. He did show stronger effort in the scrimmage, which is the really what I was looking for today. He wasn’t really giving up on plays as often, but he is still way too easy to skate around. And he does struggle to get past players who are playing a more containment style defense. I actually think a few of the defenders at the camp figured out pretty quickly, oh, you can’t just flat out beat me. I don’t have to respect um your speed or or your ability to set up and then explode. I can just kind of sit off you a little bit and wait. And because the way the structure works often times at a lower levels, he’s like, I can shoot and beat the goalie from distance. Well, the goalies, although most of them camp invites, are still at a high enough level where they go like, “Okay, your shot from distance better be freaking incredible because I’m still going to make most of those saves.” Uh, he struggles where they transition. I can’t think of the words right now. He doesn’t find his teammates super well with his passes. Uh, and he certainly doesn’t land it on their stick consistently enough. But when players decide to close the gap on him, he does utilize his strong puck handling to get them off balance and open up more opportunities. If his skating improves, and it does have to improve significantly, but if it does improve, he could become a highlevel scoring threat at the NHL level. I genuinely believe that his shot was second to none at the camp. He has an NHL ready shot right now. They made a bet on a kid named Brett Harrison a few years back. Very similar, right? Stays to the outside, not overly physical, but his shot is lethal. Brett Harrison never worked out. He never put in the work or maybe just didn’t have the physical talent to get there. I don’t know. I don’t want to judge the guy on that. But this is a very similar bet. When these bets land, when they hit, huge. You got an absolute steal. when they don’t, you just never hear the name again. So, overall, I think Simpson had a good camp. I also think that if he walks away with this in the right mindset, he learned a lot about what he needs to do. I believe we got confirmation today that he will be going to the USHL rather than the NCAA. I think it’s very clear that he can benefit from that level for another year before moving up. Uh I I think that’s that’s a really wise decision. He’s a multi-year project for sure. Ethan Wickcom didn’t shy away from contact, but I wanted to see more aggression from him given his 6’4, 210 lb frame. I like his positioning, his lane control in in transition was really interesting, and I mean that as an offensive player. He sees where the defenseman are lining up. He’s trying to stay open for the passes. He does that very effectively. He’s a player who tries to find soft spots in the defense. That was really the only thing that I felt stood out. His shot was probably one of the the the lesser shots at camp. Uh not very heavy, not very fast, not very precise. Um he doesn’t he’s not a hard-nosed player. He’s not a overly physical player. So, not a lot to comment on beyond that. A guy who I think is going to become a kind of a fan favorite of the people who like to root for kind of obscure prospects. Carell Yam Yaml Yanov is a big physical determined to make an impact across all 200 feet. Goes to the dirty areas. Able to challenge the goalie from a distance as well. Strong skating. I mean, definitely not going to be pushed around. He’s just intriguing through and through. This is another player that he didn’t he he probably has a much higher floor than he does a ceiling, but I also am not super sure what a ceiling is because he just seems to be an effective player over and over and over again. It’s very rare that a shift happens with him on the ice where I didn’t at least once notice something he had done. Often times in a physical setting or in a strong scoring position setting, he just gets there, right? I don’t think he has the handling to go through players. I don’t think he has like a sniper shot or anything like that. There’s no elite factor here. He’s just consistently pushing through to the next spot and making an impact. I think that’s a hugely valuable kind of guy when you’re starting there and seeing what he can grow into. This could be a guy that in two years you go, “Oh, he might make the NHL.” It’s also a guy that late round pick just disappears, right? I it’s hard. He’s especially hard to predict for me, but I think his floor puts him really close to an NHL level, which means his ceiling should be rather exciting. Uh he’s going to be one that you’re you’re going to want to follow and just see how his next season goes. Will Zeers, there’s so much to like. There’s so much to like and I’m trying to find positive things. I think you can tell that from most of these notes. Um, I’m just trying to find these these positive moments to talk about with these players because I could crush every little thing they did wrong. But A, where’s the fun in that? And B, it’s a development camp. They’re there to figure out what they’re not doing well enough and work on. Will Zellers has a lot you really, really like? He has really good hands, really nice shot, excellent finishing ability in general, whether in tight or from a little bit of distance. He makes defenders earn it if they’re going to stop him. This is actually one of my favorite things. It’s Marshandesque the way you can bump him off the puck, but you have to be as quick as possible to make a play back up ice because the moment you hit him down, he’s back on his skates and he’s underneath you trying to rip that puck back away. You have to earn your defensive wins against this player. He is not a gifted skater by any means, so he can get beat in transition um when he has to be relied upon to defend in any way. He’s not an overly effective defenseman, but I did think he had a very active stick defensively, which allows you to see the potential there. I don’t think he’ll ever be a strong defending winger, but a guy who’s not a liability and can push the pace up ice, have a little creativity at the net front, nothing wrong with that. He’s intriguing. He’s intriguing for sure. Uh, I believe Oh, I I’ve spoken so much about where these players are playing next year that now I keep scrambling them and mixing them up with each other. I believe he’s at North Dakota. Yeah, he was going to be at North Dakota with Simpson, but Simpson’s opting for the USHL. So, first year in college would be really, really interesting. uh he had huge numbers at the lower levels obviously, but there’s a lot of growth to be had with the kind of compete that he’s showing though and the way that you need to earn your wins against him in the offensive zone. I like that. I like that a lot. Uh a fan favorite, Vashek Blanar or Blan or Richards or however his name is supposed to be that last name is supposed to be said. I think it was a strong camp for sure. Started at I mean just an unbelievable level. The very first couple of drills, he looked incredible. Uh his skating is beautiful. His physicality is just overkill actually at this point. He just loves to get physical to a fault. He needs to gain 20 to 30 lbs. He’s 6’4, 178 or something like that. 180 somewhere in that range. If if you’re going to be 6’4 and you’re going to be a defenseman who loves to make contact, you’re going to be 200 plus. Uh especially with the style he plays. So, I’m not really worried about that though. There’s time to develop. He gets caught too high up ice as well. Loves to jump into the offensive play at any opportunity. So, there’s stuff to learn there. But his shot is really nice and he really trusts his ability to handle the puck through a forest. Irrationally confident with everything he does. It doesn’t always work out in his favor, but I do like a guy who shows some confidence there. There’s just a lot of upside to a player who wasn’t on a lot of radars going into this draft, and his skating was probably third best out of the defenseman, I would say. Not a bad start for the kid at all. Actually, there’s a real a lot to like about his game. He’s going to be one that uh that I’m also going to be keeping an eye on from this draft. I feel like every draft I walk away with like four out of six names that I’m particularly interested to keep an eye on. Uh I feel like I do pretty well with that, too. Typically, those end up being the four that get closest. Um but if I’m going to say like I’m good at predicting who makes it the NHL, no, I don’t think anybody is, including NHL scouts. Uh our next our next guy is CJ Foley, another camp invite. Easily the camp invite overall who stood out the most. The shot isn’t heavy, but it’s precise. He works really well with linemates in transition and puts himself in a good position to help defensively if the play gets away from them. Just one of those players who over and over again you say, “Oh, there’s Foley again.” Every shift is involved in some way. I like his board work, too. It’s not that he wins a lot of board battles, but he is tenacious on them. He wants to make an impact, and that’s the kind of guy that I think will be will be improving. Um, of course, these are camp invites, so no idea where they eventually end up, but he was a fun watch, especially later in the week. Ty Gallagher, I have very high expectations for Gallagher this year in Providence. He’s aggressive in style both defensively and offensively. He’s got a great two-way game and despite his aggression and and is pushing the pace, he still plays a responsible game, keeping an eye on the tilt of the ice to stay in front of the play regardless of the situation. I like I like the choices he makes when he’s deciding to attack or back off. It’s usually not just the safe option, it’s the right option. I think there’s a huge difference when it comes to that. If you want to be a defensive defenseman, great. There’s absolutely a world for you in the NHL. But players who are like, “Oh, he makes such great decisions of when to back off.” Sometimes they just always back off. That doesn’t mean you’re good at making that decision. You just always back off. It’s that simple. I think Gallagher does a great job of deciding when to jump into the play or when to back off. He al actually also is impressive in front of the the net as well and between the dots. He likes to get in that position to help with the the offense, but again keeps his eye on on the team around him, on the players around him, and he doesn’t make silly turnovers that result in him being caught too high. I have a lot a lot a lot of hope that Gallagher goes into the year in Providence and impresses so much that we start thinking we have an answer on the third right D eventually. Um maybe he’s a second pair guy. Maybe. But I do want to walk out of this season going, we might have a young right-handed defenseman that could possibly play for us sooner rather than later. Elliot Grunwald, probably one of my most frustrating players to watch at the camp. I was really disappointed with his play and I don’t want to be too harsh here because again, there’s a lot a lot that goes into the development camp and the differences that you will see uh from these players over the years. So, it literally could have just been a bad week. I don’t want to be too harsh here, but he didn’t stand out in any of the categories other than how many times he got beat by a forward. Uh, that’s basically it. He just gets skated around over and over and over again. Had a really rough couple of days on the threeon-rees and the scrimmages. I’m very hopeful, very, very hopeful that this was just a bad week, that he’s going to have some development, he’s going to be fine. uh because I remember liking him more last year and this was a very very frustrating couple of days. Loki Johansson on the other hand I have a lot of faith in I I have a lot of faith in this kid. I think he does everything very well. He also has a lot of faith in himself. He decides to handle the puck sometimes to a fault in virtually every situation. He doesn’t mind trying to make guys miss on the blue line. uh sometimes again turning that puck over and it results in the puck going the other way when he was the last guy back. So those are your negatives, but he is closer to excelling at every other position or every other situation. He has a strong shot. He has strong decision-m along the boards. Uh he’s good in transition both defensively and offensively as long as he didn’t get caught in a weird position. I do like his instincts when to jump into the play offensively. He just has a lot of trust in himself to be able to handle the puck past players that gets a little more dangerous. Uh I especially like his ability to snuff out plays both physically and with his reach. Um there’s just a really intelligent level to his defending that I enjoy. Uh Ryan Corine, I’m not sure if I’m saying that name right, but he had a few good moments particularly along the boards. This is another camp invite. and he uses his 6’4 200lb frame to protect the buck puck well and he does look to make the simple play up ice which is effective but there’s not much that stood out there that was kind of he came and went. There were there were moments there were good moments. I I think I heard more chatter from people around me about him. So frankly this is a player that I just feel like I missed out on some stuff with. You’re going to walk away with a few of those. Liam Peterson simply didn’t stand out in any positive manner. Uh, I don’t think he was overly negative either, but he’s not advanced in any one category and seemed to struggle with decision-m being his biggest thing. Uh, he would have the puck, he would pause, he would look around, be like, “Dude, move your feet. You got to do something with this.” And often times it could lead to turnovers. I will be interested to see what he does this year as I feel I just didn’t get a good read on this player either. They simply didn’t stand out. and the moments, the shifts that I decided to watch them specifically, they were just okay. So, not a lot to talk about with Peterson. Ben Robertson, I didn’t notice. It was a camp invite. I saw his name a couple times. Yeah. Yeah. That’s that’s it. I I literally He just wasn’t involved enough for me to see it all that often. We do have four goalies to talk about which we’ll do very quickly because again the asterisk that I’ve put on previous videos. Goalies are impossible to properly judge when it comes to a situation like this. Many of the opportunities that they’re facing are between the dots high danger in tight. Uh less defenders around them in the scrimmage. They all went perfect. So I don’t know, right? Uh, nobody got to score a goal on them. Buoya was the most impressive camp invite as far as the goalenders go. Uh, he absolutely will not give up on a play and tracks the puck really well. So, he did have a couple moments where he had some nice diving saves. He loses his blocker side too often, unfortunately, and is guilty of the occasional in-n-out on the glove side leading to a poor rebound. I did like some of his lower body rebound work where it felt like he was very intentional trying to get the rebounds to the wall, punching them out to the corners. Uh he wasn’t always effective with that, but it felt very intentional what he was working on. Uh he does take a very aggressive stance as well, which I like. Um if you’re going to lack confidence, then you’re not going to be a goalender. You have to go attack those angles. Yes, I feel like he loses his posts every now and again. uh that’s stuff that he can work on. But I think Maine is very excited to have a player like this, especially after how his freshman year went. Uh Silverstein, he feels like he was getting better as the camp went on. He likes to be challenged high and is his his economy of movement looked okay, pretty good. The rebound control is an enemy right now, but with as many chances as he faced in tight, it was hard for me to tell if his rebound control was truly poor or if he’s just getting blasted from 6 feet out and he’s just doing his best to handle that. So, I had a hard time getting a really solid read on him. Um, there weren’t a lot of physical aspects that I felt stuck out, but I did like the fact that each movement looked like it had purpose during the scrimmages in particular. Corpy, not Corposalo, Corpy. His uh his lateral movements were excellent. Really, really fast. I mean, that’s what I mean by excellent. I don’t mean excellent as holding the post because he didn’t do that well. He loses his post far too easily actually with his movements. But he fights through contract contact well and like Boya, he’s very determined to make that save and stay in the play. Especially with how quick his movements are, it leads to more scrambles. But I did think that he showed uh some promise in being able to go side to side well and track the puck decently through it. There’s just not a lot to say other than that about him. Uh he was a fun watch though. Just so weird trying to judge the goalenders on this. Sedbach’s the only non-invite goalie at camp. He flashes high level of tracking, good rebound control, but he gets beat low too easily. I I don’t know. We I keep hearing about this name. keep talking to people about this guy and I want to see that next level for him, but we just haven’t seen it. I don’t think he I don’t think he showed anything that showed him far and above the other goalenders at camp, which you feel would be kind of weird, right? Cuz he’s been in the system for a couple of years. Just hard to judge, but I it’s weird. I almost feel like I have more notes on the other goalies than I do him. Odd. But yeah, I would say a very successful dev camp. a very fun dev camp. Uh players that I’m going to enjoy keeping an eye on in the future. Uh no reason to get overly complicated about it. I don’t see any of those players touching the NHL this year. Of course, the Hagens conversation has to be had. So, we’ll see where he ends up, but none of those other players I think will come anywhere close to an NHL roster this year. And I think next year is a bit of a long shot for the large majority as well. Um, we’ll just kind of see how that shakes out, of course, because we’re going to learn a lot more through the first month and a half of the actual seasons where we get to see how they’re performing shift to shift in their perspective leagues and everything. So, perspective leagues, respective leagues, the leagues that they’re in. Can you tell I’m tired? I’m fatigued. I got to travel and I’m not looking forward to that. I also just ate two lobster rolls, so that was awesome. Um, but now I want to take a nap. Go Bees. Go be.