Reportiong (nearly live) from the Development Camp

wprager wrote:I took my hockey-razed 11-year-old to the Sens development camp today. Go there a little late and had to leave a little early, but still got to see a few drills and even the start of a scrimmage they had toward the end of the practice. Below are just some quikc, random observations:

1. Luke Richardson! I thought he had turned down the coaching job, but he was there, on the ice, helping to run practice. Maybe it's just for the development camp, but maybe not.

2. These guys are all pretty big. When I saw Karlsson, I started wondering why everyone says he's small. He was a lot bigger than I expected.

3. Cowen wasn't practicing, unless it was in the first 15 minutes that I missed. Finally saw him walking to the dressing room at the end of the first half, in full uniform. Later on my kid saw him being interviewed by TSN -- I guess that's the problem with being a first round, top-ten pick. My kid might be on TSN tonight :)

4. Wiercioch has some scoring touch, he kept putting the puck on almost every rush. Nice size, doesn't look at all skinny. Looks a lot like Brisebois did when he first came up with Montreal, and he's still got one year in college, where I'm sure he'll put on a few pounds.

5. Some of those guys were seriously huge: Blood, Gryba, Sdao. Sdao is not very quick on his feet, though.

I will probably remember a lot more later, but that's it for now. It was a lot of fun, the parking lot was (relatively) empty, lots of room to stand/sit. If you've got kids into hockey, I highly recommend it. The 3-3 tournament is probably going to be better attended (possibly packed), so if you want to see some game action they will probably scrimmage the last 20 minutes (around 2:40).

Phoenix30 wrote:
Blood is the one I am curious about. He was a late pick and rough around the edges but I remember it being mentioned he could be a diamond in the rough.

wprager wrote:Cowen missed half of last season and is still rehabbing his knee. No way he's ready for the NHL, but next year, who knows.

The way Wiercioch looks now, I'd say he may very well be ready for 2010/11. We could very likely have Karlsson, Wiercioch and Cowen all contributing in two years. And we'd still have Phillips (hopefully) to teach them the ropes. I'm afraid A-Train could be chugging in greener pastures by then.

wprager wrote:They said training sessions every day except for when they have the 3-3 tournaments. But the place was locked up like a vault today. I thought I'd stop by on the way home from Canada Day at Walter Baker Park, but no go.

wprager wrote:I wonder, could we make Wiercioch into a forward? He's a very good skater for a guy his size, probably a better skater than Chara was at this stage, and he's quite good with the puck. Plus he could probably get a ton of points just standing in front of the goalie.