Reportiong (nearly live) from the Development Camp

wprager wrote:

Vandelay wrote:

marakh wrote:We`re doing it the right way. Patience my fellow fans, in 2 years, we are back, and teams like Montreal and New York will be on their knees to try dumping some contracts.

No doubt! As Dung as this Heatly situation is, I'm really glad we haven't dipped into the UFAs. Do you know how old Hossa will be at the end of that contract? I just can't believe the contracts signed yesterday...not so much the money but the term...Chicago is screwed next year!

The contract is meant to be 8 years after which he retires. It's significantly front-end loaded.

with that kind of money/term though, he better be showing up in the playoffs for the Hawks or he is yet again, a bust.

Okay, this is what I have for you from today's Development Camp:

Didn't get to see the whole squad practise, but I can comment on the following players:

Lehner is awesome. He has size, he moves well and is actually very similar in technique to Lundqvist. This guy impressed me almost more than anyone else. He took 1 on 1 shots from Spezza this afternoon and stoned him with several nice save - and a spectacular one that just trickled in. He's got poise, composure and his eyes were always watching the other two goalies and Spezza to see their instincts and what beat them etc. Immediately one of the best prospects in the system.

The other goalies were Rowat and Vokening. Of the two, I don't think Rowat has a lot of chance, but Volk. was pretty good. Might be a good backup for Bingo.

Cowen is just massive out there, he handles the puck well, but the practises today were tough and he showed a lot of rust. Still, very big, imposing dude back there.

Silfverberg is a lot bigger than I thought he was gonna be. Nice reach, good skills, needs to be nurtured for a while, but quite a nice pick up as well.

Petersson was on the other side of the rink, but when I looked over, he had completed the pylon-esque coarse in record time. Nice looking prospect. Probably no more than a year away, but again, I didn't get to see him too much.

However, besides Cowen, another guy working right in front of me was Craig Schira - and I thought he looked small...until I realized he was working with Cowen and Wiercioch. Really nice skills, really impressed me a lot. Big time puck mover, who loves to have the puck. Nice pick up, might be NHL caliber already.

Now...the other guy that was right in front of us was Patrick Wiercioch - and let me be as clear as possible:

Everything you've heard is true and much more!

I can't stress how incredible this kid is. He's huge, he's fast, he's got the most amazing stick handling skills I've seen in a long, long time. He owns the puck when it's on his stick and his reach is unreal. He flew through the practise drills in no time, with the panache of a seasoned veteran. He'll got back to school, play with Team Canada and might take another year after that, but let me assure you, that this kid is headed to a top-pairing in the NHL (barring a massive set back).

He might be the most complete of our D prospects- and as a matter of fact, might be the most talented of all our D-men, Volchenkov, Karlsson, Kuba etc. included.

He's awesome.

Told everyone about Lehner. That kid is going to be amazing one day and picking him in a time where the Sens are going to rebuild with guys like Karlsson, Cowen, Regin, Smith, its going to be a perfect group of guys to build around.

If we bomb this year it would be the perfect year to do it because getting that franchise forward this year would be absolutly the best thing for The Sens long term.

1 stud goaltender, 2 or 3 stud D men, now all we need is to fill the forward ranks and it seems like we are off to a good start getting a lot of guys who have the potential. Now we just need the sure thing.

He's sensational. Really he is, he impressed me more than Elliott did last year.

But Wiercioch...wow, he's the one who blew me across the rink. Incredible!

This is why Ottawa needs to rebuild.

Neely4Life wrote:This is why Ottawa needs to rebuild.

What do you mean?

Wait until Cowen's fully healed to pass judgment.

If you watched him in the Memorial Cup, you'd have seen how incredible he is. At that point, he was without a doubt a top-3 prospect in the draft. People were putting his calibre as a defence prospect as being on-par with Doughty's.

One minor hiccup focussing on the draft and an injury have slowed down his development, but in the long run that isn't tremendously important.

asq2 wrote:Wait until Cowen's fully healed to pass judgment.

If you watched him in the Memorial Cup, you'd have seen how incredible he is. At that point, he was without a doubt a top-3 prospect in the draft. People were putting his calibre as a defence prospect as being on-par with Doughty's.

One minor hiccup focussing on the draft and an injury have slowed down his development, but in the long run that isn't tremendously important.

Yeah I should have mentioned that is was okay for him to be rusty. You can see the skill level of this guy for sure - and I remember him being ranked as high as 3. He'll be really good for this organization.

SpezDispenser wrote:

Neely4Life wrote:This is why Ottawa needs to rebuild.

What do you mean?

Right now there is such a huge chance to really grow a young core and bring them up together, gradually. Obviously you need some of the key guys there like Phillips, Fisher, Alfi, and Neil, but what ever else you can get with your other assets in Ottawa, you do it.

The Sens have no shot to compete right now, this is the perfect time to lose and build.

I'd argue that this is why Ottawa should be happy taking back picks and prospects only (and if necessary, a one-year anchor contract) when trying to get rid of Heatley [I'd point out the change in terminology from "trade", but I'm sure it's obvious to most of you] -

Ottawa can afford to stink out the joint for a year, because there are a bunch of high end prospects just at the edge of making the NHL. Another year of early picks, along with picks gathered from trades now, at the deadline, and at next year's draft, and the cupboard will have gone from bare to overflowing.

We will be able to enjoy the same rise to the top (hopefully) that Pittsburgh did recently, or even better, like Detroit did many years ago. [And we'll get to enjoy the fact that Heatley could have been a part of it, but chose to leave instead...]

SpezDispenser wrote:

asq2 wrote:Wait until Cowen's fully healed to pass judgment.

If you watched him in the Memorial Cup, you'd have seen how incredible he is. At that point, he was without a doubt a top-3 prospect in the draft. People were putting his calibre as a defence prospect as being on-par with Doughty's.

One minor hiccup focussing on the draft and an injury have slowed down his development, but in the long run that isn't tremendously important.

Yeah I should have mentioned that is was okay for him to be rusty. You can see the skill level of this guy for sure - and I remember him being ranked as high as 3. He'll be really good for this organization.

He's much more raw offensively than Karlsson or Wiercioch, but he's elite defensively. Really incredible.

Did you see much of Regin? I'm hoping he can contribute somewhat next season.

Neely4Life wrote:
Right now there is such a huge chance to really grow a young core and bring them up together, gradually. Obviously you need some of the key guys there like Phillips, Fisher, Alfi, and Neil, but what ever else you can get with your other assets in Ottawa, you do it.

The Sens have no shot to compete right now, this is the perfect time to lose and build.

Spezza's still young, why not keep him in the fold and grow the young talent around him, Alfie, Fisher?

Nice young blueline, we should have some great grit and some skill coming in, good in goal for the time being. Why not keep Spezza when he's young and has 6 years to go?

asq2 wrote:
He's much more raw offensively than Karlsson or Wiercioch, but he's elite defensively. Really incredible.

Did you see much of Regin? I'm hoping he can contribute somewhat next season.

Regin wasn't in the practise area, neither were O'Brien, Sandin, Caporusso, Karlsson. It was pretty much only a half squad - if that.

Im not saying trade Spezza, Im just saying those 4 guys are the guys you have to keep.

On the Spezza not, even though I hate hearing him 99% of the time and still hate the "I gotta prove them wrong" BS, I did like his interview today and though he came off very mature and spoke with a lot of conviction. He ment what he was saying, there was no BS when talking about The Sens. If the right deal came along at some point in the future, the way things are going you might have to pull that trigger.

Neely4Life wrote:Im not saying trade Spezza, Im just saying those 4 guys are the guys you have to keep.

On the Spezza not, even though I hate hearing him 99% of the time and still hate the "I gotta prove them wrong" BS, I did like his interview today and though he came off very mature and spoke with a lot of conviction. He ment what he was saying, there was no BS when talking about The Sens. If the right deal came along at some point in the future, the way things are going you might have to pull that trigger.

Guess I missed that interview too -

What was the upshot of it (other than subtly throwing Heatley under the team bus)?