With the NHL Draft behind us and the free agency period well underway, teams now begin looking ahead to how their rosters will shape up as a new season approaches. For many clubs, this process starts with a development camp, where management, coaches, and scouts within the organization get to see where prospects are in their progress, and where they should be to best further their development. Florida’s camp got underway Monday, running through Friday July 12, and LBC will be there with all the updates (schedule and roster via the team).
Day 1 consisted of several simple practices, highlighted by skating and movement drills. Twitter Feed of the Action:
Two groups of skaters; Barkov, Grimaldi, Matheson, Suellentrop in first, Ekblad, McCoshen, Trocheck, Payne, Rau in second.
— Shane O’Donnell (@shane1342o) July 7, 2014
Lots of skating drills. Barkov, Grimaldi, Matheson are standouts.
— Shane O’Donnell (@shane1342o) July 7, 2014
Players focusing on “passing off the pad”, tactic used (and measured) by Pittsburgh. Wouldn’t be surprised to see more it next season.
— Shane O’Donnell (@shane1342o) July 7, 2014
The pass off the pads was interesting; I know Pittsburgh has tracked it before and used it extensively. There was a drill literally devoted to passing the puck to a teammate on the rush via the goalie’s pad.
Weegar has very slick hands. Had no trouble with the stick handling drill.
— Shane O’Donnell (@shane1342o) July 7, 2014
MacKenzie Weegar was very impressive. Kid looks – at this early stage – to be the real deal on D.
@lipsonjeff Barkov looks dominant, controls the drills, Matheson and Grimaldi push the pace and sometimes go too fast for the others
— Shane O’Donnell (@shane1342o) July 7, 2014
Mike Matheson and Rocco Grimaldi. Holy. Speed. Two were paired together through most of the drills. Weren’t many who could keep up.
Good to see Kyle Rau on, would like to see him signed
— Shane O’Donnell (@shane1342o) July 7, 2014
Ekblad looks good, passes are crisp and easily received. Hawryluk hasn’t impressed, bobbled a lot of passes. Trocheck has the Barkov poise
— Shane O’Donnell (@shane1342o) July 7, 2014
Fagerblom out with shoulder injury, apparently
— Shane O’Donnell (@shane1342o) July 7, 2014
Hugo Fagerblom not on the ice. Colin Stevens takes another round at goalie with the second guys in place of Fagerblom.
— Shane O’Donnell (@shane1342o) July 7, 2014
This was surprising, and caused a bit of a panic in the room. We weren’t sure whether Hugo was wearing another goaltender’s pads, or if he wasn’t there. Luckily for everyone, a Swede who had great interest in Fagerblom figured it out and relayed the info to us. It’s still a little weird that the injury wasn’t more well known, and even then, there aren’t a lot of specifics on it.
Per Harvey:
Barkov says he’s feeling good. Grimaldi excited about first pro contract #flapanthers
— Harvey Fialkov (@hfialkov) July 7, 2014
Tallon and Gerard behind glass #flapanthers
— Harvey Fialkov (@hfialkov) July 7, 2014
From the Cats:
“Its a beautiful state,” — @EK5Colts on being in Florida #CatsCamp pic.twitter.com/dLyG3Qi99p
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) July 7, 2014
“It’s like a dream come true to play with him,” — @Barkovsasha95 on the signing of Jussi Jokinen pic.twitter.com/7JpCLU0flZ
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) July 7, 2014
I’ll be at the IceDen tomorrow morning once again, which opens at 8:45 and concluding around 11:30 a.m, providing updates on Twitter (@shane1342o), and feel free to say hi if you happen to be there too.