Rookie Camp starts on Thursday with Main Camp following on Sunday through Tuesday. Some of the players in camp won't really be worth watching that closely as I'm not really concerned about their place on the team or their performance.
I won't really be paying a lot of extra attention to Calvin Pickard or Burke Gallimore or some of the other veterans.
Here is who I will be paying a little extra attention to...
Branden Troock: I'm not too concerned about how Troock plays as much as I will be waiting to see if he skates at all. His talent is there but his health has not been. If he is healthy I expect to see good things.
Daniel Cotton: Can Cotton fill the backup goaltending role this season? The backup to Pickard won't really have a ton of opportunities to play but he will need to prove himself capable in order for Seattle to feel comfortable trading Michael Salmon. Also worth watching will be Justin Myles who is 16 and could potentially be kept as the backup.
Chance Lund: Just kidding. I won't even bother until the first regular season game.
Jacob Doty: Has the skating improved? I think I can safely say that every single Tbird fan is rooting for Doty's improvement.
Mitch Elliot: Time to fish or cut bait... or just start punching the shit out of people.
Tyler Alos: Bounceback?
Connor Sanvido: Maybe this is the fresh start he needs to impress a new coaching staff.
Ryan Gropp: The annual anticipation in viewing your first round bantam pick live and up close.
Kyle Verdino and Cason Machacek: These two are absolutely critical to Seattle having any kind of success this season. Machacek especially needs to be a shut down defender and Verdino needs to be decent enough defensively to get by and be the veteran puck mover from the defensive zone.
Dave Sutter: I will repeat that if Sutter had a very good summer working on his skating I really believe he could be the biggest surprise of the season.
Austin Frank: Is he ready for top 5 status?
Evan Wardley and John Dora: Will Dora show up at camp and will Wardley be ready to make the team and play.
Taylor Green: Green has a shot to make the team and has evidently put on 20 pounds over the summer. The biggest battle in camp is going to be the fight for the back end of the defensive roster.
Coach K and Darren Rumble: Yup... I got my eye on you guys. I have every reason to think that both of them are going to be excellent coaches and no matter what your stance was on the firing of Rob Sumner, the freshness of a new regime and a new approach is going to be exciting.
Hockey Challenge 2014
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6 comments :
For the rookie camp I'm excited to see our higher round picks as well as the 16's to see how things have improved.
For main camp I'm looking to see if we have any surprise attendees.
Overall though I'm looking forward to how the team is shaped. Again as I metntioned before, except for the obvious players like Pick's, Noebels, etc postioins are up fro grabs so the competition is going to be fun to watch. I'm also looking forward to our pre-season games to see what kind of system we run and what we focus on.
Isn't Kruizenga 15?
You're right. Man I am in pre-season form.
I meant Justin Myles, read Myles and wrote Kruizenga. My bad.
Off topic but Turner Stevenson is now an assistant coach with the Wenatchee Wild, under former T-Bird assistant coach John Becanic.
The T-Birds seem to draft for size and not skill for the most part. i Russ does not like his teams getting pushed around, but some skill would balance things out a little. Look no further than the standings each seasons end.
Lookout for Dylan Gambrell hometown kid from Bonney Lake!
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