Missed the defenders today, but got to see all the forwards in their glory.
First off, Annunen was brutal with a capital "B". The lad got sniped all session long and when he didn't the players were hitting him in the mask, really tough day. Werner was awesome, I think he took the reigns from Shmakov as the best goaler of the day. Second, I was interested in Barlage, but he is so so so far from even a NHL teams development camp. Skating is slow, no agility, no shot strength, no centre of gravity (like none), and his balance is worse than even Mikko or Landeskog (not sure how that is possible).
Bowers was awesome today, was a noticeable tier higher than everyone else in his group. I was actually pleasantly surprised with our Latvian Buncis, his stats look terrible, but he was very tough to control down below the hashmarks. Not sure I saw Kovalenko or Morrison on the ice either which also included Smirnov and Weiss (Mutala played). Beaucage was pretty good, his shot is very tough for goalers to get a read on - it has the heaviness, but his release is the foie gras of his game. I thought the best player today was between Kaut and Shvyrev, both were doing something to trump the other one. Kaut has all the tools, he is a strong skater with a fantastic shot and tough to separate from with the puck. Shvyrev looked like he played against men compared to the CHL players, played a heavy mature game and his shot is very good (I hope they give him more of a chance). I also really liked what I saw from Mutter, the guy can snipe it and similar to Buncis he was a thunderstorm in a box.
Burzan was still pretty weak on the puck, did not do well in the 1v1 competitive drills. Mutala also looked like a kid when he was up against more of the veteran players. Out of all the rookies I actually thought that Stienburg was the most impressive. He doesn't have a huge ceiling, but there are a lot of tools that can translate into the pros - he plays a very mature game that resembles the NHL quite a bit. Captain Hook was the flashiest of everyone on the ice, but you can see the physical immaturity and he can't do the moves he wants yet. Lastly, I thought Henry showed a lot of growth. His skating in particular has gotten a lot better compared to last year, most notably his agility gave him a 1 up to every player there. Nick has also gotten stronger and was able to shield players off similar to Crosby.
This makes a ton of sense, one of the coaches today just seemed so familiar to me.
) out.
