Here's my full breakdown starting with my top 5 forwards and defenders
F:
Glass
Suzuki
Cotter
Duke
Kolesar
D:
Hague
Whitecloud
Bodak
Nardella
Coghlan
Cody Glass: Despite being held scoreless today I still thought he was the best player on the ice. His passing game combined with his poise and vision in the way he roams around the ice, you can't look at number 9 out there and not think to yourself that this is a guy playing the game on an entirely different plane or dimension. Where I felt he improved from both dev camp and training camp is he was making much smarter decisions with the puck. Be it when to keep holding or when when and how to pass the puck. Where the game was mostly north south chance trading, when Glass got the puck, team White was able to play a competent possession game. They just had no finish for their chances. Glass also made some solid defensive plays both in his own zone and on the forecheck. His tendencies in that regard are clear but I think it might be too much to expect him to become a Bergeron, Toews, Kesler, Kopitar type. He is capable but I wouldn't say dominant defensively. He seemed more confident in going to the dirty areas which is a good improvement, though I still think he needs to add some bulk even with what appears to be a slightly stronger frame this time around. Much of where he decides to skate to seems geared around not being put in positions of being muscled off the puck. Which isn't inherently a bad thing but those situations can't be avoided even if you're a genius at picking your spots. I'd say he's NHL capable but there's room to round out his game so his style and smarts can be truly effective at the pro level.
Nicolas Hague: if I could give a most improved award it would go to Hague. Last year Hague's best contribution was showing that he has the tools of strength and skill but he lacked any kind of footspeed in his lateral movement and he got burned a lot. I was told his footspeed improved over the course of this year and I decided to remain skeptical until I saw for myself. I wasn't lied to. He's still not the fastest skater out there compared to the likes of Theodore, Miller, Schmidt, and Brannstrom. But he is more than fast enough to do his job effectively now. There are times he coasts but it's only in situations that aren't pressing. When he needs to get to a guy, he does, and suddenly attacking forwards have a hulking 6'6 presence they have to try to get around. His defensive play today vastly outweighed what you'd expect offensively from a guy that lead the CHL in dman scoring. He never got burned once on a rush and was difficult to get around on set ups. He didn't shoot the puck much but when he did it was absolutely booming, and still, I didn't think he was shooting at maximum capacity. It wouldn't surprise me if one day Hague could clap bombs from the point the way guys like Pronger, Chara, and Weber could. Put in simple terms, last year I said we have a diamond in the rough with Hague and that rough was his footspeed. As long as he could get it quick enough to get the positioning he needed, we have a guy with enormous potential. I think he's already done that and I am very excited to see what the future has in store for his development.
Nick Suzuki: I thought he was way more consistently dangerous this time around. Last year he would make some dazzling plays and then disappear for large pockets of the games he played. Or at least try to be too cute and fail. Today his game was far more simplified and mature. His puck skill and speed were still clearly on display but it was more in the vein of what I want to see from the guy. Being one of the OHL's superstars this year worked wonders for him. He played the game today in a way I can only properly compare to Vladimir Tarasenko. Now, whether this skill and speed can translate to the pro game depends entirely on his ability to adjust to NHL level defense so that he can finish his chances at this level. I can't say one way or the other how likely that is (relative to Glass whose passing accuracy and efficiency appears to me certain to translate to productive hockey) but he is certainly a player of immense talent and we should be excited for his prospects.
Zach Whitecloud: I was waiting for my chance to finally see this guy play and he didn't disappoint. He seems closer to the bigs than I originally though. My expectation given his play style is that he will be a good bottom pairing defenseman. He doesn't play an overly aggressive style in either end, but he defends and passes very efficiently. His pairing with Hague was the best on the ice by miles. If I could compare, his style is more akin to a Hampus Lindholm though not quite as strong positionally and certainly not as adept offensively (and this is bearing in mind that Lindholm isn't an elite offensive talent to begin with). With so many offensive minded defensemen on the big club and in the system, Whitecloud serves a need for a potential and proper stay at home defenseman. He marks his man well in the defensive zone and his passes are simple and straight forward as well as effective under forechecking pressure (something, for example, Brannstrom struggled with today). I'd have to see how he does in preseason but if he's able to play competently against NHL players, I wouldn't be opposed to letting him have Sbisa's spot.
Erik Brannstrom: I don't want to be too hard on the guy because I've seen him play some excellent hockey. But by his own Standards, Erik played worse today in dev camp than he did against harder competition at the Wjc. I know it's only dev camp but Brannstrom doesn't strike me as the type of guy content on coasting through an opportunity to demonstrate his ability like this. He had some good moments but they were far outweighed by his flubbed passes, poor stick work, folding under forechecking pressure...I mean the only thing be did consistently well was activating from the point with the puck to attack the net on his own and chase down pucks that got behind. But the whole thing felt like "hey pa, look what I can do!" and it's like...that's great kiddo, but you're a defenseman. We don't want you pulling that kind of risky **** in the NHL. Go back to aggressively retrieving the puck and being a quick fire cannon from the point...and make better passes. His passing was especially horrendous today. One leading directly to a goal against. He can and should be better tomorrow.
Continued with shorter feedback for the rest of the guys...