I made it down for the afternoon session. Quick observations:
This session was high tempo -- lots of quarter rink 3 on 3 action. Was a lot of fun to watch.
Group 1 was stacked with Dubois, Stenlund, Sherwood, Carlsson.
First time seeing Stenlund and I came away VERY impressed! Guy is huge and moves great for his size. He was active and involved with a good amount of skill to boot - definitely was the overall standout for me today.
Dubois wasn't bad but wasn't great either. I think what bothers me most about him is it just doesn't look like he's going 100% all the time. Might just be the style of his game but he should be dominating a camp like this and he doesn't. Still waiting for him to "turn it on" so to speak.
Continue to love Sherwood -- unlike Dubois this kid is always going. Just a great overall package with his size, motor, skating, puck skills. Very interested to see what kind of damage he does in the AHL this season and it wouldn't surprise me at all if we see him get a few cups of coffee with the big squad at some point.
Carlsson is just smooth. Really like his game.
Kid from Powell held his own in there. Kind of reminded me of Vogelhuber at the same point in his development.
Group 2 was without Abramov which was a bummer but had some standouts for me as well.
Biggest one was the kid we signed out of Clarkson, Sam Vigneault. Great size on this guy and some nifty puck skills. Seemed to be everywhere. Really solid first impression.
Looked forward to seeing Thurkauf and he did not disappoint. Best compliment I can give is he just plays a solid pro style game and worked hard.
Some of the FA invites like Hodgson and McMann played well and what the Davidson kid lacks in size he makes up with in quickness.
Saw Brad Shaw watching the first group and Torts watched the second group.
Obviously it's hard to watch them all closely but there's some observations to chew on.
