Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Prospects camp -- player notes

I'll try to limit this post to just notes on individual players, then do another post with some other info and locker room chirping. I'll omit the guys who've already played pro because we all know what they can do.

40 John Albert - Looks very good, quick skater and good hands. Quite soft-spoken. Makes most of his shots, which is ironic, given that he said today he was disappointed in his goal totals last year. Bogosian had to make a real effort to defend him.

41 Jonas Enlund - I watch him, but I don't write anything down because he's not been remarkable in any way. That's both good and bad I guess.

42 Nicklas Lasu - Scrappy. He's got quick hands and feet. Odd balance, but he stays up. Puck skills could be better.

44 Zach Bogosian - He gets where he's going in good time. Very hard shot. Tough to get around. Loves the poke check -- he'll break a lot of sticks in his career by doing that.

46 Spencer Machacek - Skinny. Made a real nice 2-on-1 play and has some finish.

47 Mike Forney - Flashy at times, but where's the substance to back it up.

48 Will O'Neill - You can't miss him with his hot pink mouthguard. I had low expectations for him, but he's better than expected. Has a hard slap shot.

49 Niclas Lucenius - Need to watch him more closely.

54 Vinny Saponari - Often involved in scoring plays. His most spectacular moment was while he was waiting in line for a drill at center ice. Rylan Kaip fell and slid almost into Saponari, taking out his legs, but Saponari jumped -- getting some serious air -- and avoided the collision. Showed some agility there.

56 Zach Redmond - Yes, folks, there is another Zach at camp, though you wouldn't know it to hear people talk. He's much better than you'd expect for a 7th round pick. Rather good in fact. He even brought out a toe drag to the net against I think it was Chad Denny. You don't see many defensemen trying toe drag moves. He skates well with good transitions. Hard shot. Temper everything by remember he's already 20.

57 Angelo Esposito - Uses the fake move a lot, both passing and shooting. Nice play on a give and go (tip). Kept the puck at the blue line with a tight curl. Took a really long shift in the 4-on-4 game.

60 Paul Postma - He's going to be real good someday, you can tell he has all the tools. Good size, good skater, lots of torque on his shot. Just needs to mature.

61 Myles Stoesz - Having the most fun of anyone in camp. Maybe it's the new-found confidence his personal trainer is giving him. But if there was a scoring race, he'd be in it. Skating is somewhat better, but still noisy.

63 Matt Siddall - His skating is not pro caliber. Rest of game doesn't make up for it.

35 Chris Carrozzi - It's easy to see why his glove hand is an issue -- he doesn't hold his glove up like goalies are taught to. He holds it the lowest of any goalie I've seen, and worse, not open towards the puck. So he has to raise and open it for shots. Here's a photo that's a bit blurry but you can see what I'm talking about. That's his normal stance there. He's very flexible though, I'll say that.


Invitees:
Goaltender Ryan Daniels looked very good on breakaways. Guys would try to deke and he'd always have a pad on it. Scott Barlett has some good wheels, one of the fastest out there. Hard slap shot.

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