2009 Traverse City Prospects Tournament review

I attended the Traverse City Tournament this year and was able to catch most of all four Thrasher games. If one had traveled all that way just to see the Thrashers, there wouldn't have been much reward, as the team had just spotty talent. They finished seventh out of eight, but had to go to a shootout to do it.

Let's start with the two best players: Evander Kane and Eric O'Dell. O'Dell doesn't get a lot of publicity, but he's quite good. Not flashy, but solid and effective. The only question is how he'll fit in at the NHL level. But I think he'll make it somehow. Originally drafted by Anaheim.

I talked a lot about Kane in my Day 4 game summary, so you can read that for more detail, but basically he played well, one of the top 5 or 10 guys in the tournament I'd say, but looks like a very good junior player, not an NHLer quite yet because he hasn't filled out. Here's a picture of him talking to his dad outside the rink that shows how thin he is:

Also solid was Levko Koper. Plays a very simple game, but it's effective. Not sure he's a player, but don't see any huge flaws. A checker in any case.

Next we have two goats: Jeremy Morin and Jimmy Bubnick. I didn't like Morin at the U18s in April, and liked him even less after seeing him this week. His puck skills are bad for someone with such a good shot -- a demonstration that when he has the puck he shoots it, no matter what. Doesn't matter if there's a better play to be made. Poor hockey sense in that way, and many other ways too. He also doesn't do the little things correctly, or more to the point, doesn't know what he should be doing. He had to be screamed off the ice by the bench for lining up on a faceoff making it too many men. A faceoff! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. He's going to the OHL because he didn't qualify academically for college. It's all related.

Jimmy Bubnick didn't do anything, but it wasn't for lack of trying, it was for lack of skill. Not much to see here.

On Ben Chiarot, I was writing in my notebook "Effort? Doesn't skate hard," when the two scouts behind me said "that Chiarot is lazy." So there you go.

Others: Postma and Paquette played pretty much as expected. Mike Forney had to be searched for, which isn't good. Cody Sol was fine, for what he is. I'm not sure how Andrew Kozek managed to get all those points. That's a head scratcher. Tryout Philip Paquet seemed unreliable on the blue line. Tryout Josh Unice wasn't great in goal, but neither was draftee Chris Carrozzi.

Here's some video footage I shot from Game 2 and Game 3.
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Unice invited to Traverse City tourney by Thrashers

From the Windsor Star:

If the Holland, Ohio native was looking for a confidence boost with camp opening Wednesday he got it Tuesday night when the Atlanta Thrashers invited him to attend their rookie camp in Traverse City.

Unice is a goaltender perhaps best known for his play for Team USA. He is an unsigned draft pick of the Chicago Blackhawks.

Teams don't usually have three on the roster, so that says there's likely something amiss with Carrozzi or Pasquale. Unice isn't exactly a white knight though. Here's his profile.

2009 Traverse City tourney Sept. 6-10

According to RedWingsCentral, the dates for the annual Traverse City Prospects tournament will be Sept. 6-10.

The usual teams will be there, including the Thrashers.
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Rookie games with Nashville would be in ATL this year

Assuming both teams are still agreeable as the summer passes, those two "rookie" games that were played at Nashville last year will be moved to Atlanta this year.

From the Nashville City Paper:

In its first few seasons, Nashville participated in a prospects tournament in Traverse City, Mich., with several other franchises. Last season, two rookie games with Atlanta were held during the first week of training camp.

Trotz said any rookie camp this year would include reciprocation on those two games with the Thrashers’ prospects, this time in Atlanta.

Last year they were around Sept 23, which was after the start of training camp. If you're going to do them earlier, it would be around the same time that the Traverse City tournament is going on.

Traverse City: Thrashers advance to gold-medal game

Jeff Pyle says we are in for a real treat tomorrow night when the Thrashers big win over the Red Wings is shown on tape delay. The game was high-energy all night, culminating in a shootout, with the Thrashers winning 3-2. How high-tempo? Riley Holzapfel and Spencer Machacek said it was higher tempo than WHL games. That's impressive for a preseason tournament. It was a good crowd, and they were into it as well.

Maybe we should have predicted the outcome. Thrashers Don Waddell pointed out, at least to the coaches, that Detroit (his former team) has never beaten Atlanta at this prospect camp, a camp the Red Wings have hosted for about 10 years.

Detroit's skill level was on display in tonight's game. But Atlanta's skill players found a way to outscore them, with Riley Holzapfel and Spencer Machacek scoring in regulation, and Matt Lyall scoring in the shootout. Holzapfel's goal was dumped in and took a funny bounce on its way into the net. It energized the team. Machacek scored on a power play, but it was an individual effort. Goaltender Chris Carrozzi played well, and will likely stay in net for the gold-medal game.

The Red Wings had 8 power plays to Atlanta's 3. All of this penalty killing tired out the team a bit. Almost the whole roster got turns on the penalty kill, but players with a lot of time included Machacek, Esposito, Bancks, Bogosian (who returned from a one-game hiatus), Kulda and Postma. Though there were a lot of penalties, Pyle didn't think the game was particularly chippy -- the penalties were just being overcalled. The two fights, one by Stoesz and one by Danick Paquette, were not big battles and were about even.

The night was not without bad news. Second-year pro forward Tomas Pospisil suffered a concussion early in the game. Pyle did not see the play it happened on, but thinks it was a cross-check to the head. Defenseman Grant Lewis, who played on a broken toe on Sunday, sat this one out.

Some may be wondering about this Lyall fellow who scored the game winner in the shootout. Word is that he's going back to junior this year, but keep an eye on him for the spring and into next year at least with the affiliates.

Off day report: Pyle was part of a golf threesome with Hoops (his equipment manager in Gwinnett who is working for the Thrashers for the tournament) and Thrashers head scout Marcel Comeau. Hoops won. How did Pyle do? "I sucked, man."

Tomorrow's championship game against Dallas is at 6:30 pm. It will air the next night. Tomorrow you can watch the Detroit game described above at 10pm.
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Off day at Traverse City

Well, sort of off, they do have a practice in the morning. It might be a little sparse with all the bangs and bruises though.

Bad news: our Rangers reporter Leslie Treff had to leave Traverse City in a health emergency, so no more game summaries. It's frustrating, yes, and I will be the first advocate for redundancy next year. The only good thing I can say is that since I didn't put out my training camp preview yet, I can include Traverse City info in there. I've had it almost done for several days but was sitting on it. I'll continue to blog each day as well -- it's proven very popular. Canadian traffic is up to 30% right now, with what I assume are fans, friends and family of participants.

Here's a report from the Camrose tournament with EDM/CAL/VAN if anyone is interested in that. Little consolation, I know.

Traverse City: Banged up Thrashers top Rangers 3-0

A somewhat different roster, but same result. The Thrashers had another shutout victory at the Traverse City tournament today, this time over the NY Rangers 3-0. Free-agent invitee Ryan Daniels made 23 saves in net.

Alternate captain Grant Lewis said that Wolves head coach Don Granato has been stressing hard work and doing simple plays. He didn't throw a lot of systems at them to start because he didn't want to wear them out mentally. The players seem to have taken to him right away. "I can tell he's gonna be great (in Chicago)," Lewis said.

Coach Jeff Pyle said that he knew he was making a bold statement, but that this Thrashers team is working harder than any team he's been involved with. It's a true team effort, and very fun to watch everyone coming together.

Posting two shutouts, the team is obviously solid defensively. Pyle said they aren't giving up any odd-man rushes, just playing solid two-way hockey.

On the first goal today, Tomas Pospisil had a takeaway in the slot, then beat goalie Antoine Lafleur five-hole. On the second goal, Riley Holzapfel had the puck at the halfwall, which was one-timed by Postma on net for a rebound to Angelo Esposito who put it in. On the third goal, Spencer Machacek had a takeaway, then drove to the net and jammed the puck in on his own rebound. Pyle commented on how hard Machacek works -- "he's solid, physical, and has a great work ethic," he said.

Today's power-play goal was the first time the team got anything set up on the power play in the tournament. The first day they didn't really implement a strategy on the power play. Lewis said that after a day of practice, with coach Pyle helping with the power play, they had a plan and that plan worked. They overloaded on one side like they do in Gwinnett, using a guy on the half wall to buy some time and space for the defenseman up top. They are getting six or seven shots a game from the defensemen, a decent amount, but Lewis said maybe they were actually working it too much. The defensemen used on the power play have been switching up a lot, with five getting time there today. Meanwhile, players like Matt Siddall have been camping out in the slot.

Danick Paquette, injured in the first game, did not return for Sunday's. It may be a bruised hip or hamstring pull for him. Defenseman Zach Bogosian also did not skate. He has a strain in his calf, nothing serious. The team wanted to sit him out to be on the safe side. Invitee Patrick Cusack played in his place.

The injuries aren't contained to Paquette and Bogosian either -- the team is a little banged up overall. On questioning of what he would do on his off day, Lewis admitted that he has a broken toe which he'll be resting. It happened in Game 1, blocking a shot from the point at the end of the game to preserve the shutout. It's broken pretty badly, despite brand new skates, but Lewis was told that he could skate on it as long as he could stand the pain. It's his right ring toe, next to the pinky. He said that with Bogosian out, he needed to play. He didn't regret blocking the shot, it needed to be done.

The camaraderie on the team is leading to good results, with the team now up 2-0 in the tournament.

There were two fights in the game, Myles Stoesz vs. Jordan Soryal and Matt Siddall vs. Dave Weise. Both ended in draws, with all combatants getting punches in, but no one the advantage. Siddall fell at the end of his fight. The Rangers were the ones getting this stuff started, Lewis confirmed. The Thrashers were winning and didn't need to get anything going.

The ice at the venue is choppy at the end of games due to the amount of traffic it's seeing each day -- several practices and two games. The games are a little sloppy because of it.

Monday the team has practice, but no game. On Tuesday, they play the Detroit Red Wings at 7pm.

Traverse City: Thrashers beat Lightning 1-0

Tomas Pospisil scored on a tip in front of the net off a point shot from Paul Postma for the lone goal of the Thrashers first game. Chris Carrozzi was excellent in net. Near the end of the game, he made an important save on a 5-on-3 through a screen due to excellent positioning. Coach Jeff Pyle said the team played well, "very hard and physical." They had chances to score more in the second period, but "missed some opportunities."

Danick Paquette fell early in the game and suffered what is likely a bruise to the hip and did not return. Other standouts, according to coach Jeff Pyle, were forward Angelo Esposito, and defensemen Arturs Kulda and Paul Postma. He said that everyone you would expect to play well did so.

Lines and D pairings (to start):
Esposito - Holzapfel - Paquette
Pospisil - Lyall - Machacek
Siddall - Kaip - Stoesz
Larson - Bancks - Mignardi
Bogosian - Kulda
Lewis - Postma
Denny - Marchesi

There are TV timeouts during the games this year, since it's being shown on tape delay on NHL Network. The broadcast will even show intermission breaks in the locker room.

UPDATE: Hockey's Future game summaries from Day 1.

Game 2 of three round-robin games is tomorrow against the NY Rangers at 2:30.

Traverse City tourney eve info

Today was the first practice for the Thrashers prospects in Traverse City. Everyone, and their equipment, arrived just fine, which is always a worry in a remote destination.

There are three coaches for the tournament: Don Granato and Jason "Smurf" Christie from the Wolves, and Jeff Pyle from the Gladiators. Two of them will run the bench during the games. Goaltender Chris Carrozzi is expected to start tomorrow's game against the Lightning at 3pm.

Riley Holzapfel, Spencer Machacek and Grant Lewis will serve as the captains/alternates for the Thrashers entry.

Just for fun and because I'm sure no one else is going to go out on a limb and make predictions of how the eight teams will finish, I will.

Prediction for finish
1. St. Louis -- their roster is unbelievable. Allen and Bishop in net, Pietrangelo, Oshie and Berglund up front. If they don't win this, it will be a surprise.
2. Minnesota - Khodobin in net, who may have the most experience of any goalie. Well-balanced team.
3. Columbus -- LaCosta in net, Voracek (who should stick with the Jackets this year), but no Filatov who is injured.
4. NY Rangers -- the reigning champs. Their D is good with Del Zotto and Sanguinetti.
5. Detroit -- Goaltending duo is impressive with Larsson and McCollum, forwards are intriguing.
6. Atlanta -- Defense is probably the strength of the team.
7. Tampa Bay -- no Stamkos, who is resting up for main camp. Goalies are Tokarski and Jung.
8. Dallas -- Not much scoring here.

Come back tomorrow for info on how the game went, and then links to game summaries at HF.

In a bit of ex-Gladiators news, Brad Schell will attend San Antonio's AHL camp, and Guillaume Desbiens will attend Manitoba's, Pyle said. If either Schell or Desbiens don't make those teams, they will return to the Gladiators.

2008 Traverse City tourney games will be shown on NHL Network

Tape-delayed, but it's the first hockey of the new season, so I bet there will be a decent audience.

Here a link to the NHL Network TV schedule that lists them.

The Thrashers games that are on the schedule right now are the ones against the Lightning and the Red Wings. The gold medal and third place games will also be shown. The schedule may not all be up yet, but here's when you can set your TiVo/DVR for right now (earliest viewings):
Monday, Sept. 15 at 2am vs. Lightning (edit: now 8pm on Sun the 14th too).
Wednesday, Sept. 17th at 10pm vs. Red Wings.

For a lot of these kids, I'm sure it will be the first time their games are on TV. Nationwide to boot. Personally I'm even more interested in the other teams than the Thrashers, since it's a rare occasion to get to compare the pools of each team (partial pools, as every team only has juniors and rookie pros).

In other news, Danick Paquette was named captain of his Q team. Hopefully it will calm him down some.

The most noticeable change for Paquette will likely come in the number of penalties he takes and in which situations.

At least, that's the plan.

"He will still take some ill-advised penalties," [Maineiacs' Head Coach and GM Ed] Harding conceded. "That's the nature of the way he plays. When you have players like that, you're going to be in the penalty box a few times, but he understands he has to do a better job of picking his spots, and he did that at the end of last season ... His big thing was, he thought every NHL scout wanted to see him blast someone through the boards. The fact that he's realized differently also shows me some maturity."

Also, the blog thanks you for all the kind words on the occasion of its birthday. Cheers.

Thrashers Traverse City tourney roster

The rules of the tournament say each team is allowed four players with a year or pro experience. Grant Lewis, Tomas Pospisil, Chad Denny and Myles Stoesz are the four for the Thrashers. Ryan Daniels is an invitee in net. Daniels was at July prospect camp too. He's 20, so he has junior eligibility, but is probably looking to turn pro. He's an unsigned draft pick of Ottawa's. Scott Bartlett, a forward, looked good at July camp as an invitee.

It seems like every year one of the prospects injures themselves pretty badly at this tournament, so here's hoping for a very safe year. Again, HF will have daily game summaries with feedback from participants. I'll link to the articles, which should appear the next morning around 6am.

NO. PROSPECT NAME HT WT DRAFTED 2007-08 TEAM

FORWARDS
65 * Carter Bancks LW 5.11 169 — Lethbridge (WHL)
70 * Scott Bartlett F 5.09 165 — Middlebury (NESCAC)
57 Angelo Esposito C 6.00 190 PIT-07 (1-20) Quebec (QMJHL)
43 Riley Holzapfel C 5.11 170 ATL-06 (2-43) Moose Jaw (WHL)
53 Rylan Kaip C 6.01 188 ATL-03 (9-269) North Dakota (NCAA)
67 * Justin Larson C 6.03 195 — Mississauga (OHL)
66 * Matt Lyall C 5.11 155 — Sault Ste. Marie (OHL)
46 Spencer Machacek RW 6.00 182 ATL-07 (3-67) Vancouver (WHL)
68 * Robert Mignardi C 6.00 170 — Kingston (OHL)
59 Danick Paquette RW 6.00 210 ATL-08 (3-64) Lewiston (QMJHL)
56 Tomas Pospisil LW 6.00 185 ATL-05 (5-135) Gwinnett (ECHL)
63 Matt Siddall RW 6.01 205 ATL-04 (9-270) Northern Michigan (NCAA)
61 Myles Stoesz LW 6.02 208 ATL-05 (7-207) Gwinnett (ECHL)

DEFENSEMEN
44 Zach Bogosian D 6.02 197 ATL-08 (1-3) Peterborough (OHL)
64 * Patrick Cusack D 6.01 194 — Lewiston (QMJHL)
55 Chad Denny D 6.03 227 ATL-05 (2-49) Gwinnett (ECHL)
62 Arturs Kulda D 6.02 194 ATL-06 (7-200) Peterborough (OHL)
52 Grant Lewis D 6.03 193 ATL-04 (2-40) Chicago (AHL)
58 * Scott Marchesi D 6.01 200 — Sacred Heart (NCAA)
60 Paul Postma D 6.02 173 ATL-07 (7-205) Calgary (WHL)

GOALTENDERS
35 Chris Carrozzi G 6.03 185 ATL-08 (6-154) Mississauga (OHL)
34 * Ryan Daniels G 6.01 194 OTT-06 (5-151) Saginaw (OHL)

* denotes free-agent invitee

Thrashers Traverse City Prospects Tournament schedule

This eight-team prospects tournament is broken into two conferences, East and West. The Thrashers are joined by Tampa Bay, NY Rangers and Detroit in the Eastern Conference. They will play each of those teams, plus one Western team depending on how they do in the other games. Dallas is the new entrant this year.

Sept. 12 - practice
Sept. 13 - vs. Tampa at 3pm
Sept. 14 - vs. NY Rangers 2:30pm
Sept. 15 - practice
Sept. 16 - vs. Detroit 7pm
Sept. 17 - finals, 2pm to 6:30pm. The format is 4th in West vs. 4th in East, etc.

Hockey's Future will have daily coverage of the tournament as a whole via our NY Rangers writer. No there is no radio coverage.

All players under Thrashers contract and some select invitees will then fly back to Atlanta for main camp.