There’s a lot of focus right now on the NHL meetings beginning tomorrow in Las Vegas, and of course the NHL Entry Draft down in Florida on Friday night, but the Blue Jackets have been nice enough to give us all some plans for next week.
The team has announced the full schedule for this year’s Prospect Development Camp, which will run from Monday, June 29th through Thursday, July 2nd, ending in a 4 on 4 tournament from 4:30-6:00pm. Not a bad way to kick off your holiday weekend, really.
All of the on-ice sessions will be held at the Dispatch Ice Haus, and are free and open to the public.
Here’s the full schedule:
Monday, June 29
9-9:45 a.m. – Goaltenders On-Ice
10-11 a.m. – Group 1 On-Ice
11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. – Group 2 On-Ice
Tuesday, June 30
9-9:45 a.m. – Goaltenders On-Ice
10-11 a.m. – Group 1 On-Ice
11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. – Group 2 On-Ice
Wednesday, July 1
2-2:45 p.m. – Goaltenders On-Ice
3-4 p.m. – Group 1 On-Ice
4:30-5:30 p.m. – Group 2 On-Ice
Thursday, July 2
9-9:45 a.m. – Goaltenders On-Ice
10-11 a.m. – Group 1 On-Ice
11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. – Group 2 On-Ice
4:30-6 p.m. – 4-on-4 Tournament
The only trick I feel the team missed this year is not scheduling the final day of camp for a weekend, but July 4th falling on Saturday (and Friday being observed as a holiday as a result) likely threw things out of whack.
The obvious draw will be the players selected in this coming weekend’s draft, but there’s more than a few names to watch out for in the roster that the team released along with the schedule:
Forwards:
Seth Ambroz, Tyler Bird, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Markus Hannikainen, Adam Johnson (INVITE), Sonny Milano, Nick Moutrey, Julien Pelletier, Peter Quenneville, Ryan Scarfo (INVITE), Markus Soberg, Daniel Zaar.
Defensemen:
Gavin Bayreuther (INVITE), Ryan Collins, Ryo Hashimoto (INVITE), Dillon Heatherington, Dean Kukan, Jake Kulevich, Olivier LeBlanc, Blake Siebenaler.
Goaltenders:
Oscar Dansk, Joonas Korpisalo, Elvis Merzlikins.
This’ll be the first look (for those of us not living in Europe) at Hannikainen and Kukan, so that should be pretty interesting. The number of free agent invites going out is also worth keeping an eye on – you never know when someone may push his way into the main training camp, and even though the NHL roster is pretty stacked, there’s still plenty of spots to fill out for the Monsters.
The real fun, of course, will come from that 4 on 4 tournament. Whomever the team drafts in the first round on Friday will have a lot of attention, but seeing what Bjorkstrand, Ambroz, and Milano can do should be a lot of fun, too.
Who are you looking forward to seeing at the Ice Haus, and what’s your go-to excuse for getting out of work? Let us know!