Day one of Winnipeg Jets‘ Development Camp is in the books and it was a nice, cold, mid-July afternoon at the MTS Iceplex. Today was hard to get a good read on much as the practice consisted of basic drills with very few defensive battles required. So today I was basically giving all of the skaters a clean slate and let the skaters jump out at me. Whenever I saw something impressive, I noted their number and looked at the lineup sheet to find out who it was.
So today I didn't focus on anyone in particular so as to give everyone a chance to make an impression on me. So without any further adieu, here are my thoughts from Day 1:
- Mark Scheifele, Jacob Trouba, Joshua Morrissey and Adam Lowry were expected to excel and they looked very good. While Morrissey looks a little on the small side, his skating and hands look good. Hard to tell today how his defensive coverage is as there weren’t many battle drills.
- Juho Olkinuora was the best goalie, in my opinion. He looked really, really good. Connor Hellebuyck was next, while Eric Comrie and Jason Kasdorf round out the top-four. I didn’t really get a great look at Jamie Phillips or Charlie Lindgren, though.
- J.C. Lipon, Nicolas Petan, Ryan Olsen, Scott Kosmachuk and Jimmy Lodge were the next best forwards. Petan and Lipon looked REALLY good considering their stature. I like them both.
- Tucker Poolman, Jan Kostalek, Brenden Kichton and Julian Melchiori looked very good. Cody Sol looks very tall and Marcus Karlstrom looks very skinny, but both had their moments.
- Of the “unknowns”, I thought that Matt Bailey, David Johnstone, Austin Czarnik, Ronalds Kenins, Zach Loesch and Luke Eibler did enough to at least get noticed.
- Lukas Sutter didn’t impress me very much. Neither did Austen Brassard. And I barely noticed Brennan Serville or Ben Chiarot. Hopefully they have better days tomorrow.
- I’m adding this one late, as I forgot to mention that Ivan Telegin wasn’t on the ice as he’s apparently still suffering from post-concussion syndrome. I’m very disappointed as I really wanted to see him out there.
I hope to get back there again tomorrow, so if you have anybody that you'd like me to focus on a little closer please let me know in the comments section.
Editor Ryan Blight will be covering the Winnipeg Jets’ Development Camp all week. Stay tuned for his next instalment.
