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Originally Posted by InCoGnEtO
Afternoon crappy observations:
- A'gostino stuck out. Dude has amazing hockey sense, great body control, nice shot. I really want to see him do well all week, and again in the main camp. I was REALLY impressed.
- Both goalies were pretty lack luster. The morning crew with Gillies and Berra was MUCH better. Ortio was very dissapointing.
- Janko has been talked about a lot, but i am excited with the kid's progress. Not there yet, but looks like its coming together.
- I kept seeing #86 doing a lot...looked down to see the name 'Josh Jooris'. Not sure who this kid is, but I liked his game. He had a lot of hustle.
- Wotherspoon stuck out a couple times to me on the 3-on-2 drills. He looked good positionally.
- I noticed the coaches working with Kanzig a lot more during stoppages than other players. I think they realize he has the size, but his skills are RAW. He is a project, but as an 18 year old monster, I think there is potential.
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I decided last minute I could make it to the afternoon session. I agree with all this so I'll just add to it.
Besides Wotherspoon, Seiloff and Kulak looked really solid to me on D. Kulak isn't flashy but on 2-0 drills he looked to have offense of an average forward, and defensively he just smartly seemed to stick with guys and be in position to break up plays. Seiloff has a good hard low point shot, was sticking with guys well in the 1 on 1, and you can tell he really has good lower body strength because he even jolts guys pretty good at a standstill just by digging in his feet momentarily.
Kanzig definitely can improve on his skating quite a bit but it didn't look too bad for his age and size. He seems to pivot and transition well with a powerful first couple steps if he's not off a standstill. He seemed to make up for when a quick guy got a half step on him by using smarts and a real good reach. I actually feel much better about having him in the third round after seeing him out there.
Guys that were good but not quite at the top for me were Granlund, Baertschi, Jooris, McKenzie and O'Donoghue. Granlund just seemed to know where to be and used a good quick release to score quite a bit. Baertschi definitely showed as one of the better players but just seemed off for himself. Jooris started to look good in the more game-like drills, he showed relentless determination and was slippery at times 1 on 1. O'Donoghue is a really good skater especially for his size and while he wasn't flashy but he looked solid all around with some scoring ability. I thought McKenzie looked pretty good defensively also, as probably should be expected with his age and experience.
Poirer looked to have nerves or something. He kept missing the net on 1-0 and 2-1 drills and just seemed a bit disoriented out there. I expect it's not unheard of for guys right out of the draft.
It was just the first day and with some guys maybe not being on the ice much this early in the offseason along with the travel and elevation change I expect some will look a lot better as the camp goes on. More guys looked bagged out there than I'd have expected.