Wolf - Great balance and good speed. Takes and gives passes while moving very well. Beats D to the net consistently. Shot looked good. I found his puck protection to be among the best on the ice.
Sieloff - Wasn't sure it was him until later on so didn't watch too closely. He's so much more noticeable during competitive drills. Skating looked good though.
Agostino - one of the top guys on the ice today. I liked his work ethic and noticed that he rarely makes mistakes. There would a lot of restarts during the drills today but I never noticed Agostino being the one who screwed up. His speed looks great and he goes hard to the net consistently. Shot looked good too. Really good showing for him.
Gaudreau - I will just echo the sentiment that he is the best player in the camp. Even though I didn't see the first practice, I have trouble believing anyone is close to him at this point. He scored 7 or 8 goals today that got a reaction from the crowd. Gillies and Jankowski were sitting in front of me and several times they just looked at each other and either shook their heads or laughed. Gaudreau is spectacular and I am more excited than I was yesterday about him.
Kulak - high-end skater. He was playing very good angles and uses his stick intelligently. He looks like a player who has been listening to his coaches throughout his junior career and does a lot of things that make an NHL player. Had one extended battle with Wolf where I thought he did a great job of limiting Wolf's options to the point where the play just went nowhere. He gave so little up.
Bennett - I was disappointed. That being said, the way he played today was so contrary to every scouting report I have seen that I would attribute it to nerves or exhaustion or something. Really looking forward to watching him as he gets more comfortable.
Smith - Better skating than I expected, though I did see one instance of his balance not being where he wants it. His shot looked hard with a fairly quick release. He uses his body to keep the puck out of reach of defenders, but could improve his stickhandling otherwise. He looked like a pretty good player and I'm excited to see him during a scrimmage, to see how much space he creates out there.
Hickey - my biggest surprise. I thought he looked fantastic. They did a drill in which the D plays 3 one-on-one's and other than a weak goal on a far out shot that I thought should have been stopped, he shut down every single guy including Gaudreau. His skating his top notch and his gap control benefits from it. He looks like a guy who knows his strengths and is smart enough to play to them. Really, really excited about him.
Valcourt - noticed him taking a lot of shots when he got the chance. Shot looked pretty good, although I didn't see him score cleanly. His skating was pretty good and he seemed to control the puck well too.
Tolkinen - RHD who showed some skill and even a little bite. Will be interested to see how the rest of camp goes for him.
Roy - Seemed to be going through the motions a little bit to me. He's got some great physical tools such as skating and play with the puck, yet I didn't come away thinking he had a great ice time. Saw him be a bit puck focused while defending.
Downing - best walk-on in my opinion. He has a hard and accurate shot that he used to beat goalies cleanly on several occasions. Best shooter out there other than Gaudreau from what I saw. He won most of the battles that he got into and he'd get his head up very quickly when he got that puck. I liked what I saw from him a lot.
Harrison - I still like him, just like last year. Looks like a solid North-South player who uses his size. I felt like he showed less of his skill than I remember from last year. Looks to have a really good attitude and has a lot of interactions with other players.
These are just first impressions and a lot of players have probably been away from the rink a bit. The second half of the practice was dreadfully boring until the 2 on 2 game, which was fun to watch (especially Gaudreau).
Top 3:
1) Gaudreau
2) Hickey
3) Agostino
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