Flames Development Camp July 10th - 16th

[StrykerSteve]

Flames will be posting highlights later today, full scrimmage won't be rebroadcast, I confirmed this earlier.

[djsFlames]

I was right beside Jay Feaster and got to listen to him talk about some of the prospects.

He said that out of the invitees, they really like Jooris, Penner and O'Donoghue (mentioned his use of size). Said that they plan on trying to sign Monahan on the near future, are currently starting talks with his agent. Said they don't plan on signing Sieloff until next June, but things could change. Very impressed with him at this stage, already. They're excited as anybody about the progression of Gaudreau from last year to this year. Mentioned outstanding play of Gilles, especially today. Honorable mention to Kulak, says he could be getting a contract and going back to the Heat (I believe was just on an ATO before). A big mention to Culkin, though. Said he's been solid and will likely get himself a contract shortly as well, and (I believe) mentioned him getting the opportunity to challenge at camp. Didn't really make any mention of Sven, despite the events of the game. Oh, and also praised Berra for making the trip. Said he didn't have to come over at all, but he insisted, and has been one of the better goalies so far.

[gargamel]

Originally Posted by fotze

Darren Haynes ‏@DarrenHaynes_CP22m
Re: Future, Gaudreau said "Hopefully they want me next year at the end of the year and hopefully I can come in and make an impact for them."

Define "next year."

[Roof-Daddy]

I am really excited about Kulak and Culkin.

Like I've said before, they both remind me a lot of Brodie.

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by gargamel

Define "next year."

End of the 2013/14 season (when his college season ends), just like the way Hanowski was signed and brought in for a look near the end of the season.

I won't be surprised to Agostino signed when his college season ends as well.

[Miniac]

Originally Posted by StrykerSteve

Monahan dominating the face off drill , beat Knight, Jankowski, Horak and Granlund all twice in a row.

Granlund finally beats him.

Great to hear.

[Jiggy]

Originally Posted by StrykerSteve

Monahan dominating the face off drill , beat Knight, Jankowski, Horak and Granlund all twice in a row.

Granlund finally beats him.

On Friday Knight was beating everyone pretty bad. I like how these guys seem to take the little things seriously. Looked like there was a good internal competition on face offs.

[EVERLAST]

its fantastic to hear how incredibly competitive it is on the ice and how badly these guys want to be in Calgary this year.

This has to be the best news in years for all of us.

thanks to all who contributed to this thread who were at Winsport

[Lanny_McDonald]

Just a reminder to everyone that this is the prospects camp. The best guys you see here will be in tough to make the NHL in the near future. Temper the enthusiasm a bit! It's still awesome that we saw so many great performances from our prospects, and the depth is finally starting to show, but most of these kids face an up hill battle to get to the show. Having said that, you have to like that Bartschi was not the dominant player in camp and made everyone look bad. There were more than enough solid performances to get excited about!

[Skaloper]

Originally Posted by Jiggy

On Friday Knight was beating everyone pretty bad. I like how these guys seem to take the little things seriously. Looked like there was a good internal competition on face offs.

Its good to hear that there is hope for the Flames not being among the worst in Faceoffs in the league soon.

[Heavy Jack]

First ever time going to one of these and I have to say it was an awesome experience.

First off nice to meet ya StrykerSteve, I wanted to talk more and meet more CPers but I was preoccupied with Conroy during the intermissions. Well met Steve.

Secondly KH has a great smile in person lol was very nice to talk with and it looked like her and Kerr were having fun announcing the game.

Thirdly props to Kerr for being such a great guy and filling me in on the best ways to approach Conroy... You didn't ruin my jersey by signing it Rob!!

Fourthly Conroy is just about the nicest guy going, super approachable , giving auto's, talking with people and he even plugged my band when asked. The guy real cares about the fans you can tell. Thanks Conroy!

Fiftly Ken King's handshake is solid it's true, my hand is still intact which is good

Sixthly The game itself was great, Culkin/Ramage/Sieloff stood out on D for me but I also liked Lewis and Kanzig. Gaudreau/Arnold/Monohan/Knight they all looked to have solid games. Berra had a good showing today as well, super calm goalie. Fast, physical hockey today it was great to see Gaudreau's vision and hockey sense so up close like that.

Seventhly the players were great afterwards, signing auto's taking pics etc.

Great experience all-round

[Freeway]

The players are just as excited to be signing autographs for the fans as the fans are to be getting the autographs.

[agulati]

Originally Posted by Heavy Jack

First ever time going to one of these and I have to say it was an awesome experience.

First off nice to meet ya StrykerSteve, I wanted to talk more and meet more CPers but I was preoccupied with Conroy during the intermissions. Well met Steve.

Secondly KH has a great smile in person lol was very nice to talk with and it looked like her and Kerr were having fun announcing the game.

Thirdly props to Kerr for being such a great guy and filling me in on the best ways to approach Conroy... You didn't ruin my jersey by signing it Rob!!

Fourthly Conroy is just about the nicest guy going, super approachable , giving auto's, talking with people and he even plugged my band when asked. The guy real cares about the fans you can tell. Thanks Conroy!

Fiftly Ken King's handshake is solid it's true, my hand is still intact which is good

Sixthly The game itself was great, Culkin/Ramage/Sieloff stood out on D for me but I also liked Lewis and Kanzig. Gaudreau/Arnold/Monohan/Knight they all looked to have solid games. Berra had a good showing today as well, super calm goalie. Fast, physical hockey today it was great to see Gaudreau's vision and hockey sense so up close like that.

Seventhly the players were great afterwards, signing auto's taking pics etc.

Great experience all-round

I saw you. You were wearing the heavy jack jersey and tried to hand Johnny Gaudreau your CD.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Freeway

The players are just as excited to be signing autographs for the fans as the fans are to be getting the autographs.

Must be hilarious for them if they didn't know there that there are a large faction of people that were arguing Monohan vs Lindholm, or the Hobey Baker jihad. "Hi my name is Johnny... oh you already know my name. My autograph? Really you want me to sign your jersey? Like how people that matter really sign jersey's?"

[Vulcan]

Honorable mention to Kulak, says he could be getting a contract and going back to the Heat (I believe was just on an ATO before).

Kulak still has to play another year of junior unless he makes the Flames.

and ps edit that photo out so this page is easier to read.

[Drury18]

Originally Posted by Heavy Jack

First ever time going to one of these and I have to say it was an awesome experience.

First off nice to meet ya StrykerSteve, I wanted to talk more and meet more CPers but I was preoccupied with Conroy during the intermissions. Well met Steve.

Stupid question, you were the guy wearing the "Heavy Jack" jersey weren't you? I was about 5 people down from you in the autograph line. I was going to say something but figured the whole "Hey, are you from CP" might be weird if you weren't.

Seventhly the players were great afterwards, signing auto's taking pics etc

The guys were AMAZING today. High fiving the kids, all of them were out signing autographs in genuinely good moods. I don't think I saw one guy putting on a false front for taking pictures or signing autographs.

Finally got Horak's auto and a pic with him and he couldn't have been kinder. They are yelling at him to get to the interview, I'm saying if he has to go he has to go I don't want to get him in trouble and he waves them off saying he's busy and stands there to take a picture and even a re-take because he deemed the first one too blurry. Just a semingly all around good guy.

Also got to meet Reto Berra...if his quirkiness means anything on how good of a goalie he is, we got a keeper there. I just wanted an autograph, he wanted a picture with me and so I now have a borderline creepy selfie pic with him. The guy is freaking huge though, I made it mid chest protector and I'm about 5'9".

[agulati]

KH is a good media personality. She has the persona that is infectious for the players and their interviews get much more interactive because of that.

[Heavy Jack]

Originally Posted by agulati

I saw you. You were wearing the heavy jack jersey and tried to hand Johnny Gaudreau your CD.

Tried the first time but was thwarted!

Gave him time and handed it to him after and he took with a thanks

He was the most popular player easily today.

[HighLifeMan]

I really liked what Jankowski provided today. He has an absolutely filthily release, and a high end hockey sense (the ability to find the open areas on the ice). I think he needs to assert himself into the play more consistently and become a larger focal point on the offensive end, because he certainly has the skills and frame to do so. With that said, I think he wanted to show that his 200 foot game has grown since last year and was making a conscious effort of not getting caught up ice. Outside of Elson, I thought he was the best player on the ice in the third period.

Monahan and Gaudreau simply dominated the game for the vast majority of the time they were on the ice. Both players posses elite hockey sense and playmaking abilities and are a treat to watch together. I believe both players ended up with three points during this scrimmage. Monahan's two way game is NHL ready, and we all certainly know about Johnny's skill.

Pat Sieloff is a physical, energetic, mobile player with a "never quit" type mentality.
I will be utterly shocked if he does not become a mainstay at the NHL level in some capacity one day very soon. I am heavily interested in seeing how his game progresses on a hopefully much better Windsor team this next year, and of course at the World Juniors as well.

John Ramage and Tyler Wotherspoon continued to impress today, and I can't say enough about just how steady these two players are as they patrol the blueline. I can't wait to see them both in Abbotsford this coming year.

Markus Granlund had yet another great game. I must say that I have always been slightly skeptical about this player, but he has certainly surprised me this week. From what I saw he was actually quite good in the faceoff circle, and of course his offensive game is top notch. His shot is lethal.

Turner Elson was the best player in both scrimmages combined in my opinion. He just continues to impress me. I did not see a single aspect of his game that I did not like. I hope he gets a significant opportunity this year in AHL and I suspect that Troy Ward is going to love this kids game.

I thought Emile Poirier struggled at times in the first scrimmage, but really came on strong today. He displayed his breakaway speed on multiple occasions and was creating opportunities for himself at the drop of a hat. His skillset and physical maturity is still quite raw overall, but you can certainly see that he has speed to burn, and a solid all around game. I fully expect him to spend at the very least another year in Gatineau, and then presumably the following year in Abbotsford (since he is a 94' born) before he is on the radar for an NHL spot.

Morgan Klimchuk certainly did not wow anybody with his offensive abilities during the scrimmages this week, but man oh man does this kid work his tail off. I would say that his puck pursuit and and work ethic were the best out of any player at camp. He will need to bulk up over the course of the next year or two in Regina, but I liked what I saw from Morgan this week. Outside of his hustle, I would say that his shot is his greatest asset.

Jon Gillies showed us first hand why he had so much success in Providence last year.
I am really not the greatest at evaluating goaltending because I have never played the position, but it is extremely hard not to come away impressed with his size and natural ability.

Lastly, I was really impressed with Ferland's finish to the camp. It is so easy to see why he had to much success at the Junior level with his size and physical gifts. His skating has improved from what I have seen and I can only hope that he has and will continue commit himself to becoming a full time pro.

I would keep going, but I thought I would end it here. All in all I thought this week was a gigantic success and it certainly showcased the amount of growth we as an organization have made in terms of selecting and developing talent over the past three years or so. I can honestly say that I have never been this excited about the prospects we have in our system, and hopefully we see the rewards of a having a legitimate prospect pool paying dividends on the big club within the foreseeable future. I for one expect we will!

[Heavy Jack]

Originally Posted by Drury18

Stupid question, you were the guy wearing the "Heavy Jack" jersey weren't you? I was about 5 people down from you in the autograph line. I was going to say something but figured the whole "Hey, are you from CP" might be weird if you weren't.



The guys were AMAZING today. High fiving the kids, all of them were out signing autographs in genuinely good moods. I don't think I saw one guy putting on a false front for taking pictures or signing autographs.

Finally got Horak's auto and a pic with him and he couldn't have been kinder. They are yelling at him to get to the interview, I'm saying if he has to go he has to go I don't want to get him in trouble and he waves them off saying he's busy and stands there to take a picture and even a re-take because he deemed the first one too blurry. Just a semingly all around good guy.

Also got to meet Reto Berra...if his quirkiness means anything on how good of a goalie he is, we got a keeper there. I just wanted an autograph, he wanted a picture with me and so I now have a borderline creepy selfie pic with him. The guy is freaking huge though, I made it mid chest protector and I'm about 5'9".

That was me