Prospect Camp – Day 1

The Islander prospects took to the ice today – and all was well.

Except for Griffin Reinhart’s equipment…

Fed Ex has the old advertisment: “When it absolutlely, positively, has to be there overnight.  The Islanders should ask for their money back.

Despite that fact, a lot of old faces, and new faces took to the ice for two sessions at Ice Works to begin preparation for the Blue White game on Thursday eveining.

After some off ice workouts from Sean Donellan, on Monday, it was of to the ice today, where all of the draft picks, and camp invitees were working hard, to improve their game, and giving the coaching staff, a view of things to come in Islander country.

“I’ve been working out with JT (John Tavares) after he came back from the world’s”, said last year’s first round pick, Ryan Strome.  ” Now I’m just here to work hard. There’s really no excuses.”

Despite the fact that most of these players are destined for the junior hockey, collegiate, or European hockey level, there are some players that spent some time with the big club that are here as well, including Casey Cizikas, Nino Niederreiter, Aaron Ness and Matt Donovan.  They all seem to feel to get their chance to train and work on their game, will help even more as they move on in their NHL careers.

“The guys (NHL) are incredible hockey players; the most talented players in the world”, said Aaron Ness after his session today.  He feels that he has got taste of what it is like to be at that level, and wants to work hard, and be as dedicated as possible, in order to continue his progression.

Rhinehart, the fourth pick in last Friday’s NHL Entry draft, despite his equipment relocation, is savoring this first NHL camp, and taking in every minute of it.

The predominant motions of each sessin were devoted to fundamentals and set plays, to see how each player performs.  One can see that there are some that are more developed and further in their development than some of the others, but the one thing that some of the media that were present and I noticed more about this year, than past prospect camps:

THE SIZE!

When you take a serious look at the camp list, and look at the height weight numbers on the defense, it is mind boggling.

Patrick MacGregor – 6’4″, 218 lbs.

Scott Mayfield – 6’4″, 205 lbs.

Andrey Pedan – 6’5″, 213 lbs.

Adam Pelech – 6’3″, 224 lbs.

Griffin Reinhart – 6’4″, 222 lbs.

Doyle Somerby – 6’5″, 223 lbs.

Oleg Yevenko – 6’7″, 241 lbs.

You can easily see that Garth is looking to make the defense on this team, as well as the lower division clubs, one of a stalwart crew of big strong guys, to go with the smooth finess ones that are already here.

Below are clips of the interviews after Tuesday workouts:  Enjoy!  Will report next after Thursday’s Blue White Game, which you can watch on Islanders TV at 6:30 PM.

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