We’ll get our first look at some of the newest Preds as they hit the ice next week at the 2011 Nashville Predators Development Camp, taking place at Centennial Sportsplex. This just arrived from the team:
The Nashville Predators will have many of their top prospects on hand when they officially open their 2011 Development Camp this Tuesday, June 28 with fitness testing beginning at 7 a.m. at Centennial Sportsplex. Players will be available to the media on Tuesday between 9 a.m.-11 a.m. at the Sportsplex as they work through testing stations. The camp continues through Sunday, July 3 with the first of four on-ice sessions coming at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, June 29.
The purpose of the camp is to educate and direct players in their pro development and conditioning programs, and the week’s events will be presided over by the Predators coaching and hockey operations staff. Nashville Predators and Milwaukee Admirals (AHL Affiliate) coaching staffs, along with Director of Player Development Martin Gelinas, will lead the scheduled training regimen, which includes a variety of dry-land activities and workouts, on-ice fundamentals work, off-ice testing and team-building activities. The players will also receive instruction on training principles such as sport-specific power and strength enhancement, flexibility and off-ice conditioning.
It will also be new Predators assistant coach Lane Lambert’s first time working on-ice as a member of head coach Barry Trotz’s staff.
Check out the primers that Seth wrote covering the goalies & defense and the forwards – if you’re heading to camp, you should really print those out and take them with you.
Follow after the jump for all the details!
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Each of the club’s first, second or third-round selections that didn’t end the 2010-11 season at the NHL level (Colin Wilson, Nick Spaling, Jonathon Blum) from the past four drafts will be in attendance, with many from this weekend’s 2011 Entry Draft also expected to attend.
All on-ice workouts at Centennial Sportsplex are open to the public. On-ice sessions are currently scheduled for:
WEDNESDAY, June 29 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
THURSDAY, June 30
10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. SATURDAY, July 2
10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. SUNDAY, July 3
2:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m.
The preliminary roster of attending players is below and a development camp schedule is attached. Both the schedule and roster are subject to change.
ROSTER UPDATED 6/28/2011:
NASHVILLE PREDATORS 2011 DEVELOPMENT CAMP ROSTER NO FORWARDS HT WT SH Place of Birth Birthdate 2010-11 Team 46 Brent Andrews 6-2 200 L Hunter River, P.E.I. 1/19/93 Halifax (QMJHL) 80 Chase Balisy 5-11 170 L Fullerton, Calif. 2/2/92 Western Michigan (CCHA) 56 Taylor Beck 6-2 203 R St. Catharines, Ont. 5/13/91 Guelph (OHL)/Milwaukee (AHL) 57 Gabriel Bourque 5-10 192 L Rimouski, Que. 9/23/90 Milwaukee (AHL) 76 Zach Budish 6-3 221 R Edina, Minn. 5/9/91 U. of Minnesota (WCHA) 78 Patrick Cehlin 5-11 170 R Huddinge, Sweden 7/27/91 Djurgarden (Sweden)/Djurgarden Jr. (Sweden Jr.) 63 Joel Champagne 6-4 214 L LaSalle, Que. 1/24/90 Quebec (QMJHL) 73 David Elsner 6-0 184 R Landshut, Germany 3/22/92 Landshut (Ger.-2)/Landshut Jr. (Ger.-Jr.)/ERC Ingolstadt (Ger.) 45 Ryan Flynn 6-3 210 R St. Paul, Minn. 3/22/88 Milwaukee (AHL) 50 Jani Lajunen 6-1 190 L Helsinki, Finland 6/16/90 Espoo (Finland) 55 Michael Latta 6-0 209 R Kitchener, Ont. 5/25/91 Guelph (OHL)/Milwaukee (AHL) 52 Jack MacLellan 5-11 175 L Calgary, Alta. 6/5/88 Brown Univ. (ECAC) 70 Nick Oliver 6-1 194 L Grand Forks, N.D. 5/4/91 Fargo (USHL) 77 Joonas Rask 5-10 176 R Savonlinna, Finland 3/24/90 Ilves (Finland) 67 Ben Ryan 5-11 193 R Detroit, Mich. 10/16/88 U. of Notre Dame (CCHA) 42 Miikka Salomaki 5-11 198 L Raahe, Finland 3/9/93 Karpat (Finland) 48 Josh Shalla 6-1 202 L Whitby, Ont. 9/25/91 Saginaw (OHL) 81 Craig Smith 6-1 197 R Madison, Wis. 9/5/89 U. of Wisconsin (WCHA) 65 Ryan Thang 6-0 194 R Chicago, Ill. 5/11/87 Milwaukee (AHL) 72 Austin Watson 6-4 193 R Ann Arbor, Mich. 1/13/92 Peterborough (OHL)/Milwaukee (AHL) NO DEFENSE HT WT SH Place of Birth Birthdate 2010-11 Team 75 Taylor Aronson 6-1 205 R Placentia, Calif. 12/30/91 Portland (WHL) 64 Victor Bartley 6-0 203 L Maple Ridge, B.C. 2/17/88 Rogle (Sweden-1) 61 Anthony Bitetto 6-1 210 L Island Park, N.Y. 7/15/90 Northeastern (H-East) 70 Mattias Ekholm 6-4 204 L Borlange, Sweden 5/24/90 Brynas (Sweden) 49 Ryan Ellis 5-10 179 R Hamilton, Ont. 1/3/91 Windsor (OHL)/Milwaukee (AHL) 82 Jeff Foss 6-2 200 R Moorhead, Minn. 12/12/88 R.P.I. (ECAC)/Milwaukee (AHL) 59 Roman Josi 6-2 198 L Bern, Switzerland 6/1/90 Milwaukee (AHL) 44 Simon Karlsson 6-2 178 R 7/23/93 Malmo Jr. (Sweden Jr.) 43 Garrett Noonan 6-0 205 L Norfolk, Mass. 1/28/91 Boston Univ. (H-East) 54 Charles-Olivier Roussel 6-1 201 R St. Eustache, Que. 9/13/91 Montreal (QMJHL) 83 Scott Valentine 6-2 201 L Ottawa, Ont. 5/2/91 Oshawa (OHL) NO GOALTENDER HT WT C Place of Birth Birthdate 2010-11 Team 36 Magnus Hellberg 6-5 185 L Uppsala, Sweden 4/4/91 Almtuna (Sweden-2) 37 Chet Pickard 6-2 206 L Moncton, N.B. 11/29/89 Milwaukee (AHL)/Cincinnati (ECHL) 30 Jeremy Smith 6-0 173 L Dearborn, Mich. 4/13/89 Cincinnati (ECHL)/Milwaukee (AHL)
Personally, I’m interested in getting a look at new defenseman Mattias Ekholm, who signed a pro deal to come over and play in North America this fall. Who are you looking forward to seeing?