Colorado Avalanche Summer Development camp shows promise

The Colorado Avalanche are hosting some of their draft prospects, newly signed entry level contract players, and a handful of invitees this week at their summer development camp. Some of the skating portions are open to the public at Family Sports Center in Centennial. I have never had the pleasure of attending an NHL development camp but managed to wrangle my schedule to observe portions of Wednesday’s and Thursday’s power skating practices as well as most of Thursday afternoon’s skill development work and thought I would share what I noticed.

My notes come with a disclaimer – the notes are observations from the few hours I saw the skaters and are not intended as a comprehensive analysis. Rather, just collections of thoughts for those who may not be able to attend and might find the insights interesting.

First, and most encouraging, all of the attendees looked like they belonged there. At no point did I wonder why some skater received an invite to camp. All of the players showed great promise and skill. Having watched some of the Avalanche practices last year, I was surprised by how the whole camp roster looked like they had potential to make the big club as long as they continued to improve and develop.

The morning drills mostly focused on skating. The Avalanche divided the roster into three groups. The grey group consists of all the defenders plus goalie invite Chase Marchand (from the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies – one of four Huskies in attendance at camp). The blue group is composed of some of the bigger names at camp like Colorado’s recent first-round draft pick Tyson Jost, as well as newly signed prospects J. T. Compher, and Julien Nantel, as well as goalie invite Adam Werner (from Sweden). The burgundy group which contains the two tallest young men in camp at 6’6” – Ben Storm and Gustav Olhaver – as well as the dynamo A.J. Greer and goaltender Spencer Martin.

During Wednesday’s power skate, Sergei Boikov looked smooth and fast from the grey group. Will Butcher, while small, appeared quick for a defenseman. Anton Lindholm, also newly signed to an ELC, carried confidence into pretty much every drill. And Nathan Clurman seemed to do a good job of positioning himself for success. And I couldn’t help but feel sorry for goalies like Chase Marchand doing the skating drills in full pads. He actually held his own with the other skaters during the drills.

The blue group proved to be exceptionally fast during the power skate on Wednesday; not surprising as they had some of the higher ranked prospects in their group. They also exhibited greater quickness from the start than the defenseman. A little competitiveness seemed brewing to see who could beat the others down the ice. And Werner also hustled down the ice in his full goaltending regalia.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to view the burgundy group on Wednesday.

At Thursday’s morning skate, the grey group practiced a lot of skating backwards. Lindholm really seemed to excel, gaining some notice from the coaches, and both Boikov and Nicolas Meloche seemed promising.

The burgundy group launched into the power skate in the wake of A.J. Greer. He was out front on all the skating drills, driving to be the first down the ice. Greer looks like he is going to make it hard on the Avalanche to send him back to Major Juniors. Interestingly, as Greer pressed, both Storm and Olhaver hustled to keep up with him. Greer’s puck skills and speed set him apart in this group. Greer seemed quick to compliment the other guys in his group and while he skated with intensity, he also managed an air of congeniality. Very impressive.

The Avalanche coaches broke out goaltender Spencer Martin early in the skate to work at one end of the ice on motion and positioning in the net, which they later did for all the goaltenders. Spencer Martin looked like he’s been working on his game, perhaps hoping to compete for the starting slot for the Rampage. Chase Marchand proved he earned his invitation to camp. While Martin seemed more comfortable doing the drills, Marchand kept pace and hopefully earns a contract. Werner looked promising but not quite as athletic as Marchand or well positioned as Martin. He’s also younger and less experienced but looks good for continuing depth at the goaltending position.

On a side note, Adam Foote was on the ice for both the grey and the burgundy group power skates as well as the afternoon skill development portion of camp.

The blue group took to the power skate and as a whole, struggled with the one drill, where they had to do a smooth circle on the ice gliding with their skates out and feet near each other. A. J. Greer excelled at this drill in the previous grouping. For the power skating down the ice, Compher initially led the charge but midway through the drills, Jost began winning the races. Jost, Nantel, Beaudin, and Compher impressed with the quick turns Tutton (the skating coach) was working on as well as their speed.

Compher and Beaudin both stayed after the end of their session to talk with the coaches. Compher spoke with Tutton about a couple of moves and then practiced them on the ice for a few minutes before leaving.

Thursday’s afternoon skill development offered a more exciting experience for spectators. The players also seemed to be enjoying themselves. It resembled a three ring circus, with fascinating shows going on in three different sections of the ice making it completely impossible to keep up with all the interesting stories developing on the rink.

Josh Anderson, the 17-year old who fractured a vertebrae last year and only recently returned to skating, showed poise and smooth puck skills during this session. He made seemingly effortless one-touch passes, moved smoothly backwards around the cones and fielded and dished passes with ease. He also showed impressive shooting accuracy, getting many of his shots past whichever goaltender was in net.

One skill drill had Compher, Jost, Storm and Jeffrey Truchon-Viel taking shots on the goalie from four different points around the ice. Goalies Martin and Marchand both handled the barrage comparably, with Marchand exhibiting some good stick work on his right side, while Werner did well, just not as well as the other two. I noticed Marchand and Martin fist bump each other during change offs between shifts. Martin sported a plain white helmet while Marchand wore his Huskies specialty helmet.

Another exercise had Clurman, Meloche, Boikov and Lindholm doing passing drills while changing directions and skating around cones. All four of them looked good. Butcher showed good speed and awareness on the ice although his edge work looked like an area he could develop more. Corbett was there as well and seemed very comfortable and competent with all the drills. Clurman, Butcher, and Meloche all managed to get the puck past Martin, with Clurman hitting the rebound of his shot out of the air into the net.

One drill had the forwards taking shots from around ten feet out from the net, feeding off of passes from the sides. Marchand stopped almost all of the shots he faced and it took some fancy work from Jost, Nantel, and Compher to get past him. Werner, when facing the same drill, seemed to improve as the exercise progressed.

Another of the more interesting exercises featured players for one group lining up to beat out a coach/trainer along the sides to get a shots on the goal. The blue team seemed to have bonded in the course of just a couple of days as they were stick tapping the ice whenever one of their guys successfully shouldered the coach out of the way to score. They also cheered on their goaltenders. While the blue group had some of the fiercest competition, they also appeared to be having the most fun playing with and against each other.

Two interesting skirmishes came near the end of the session. The team ran a drill where two guys faced off, one trying to get off a shot in front of the goaltender while the other one tried to defend and re-gain puck possession. Shawn Ouellet-St.-Amant faced off against J.T. Compher and things got physical quickly, with Ouellette-St-Amant accidentally hitting Compher in the mouth with his stick. Compher looked none too happy about it.

In contrast, Tyson Jost and A.J. Greer faced off on the same drill, and while it got scrappy, both guys were grinning and laughing, with Jost eventually falling down and Greer, who had been leaning on Jost’s back, following him down to the ice. They both got up, gave each other a good-natured shrug, and lined up for another go.

Storm showed some really good defensive positioning during the same drill as well as some very effective puck stealing skills, particularly for a tall guy.

From the sessions I watched, some skaters certainly looked promising. A.J. Greer, Tyson Jost, and J.T. Compher brought an exciting compete level to the camp. Jost impressed with his quick release and puck awareness. He would shoot and be looking for the next puck before the guy feeding him could even get himself in position. Greer exhibited leadership and a gritty tenacity as well as some keen awareness. And Compher showed he was ready for his contract, just as intense as the other two, and showed flashes that yet another level of excellence may be just around the corner.

Meanwhile, Julien Nantel, J.C. Beaudin, Anton Lindholm, and Sergei Boikov exhibited a variety of skill sets and appear ready to fight for some positions on the Rampage roster.

Avalanche fans have a lot to be excited about for the future depth of the organization.