What we learned about Ben Meyers and others this week at Avalanche development camp

Development Camp wrapped up Friday with a rewarding hike up the Incline in Manitou Springs.

After a brief 4 on 4 scrimmage the night before, the whole crew got up bright and early to make the trek down to Colorado Springs for the team building activities. This concluded the camp and prospects will return to their additional summer obligations to continue training for their upcoming seasons.

 

Day 3 started with a final skating session with more on-ice drills. It was a shorter session because of the evening game. They ran faster zone entry drills which placed two pairs of D in the neutral zone. The D would begin the drill with a pass reception just outside the blueline and pass to their forwards entering the zone. The lines were encouraged to attempt a scoring opportunity a number of ways – passing sequences, solo shots high and low.

A line that stood out was Ben Tardif, Colby Ambrosio, and Micah Miller. It was Tardif and Ambrosio who particularly stood out. Tardif, similar to Tarun Fizer who I will talk more about later, is a dynamic skater with excellent speed. He made his professional debut last season after completing his time in major junior. He debuted with the Colorado Eagles for 15 games, but it didn’t quite stick. He finished out the year with the Utah Grizzlies and has had three 59-point seasons, staying a point per game or above in the last four years. Tardif also demonstrated chemistry with Ambrosio.

Ambrosio is a versatile forward entering his third year at Boston College. He has natural center capabilities and has predominantly played a middle-6 role at Boston, slotting in on right wing as needed especially after finding chemistry with Jack McBain. He has top-6 potential at the NCAA level as evidenced by his production – 22 points through 38 games. He will have an opportunity to be promoted next year with senior players moving on. He excelled in Day 2’s passing drills, finding his guys easily and demonstrated fine stickhandling in Day 3.

The evening’s 4-on-4 match was a culmination of the camp’s lessons and an opportunity for prospects to demonstrate in-game skills in real-time. The roster was divided into two teams made up of 12 skaters and 1 goaltender.

Burgundy and White rosters are set for tonight's 4-on-4 matchup!

Will we see you there?#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/kUxE23QRgi

— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) July 14, 2022

It was a fast-paced game. The format allowed for back and forth play with uncontested cross-ice passes through the neutral zone and guys waiting at the blueline to pick them. This meant quick bursts from one zone to the other. Team Burgundy shutout Team White 6-0 much of that came down to goaltending in the end.

For Team White, any time a play started you could count on it being Ben Meyers leading the rush. Meyers looked unsurprisingly strong throughout all of camp. Meyers, you’ll recall, has had an eventful year. He represented Team USA in the Olympics in February and scored 2 goals and 2 assists. He led the University of Minnesota to the Frozen Four for the first time since 2014, was Big 10’s Player of the Year, signed an ELC with the Avs, scored a goal in his NHL debut, and competed in the World Championship in Finland scoring 4 goals and 4 assists before coming back to Colorado for development camp.

At 23, he’s a cut above the rest of the young hopefuls at camp who are at much earlier stages in their career. Because Team White trailed during the match, Meyers and Sean Behrens pulled double duty and fed off of one another well. Meyers has good strength on the puck and showed patience in the offensive zone. He’d wait for a viable passing lane, shaking off two skaters at once often times waiting for Behrens. He created several quality chances, but Team Burgundy had a strong showing in net.

Behrens showed improvement in his skating. He’s more mobile and able to keep the puck on his stick and cut around skaters. Defensively, he closed in on each guy quickly, tending to the gap. It was a gentlemanly game, so players opted not to play the body too much. This allowed Behrens to close out players with his skating and stick placement. His offensive tools complimented Meyers’ nicely and there were moments you could tell these two were looking just for one another.

In the post-game availability, Meyers was asked if any players stood out to him during camp and he said that Behrens was a really good player. In the shootout, Behrens scored for Team Burgundy. He went forehand, backhand, waited, and lifted the puck over Cameron Rowe’s left shoulder. An honorable mention for Team White goes to Chris Romaine. Fresh off of high school prep hockey, the young defenseman matched the pace of the other players well.

Director of Player Development, Brian Willsie, described Behrens as an elite defenseman and mentioned his hockey IQ in particular as standing out. He said he’s a bit raw for pro but that having David Carle at camp was helpful to work out areas of his game to prepare him for the next level. Willsie also described Meyers as a mature presence at camp who is ready to step into an NHL lineup. He classified the camp as another week of learning for Meyers to finetune the little details.

Meyers touched on preparing for next season with the possibility of earning a roster spot up with the Avalanche and the overall experience of development camp.

“You can’t put too much pressure on yourself,” he explained. “At the end of the day, it’s July right now and there’s a lot of training to be done before training camp, but [this is] still a great opportunity to get in front of the coaches. Everybody’s competing out there.”

He’ll train with a professional group out of the University of Minnesota including Erik Haula, Nate Schmidt, and Nick Bjugstad. Despite his deep ties to Minnesota as a highly sought-after undrafted free agent, his choice to come to Colorado was very clear. He had also done development camps with Philadelphia, the Islanders, and Boston before this, so he had experiences with other organizations.

“Ultimately, I felt like this was the best chance to just start my pro career,” he explained. “It would give me the best opportunity to keep developing my game and hopefully become an NHL’er someday. That’s pretty much all it was. I didn’t feel the need to stay there. I’ve been in Minnesota my whole life, so a change was what I thought would be good for me.”

He saw the winning mindset in Colorado and got to get a glimpse of it firsthand near the end of the season. “It was apparent how focused they were on winning the cup and how dialed in that group was,” he said. “Everybody’s focus was on the cup. You could tell that everybody worked so hard and that was everybody’s goal. And sure enough, it happened.”

He will definitely be one to keep a close eye on in training camp.

Standouts for Team Burgundy included Tarun Fizer, Cameron Wright, Danila Zhuravlyov, and Wyatt Aamodt. Fizer, much like Tardif, is an excellent skater with great speed and was unafraid to get to the net front in 4v4. Fizer and Wright found one another easily – this was something that stood out for both of them in Day 2, but the first time they got to put it together. Wright has a play-driving instinct. Brian Willsie said he can score big goals at big times and find the right place at the right time. “He checked a lot of boxes this week.”

As for Aamodt and Zhuravlyov, both made good defensive reads and held it down in their end. Zhuravlyov made a smart play at the blueline that denied access and created a transition. He scored a goal too by cutting around the skater in the high slot and in. Willsie issued praise to the KHL as a worthy league for him to begin development and outlined the next steps as bringing Zhuravlyov to Loveland to learn more. We’ll also get a better glimpse in the upcoming Rookie Tournament in San Jose on Sept. 16-19 and the following main camp here in Colorado.

Ahead of the Rookie Tournament is an opportunity to watch Sean Behrens and Oskar Olausson compete for their respective teams in the rescheduled World Juniors competition. Team USA’s evaluation camp will take place on July 24th, so Behrens’ spot is not guaranteed. The tournament will start on August 9th in Edmonton, Alberta, and the final roster is expected to be announced by August 3. Olausson would have attended development camp too, but he received approval from the Avs to compete in WJC and the turnaround from the end of his season to the start of WJC was tight with respect to travel.

That’s a wrap on development camp. Up next? Hopefully some free agency answers and World Juniors!