Development camp reports, notes, pix, etc.

[mic]

M. said:

Kostitsyn - rookie camp, Habs contract, Hamilton

Wasn't Savard quoted saying that Kostitsyn is supposed to go back to CSKA Moscow ? Where, by the way, he will play for Slava Bykov, one of the Russian stars (he played with Larionov, Fetisov, Makarov, etc.) who never played in the NHL. I wonder how Bykov will do as a coach. He was a great leader and a great player but struggled in his first coaching experience.

[NWTHabsFan]

M. said:

Pretty much echoes my sediments.

All the better with which to muddy the waters.

[Goldthorpe]

mic said:

Wasn't Savard quoted saying that Kostitsyn is supposed to go back to CSKA Moscow ? Where, by the way, he will play for Slava Bykov, one of the Russian stars (he played with Larionov, Fetisov, Makarov, etc.) who never played in the NHL. I wonder how Bykov will do as a coach. He was a great leader and a great player but struggled in his first coaching experience.

I know Savard said that, but I remember reading that Kostitsyn will now be considered a "non-russian" and may be cuted because teams can only accept a certain numbers of them in their rank (and he isn't good anough to be one of them).

[HabbaDasher]

NWTHabsFan said:

All the better with which to muddy the waters.

We'll see things more clearly once everything is settled.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

HabbaDasher said:

We'll see things more clearly once everything is settled.

The resolution and focus the kids have displayed thus far is admirable.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Day 7 notes (yesterday was a day off) by Mark Couzi at flr2:

Just got back...well today was interesting because every member of the Canadiens top brass was present...George Gillette was there with his sons...Pierre Boivin,Bob Gainey,Andre Savard,Pierre Gauthier,Trevor Timmins,Claude Julien,Doug Jarvis...

Gillette is just about the most friendly person you'll ever meet...shaking hands with everyone and always smilling...he along with his sons watched everything attentively...

As for the drills...same old...everyone had a little better jump today after the off day.

I wish they would scrimmage so we could all get a better look at some of these guys...but it doesn't look like its gonna happen...Kostitsyn on 3 on 2 drills looked amazing...he moves so well with the puck and made some sweet passes...its the closest thing to a real game situation in any of the drills and he stands out...I wish so badly they could scrimmage so we can see him in action.

Heino-Lindberg impressed me in nets..the kid is quick and moves well from side to side...

Korpikari is also looking better and better...he has good size and is definitely capable of being an NHLer.

But there are some guys I just can't see making it close to the NHL...all the guys on a tryout are not remotely impressive...especially Godin who looks awful...Labelle looks alright but he's awfully small.

I overheard one of the power skating instructors say Ribeiro was supposed to attend the power skating drills much like Dagenais is doing...but he had planned his vacation time earlier in the year and it fell at the same time...I heard he may attend tomorrow because he has just gotten back...we'll see

[blaise]

At least Ryder wasn't asked to take part in the power skating classes. He elected to take them in the past--more than once--to improve his chances of making the NHL.

It occurred to me especially during the Tampa Bay series that the second line was being outskated by the speedier Lightning forwards. These reports confirm my suspicions.

[NWTHabsFan]

Day #7 (after a day off yesterday) report from HabsWorld, this time from John Weins:

Development Camp. If only those words conjured up memories of days gone by. Any memories at all. I came home with such a buzz it took about three hours for my ears to stop ringing. It was an exciting day

Camp was anything but informal today. Every organization member responsible for the team on ice showed up today. Bob Gainey and Pierre Boivin, Andre Savard, everyone. It was an important day.

I found this distracting. There I was supposed to be watching the players, but kept glancing at Gainey out of the corner of my eye. I finally realized how big the staff really is. There are a lot of them.

Once I got past the distractions, I managed to watch some hockey.

It is hard to understand the philosophy behind training camps. Of course, assessment takes place. For instance, there were several Team Canada scouts out today. But, above the ice level it was almost business as usual. The org huddled in a corner for about 10 minutes today.

The two most complete players on the ice today were Kostsitsyn and Danis. Both of them are clearly superior to any competition that they faced.

Be assured that their status as top tier prospects is deserved. They are the real deal. There is no doubt.

Kostsitsyn is really head and shoulders above everyone else in very nearly every category. He lacks the skating power to outmuscle larger competition during drills, and his defensive instincts need to be honed. Regardless, he showed why he is highly today.

Kostsitsyn is a treat to watch. He has a very smooth skating style and handles the puck without effort. He is the only player who manages the puck consistantly. He passes the puck consistently when in motion, not only gliding, so he can think while moving his feet. He knows what to do with the puck, when to do it, and can do nearly anything at top speed. He doesn’t miss the net.

His talent ceiling may be the highest since Saku Koivu. You would have to be blind and dumb to miss it. He makes defences look bad, and goalies even worse. It looks like he is intimidating the goalies. Some of his goals today should not have been. For certain, he is doing some things that won’t work at the NHL level.

I’m sure it won’t be long before we see him in a Habs uniform.

Yann Danis is small for a modern goaltender, but his mechanics make up for it. His legs are fast, his lateral movement well controlled and precise. He handles the puck well, and cuts down shooting angles confidently. He can make it beyond the AHL. Rollie Melanson agrees if I don’t miss my guess. It was the other goalies that were receiving the bulk of his instruction today.

If you have already all the players for five days you would know who is in good shape and who is dogging it today.

Many of the other players showed skills as well. Korpikari showed resilience and poise. Cote has leadership qualities, while Archer and O’Bryne are all about upper body strength. There is one other skater who impressed me, and that is Olivier Magnan, a tryout from the Q. He showed really good rotation and finess for a defenseman his size.

At forward position there is a lack of size with skill. Chipchura is a lock for a career with the Canadiens since no-one who can compete with his size. He also has a good shot, but it needs to be developed. Currently he can only shoot top left with consistency. He clearly had the edge on Maxim Laperriere today.

[NWTHabsFan]

Day #7 notes from RaTcine from over yonder at HF:

I went this morning!

Arrived only at the second part of the practice...

- one player impressed me a lot... Heino-Lindberg! He's really quick and covers his angles very very well... few pucks went in when he was in the net... The only thing I didnt like about him is his mask and the fact that he looks like a teenager lol

- Godin sucks

- Petit scored two nice goals. Nice to see that from an invitee

- Locke as a good shot accuracy and his not that weak in speed

- Kost didn't really impressed me, I was hoping for more... still he made a move that I said " HEIN? QUESSÉ YA FAITE LÀ?" I didnt see nothing, it was with his skates and it was beautiful...

- Archer and Korpi are pretty fast for their size

- Archer and ... I don't remember which invitee began to play a little nasty... but Archer wasn't stress at all... it all began when Archer put a check on the other, and the other didn't like it and tried to hit him at least 4 times after but Archer is pretty damn solid.

- I really like Chipchura and Urquhart...

[blaise]

I have predicted since his signing that Danis will play regularly in the NHL within 2-3 years. Huet, watch out. You, too, Théodore.

[PTH]

Blaise said:

I have predicted since his signing that Danis will play regularly in the NHL within 2-3 years. Huet, watch out. You, too, Théodore.

Well, he better, otherwise he was a waste of a signing and of a spot in the 50 signed players we can have. He's already 23, if he's not in the NHL at 26 he was a bad call, period.

[blaise]

PTH said:

Well, he better, otherwise he was a waste of a signing and of a spot in the 50 signed players we can have. He's already 23, if he's not in the NHL at 26 he was a bad call, period.

Would you be happier if I were less cautious and said that Danis is at least as good at age 23 as Garon was? He could be. Look up Garon's record in 2000-1 and 2001-2.

[NWTHabsFan]

A few more Day #7 thoughts from John Weins while posting at FLR2:

I didn't see Julien there, but I saw everyone else. It was a pretty impressive day for Kosty. He is great with the puck, and made some guys look bad a few times.

Danis looked really good during the goalie drills.

I thought I would see more from Lapierre, but Chipchura is farther along. Once he gets his shot under control, I think Chipchura will be fine.

The other disappointment was Corey Locke, who didn't impress me much today.

The player that surprised me most was Magnan. He skates very well. If he could get his puck skills underway, he would be a good mobile defenseman.

Most of the defensemen looked adequate to me. It is hard to tell where they are without seeing the scrimmage. Appartently the gloves are coming off Saturday.

I talked with the swede goalies' father after the practice. He said he was surprised to see his son improving as fast as he was. In Sweden, they only get to see a goalie instructor 6-7 times a year. He is hoping to stick in the AHL this season to accelerate his development, but know that Danis is more likely to be the starter there.

[NWTHabsFan]

Day #8 Report from J. Wilson over at HabsWorld:

The 7th day of on-ice practice and the 8th day overall. Only 2 more days until the camp comes to an end, only 2 more days left for the players to make an impression (even though management has said that this is not an evaluation camp).

9AM-10AM: Today the 4 goalies had an entire rink to themselves, while the remaining 21 forwards and D were on another rink. I decide to attend the skaters rink. The practice today was very up-tempo, and the drills were timed in synch with music (pump-up songs from the past few decades) playing in the background. Dagenais was back at practice again, but their was no sign of Ribeiro (he had been rumoured to be going to practice today), Dagenais arrived on the ice 10 minutes late and was then told by the coach to come back in another 10 minutes (prospect only drills?) I got a good chuckle out of this.

One of the drills performed was a skate-and-dive drill where the players had to skate a short distance, then dive onto the ice, get up and skate a little more, the purpose of the drill was to teach players how to get up quickly when down, thankfully it was not teaching them how to draw penalties. Next up the players did some one on ones where the player with the puck tried to get around the defending player, Kostitsyn went up against Chipchura. Kostitsyn took Kyle to school a few times with brilliant stick-handling, Andrei made it look easy. Kyle eventually caught up to Kostitsyn’s pace and was not beaten again. Locke is another player who impressed me in the stick-handling drills, Corey isnt as good a stick-handler as Kostitsyn but Corey is still very skilled in the department. The group finished off the hour practice by skating laps to the rhythm of the music and doing push-ups after each lap.

10:30AM-12PM: The goalies and skaters reunite. Andre Savard has the players do odd man rush drills. On one of these drills Chipchura and Kostitsyn are on a 2 on 1 , Kostitsyn receives the puck and goes in all alone on Heino-Lindberg, Andrei dekes the jock off of Heino-Lindberg and scores a backhanded goal, one of the nicest goals I’ve seen all camp, the audience oohs and ahhs while Kostitsyn has a look on his face like he’s scored that goal hundreds of times before. Shortly after the goal Kostitsyn leaves the ice, I’m not sure why he left the ice, it could of been an injury or it could be the coaches having some sympathy for the goalies, Kostitsyn did not return.

Next the dark blue jerseys came out, the players divided and filled the two benches for some 4 on 4 hockey. The "game" did not have any faceoffs, rules, or penalties, and the only time a whistle was blown was when the coach wanted the players to change lines. Chipchura was one of the top players during the scrimmage, he played physical and battled for the puck in the corners, on the offensive side he had a nice rush which resulted in a Danny Stewart tap-in goal. J-P Cote is another player who I liked during the 4 on 4’s, he was able to show off his physical play. The puck always seemed to find its way to Cote during the drill, then again as a defender having the puck follow you around is not always a good thing. Another highlight of the practice was when Corey Locke scored a Kostitsyn-like breakaway goal on the helpless goalie (I forget who).

After the practice ended Chipchura, Urquhart, Larrivee, Korpikari and Lacasse stayed on the ice after everyone else left, the 4 skaters practised shots/rebounds on Lacasse. Lacasse looked much better today then he did at the start of the camp, working with Melanson has helped his game, now the test will be how he performs as a starter in the QMJHL for a full season.

The players who stood out today for me were the players who are expected the stand out, the top prospects, guys like Kyle Chipchura and the offensive wizards Andrei Kostitsyn and Corey Locke. On the defensive side I liked what I saw from Cote, Archer, O’Byrne and Korpikari. For the goalies the gap is getting smaller between Danis and the other 3, but Danis is still in a class of his own.

[blaise]

An interview with Danis appears on the RDS site today.

Danis chose to get his degree before turning pro. I think it was a good decision. Brown is a top flight university, and equipped with a Brown diploma the bilingual Danis should have many opportunities outside hockey.

[montreal]

Development article

www.habsworld.net/show_prospect.php?id=649

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Maxim-izing an opportunity
It’s all about working hard for Lapierre

(07/17/2004)

MONTREAL – A familiar face sits under the spotlights of the Canadiens’ development camp and one almost has to do a double-take to make sure it’s him. Maxim Lapierre has added 20 lbs of muscle to his six-foot frame and now weighs in at 201 lbs. For this 19-year old athlete, the addition that has made a big difference.

He trained six days a week and has been watching his diet.

“My trainer in Prince Edward Island told me to apply myself more in games. I’m more intense in my games now and I really get into the heat of the action. I’ve even fought 11 times,” explained Lapierre, who never stood out as a fighter.

- www.canadiens.com/eng/news/redirect.cfm?sectionID=habsNewsDetails.cfm&newsItemID=3869

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Day 9 report by WhiteSnake at HF:

I was there for the first time today, (I'll go back with my father tomorrow) and saw some interesting things.

Again there was no scrimmages today, only that elastic exercise and some 2 on 1, 3 on 0, 1 on 1 and so on....

First of all, guess who shows up....you win Mr. Ribs himself. I arrived only at 9:40 this morning so I saw a good 20 minutes of his majesty missing a lot of his passes, didn't do any special moves or anything and left quite early... and didn't comeback for the second part of the afternoon. Anyway, he's obviously at the beginning of his training so let's not be to harsh on him. Dagenais was not there today.

Kast and Archer didn't show up all day, with Kast leaving early yesterday this sounds like an injury alright, I was really looking forward to see him and Archer, saw Archer outside at the end of the practice, he probably did some off the ice exercise but he had some trouble walking, so maybe a groin injury for him but for Kast, I don't know, hope somebody had the pleasure of talking to Savard, who was there today and he even conducted the 2nd part practice with all the players.

GOALIES:

The best goaltender of the day award is.......LACASSE. I was sitting close to Lacasse/Halak net all day so I saw a lot of both goalies and Lacasse really surprise me today. He was fast, making some big saves, at one point he was quite unbeatable. Definately not the Lacasse of the past week 'cause he had a tremendous day. Danis and Heino were very good as well, Danis is technically very good always at the right place at the right time but he didn't stood out like Lacasse did. Same for Heino, he didn't stood out but he's definately a good goalie, very fast, very energetic and competitive, I like the kid. Made some very good saves as well. But le ''citron or lemon'' prize of the day goes to Halak. Definately not his day today, remember the goal he gave last championship, 5-hole, he let 5 to 10 goals like that today, was completely alone all day, didn't act like he cared too much. At one point, all 3 goalies were listening to Melanson close to a net, he was close to the blue line looking at the opposite net until he realized 2 minutes after that maybe his place was with the other goalies. I understand he probably doesn't understand english but he should at least try to blend in, he didn't do that today. Very very bad day for him but I guess we all have one at one point or another.

D-MEN: People we have a very good defensive corps to come. We have 2 winners today: O'BYRE AND COTE. My god O'Byrne is huge, I know everybody says that but I've got to agree and he's fast, makes some good first passes, this guy has everything to become a real NHL'er and maybe sooner than late. Really funny how he manhandled everybody that faced him on these 1-1. Ferland looked like a Pee-Wee against him. But Coté deserves the credit today as well. That guy needs to be signed now, he's mean, big, quite fast and today those 1-1 were his thing. Korpikari was impressive as well, and I like that he has a little mean side to him. He's quite tall and big as well and he will too become a good D-men soon. Flood, he's OK, relatively calm, not as stand-out as the others but did his job today. Dulac, that Valeri Bure look-a-like(his face not his skating...) looked OK today, he's quite tall guy, his skating is average he wasn't as bad as expected but definately not stood out today.Magnan, well you can forget about him.

FORWARDS

Today's winners: CHIPPY I really liked what I saw from him. Worked hard, win his battles most of the time, he doesn't have the greatest shot but not as bad as anticipated and is a real time leader already, speaks to everybody and he doesn't look out of place at all. Seems to have a great chemistry with Bonneau ( not hockey wise but friendly wise) and this guy will an important asset of our team for sure. Needs time though, but like everyone else in that camp.

Dissapointments: Larrivée, Ferland and the Stewarts... For a guy that's been in that camp for the past 5 years, Larrivée doesn't show he's willing to do everything to compete. He has the frame but doesn't use it and this is a guy that I had to really try to find him or else you don't notice him. Ferland, anyone who was there saw him? He didn't win a lot of his battles today, I was expecting more, but he didn't gave us anything. Didn't see a lot of Danny S., he was slower than expected today and didn't do much, I expected more but like in Ferland's case, didn't have a good day, and I saw too much of Greg S. and today he looked like a try-out to me. You can't pass a judgement on one day, I understand, but based on today, I have no idea what they saw on that guy.

Good and Bad: Locke, Urquhart, Lambert, Bonneau, Lapierre. Locke is a talented player, we know that but when it comes to push and shove, he's not there. But what I like about him is that he really looked frustrated everytime it didn't go his way, he likes to compete and it shows, so don't count him out but he really looked tired today. Urquhart has tons of talent as well but you can forget him being a force along the boards like we all know. Korpikari and Coté had a lot of fun against him today. Lambert another talented player but a little lazy today but again so talented, definately a good player with some beautiful shots today. Bonneau is Bonneau, gives his best, scored some nice goals, funny guy to watch on the ice, team player and all but, like you all know, talent is limited. And last one, Lapierre, I like him a lot, quite fast, good hockey sense, works hard, gritty but didn't show too much of that aspect today. I didn't see him a lot, I will focus on him tomorrow but what I saw was neither good nor bad.

TRY-OUTS: Labelle is the best try-out for me but again that doesn't mean he should be sign 10 millions for 2 years. He's quite fast, good goals, especially the last one of the practise, a few people there start applauding him, maybe his family but it was a nice goal. Petit is OK but he is petit(small), Magnan does his job but we don't need him. As far as Godin goes, he was definately not on the same pace the others were. You can forget about him and fast, definately the worst player on the ice today.

Sorry for the extra long report, it was a fun day, it was full pack of people for the 2nd part of the practice so I guess some of you were there. Will see you guys tomorrow for the last day, hoping we'll have a game to watch, though with all the players being hurt, I guess we won't.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Day 9 report by Jake Wilson at HabsWorld:

The 2nd to last day of the development camp, the camp wraps up on Sunday. Kostitsyn and Archer both missed the practice today, likely due to injury.

9AM-10AM: Ribeiro shows up at camp and is one of the first skaters onto the ice at rink #4 (the goalies group). Ribeiro spends about 2 seconds on a skating drill before skating to the other side of the rink to work with the goalies for the rest of the practice. I fail to see the point of Ribeiro even showing up at this camp just to take shots on prospect goaltenders. I thought Mike would be working on his skating. Ribeiro was easily able to score goals against the young goalies. Mike’s shot is not very powerful (its weak) but he does have aim and knows where to shoot it. Lapierre (and then Flood) later joined Ribeiro to work with the goalies, Lapierre had more trouble finding the back of the net then Ribeiro did. Flood was even worse, he fanned on a few passes. Christopher Heino-Lindberg looked great today. Lindberg is a quick learner and will not be fooled twice by the same move/shot. Lindberg even showed off some of his skating, deking and stick-handling moves during a free skate, he must dream of being a forward.

The rest of the group practised the regular skating, and power-skating drills to finish up the hour.

10:30AM-12PM: Ribeiro/Dagenais are not on the ice for this session, Dagenais never even showed up today. Heino-Lindberg continues to impress me with his play, he stopped almost everything shot at him. For the first time in camp (that I’ve seen) the D’s are working alone with their own coach. The D’s practiced one on one techniques, stick checking, proper body position. The D’s later rejoined the rest of the team to practice some 1 on 1’s. Korpikari showed a nasty side of his game during this drill when he grabbed Lambert by the neck and tossed him to the ice. Surprisingly they both laughed about it then re-did the drill. The habs certainly have lots of big, strong, and mean defenders at this camp with O’Byrne, Archer, Cote, and Korpikari, if only they could say the same about the forwards. The top highlights from this practice were by Corey Locke (again) as he scored a variety of goals, Labelle also had a wicked goal off a bullet top corner wrist shot.

For the 2nd straight day Loic Lacasse stayed on the ice after practice to work on his game (with a few shooters). Loic looks like he is committed to improving his game. Kyle Chipchura is another player who stays on the ice as long as possible, Kyle gets along great with everyone on the team, he always has a smile on his face and routinely taps other players with his stick for encouragement.

Unfortunately it looks like the prospects will not scrimmage during this camp. They did not even put on the blue jerseys today for 4 on 4’s.

[duster]

Perhaps I'm judging too hastily and too harshly but I can't say I'm impressed with what I've read about Dagenais or Ribs' attitude so far. They do have some shortcomings to overcome yet seem disinterested. They should be leading by example, IMHO. Blame it on my admiration for the Puritan work ethic if you will.

I wonder what BG and the coaches think about all this.

[blaise]

duster said:

Perhaps I'm judging too hastily and too harshly but I can't say I'm impressed with what I've read about Dagenais or Ribs' attitude so far. They do have some shortcomings to overcome yet seem disinterested. They should be leading by example, IMHO. Blame it on my admiration for the Puritan work ethic if you will.

I wonder what BG and the coaches think about all this.

They have to work on their skating. If they show up at the preseason camp (I hope) in the same form as they displayed last year they will not be playoff-ready once more.

[Habs_fan_in_LA]

I was looking at some pictures of the players in camp and it seemed that Urquhart is much taller than Chipchura (not 6'2" and 6'3"). Corey Locke seems smaller in comparison, but not tiny. Does the team ever publish their real sizes on real scales without skates?

We now seem to have some size in our prospects/players to go along with their potential.

[blaise]

Habs_fan_in_LA said:

I was looking at some pictures of the players in camp and it seemed that Urquhart is much taller than Chipchura (not 6'2" and 6'3"). Corey Locke seems smaller in comparison, but not tiny. Does the team ever publish their real sizes on real scales without skates?

We now seem to have some size in our prospects/players to go along with their potential.

I have never known them to publish accurate sizes. I remember seeing Steve Shutt in the Habs dressing room and he was a couple of inches below his directory stats.

[NWTHabsFan]

Jake Wilson's final Development Camp (Day #10) instalment from HabsWorld:

The final day of development camp. The 10 day camp started on July 9th, the daily practices included Skating, Power Skating and other group drills. When not on the ice the players attended seminars which ranged from teaching them "how to deal with the media" and "how to cook your own pregame meal". Kostitsyn and Archer were again both absent from todays practice.

9AM-10AM: I head out to rink #3 to watch the Chipchura group practice, I’m the only person in the stands (everyone else is at the other rink). The group starts off doing some figure-8 drills, followed by forwards and backwards skating. Korpikari looks very fatigued this morning and he stumbles through the drills, the group as a whole looked fatigued, its been a long 10 days. After some free skating it was onto resistance training with the elastic ropes tied to the bench, which was followed by the rope tied between 2 players, again I notice that the players look exhausted.

I switch to rink #4 and catch the final minutes of the practice. I notice that Ribeiro is at the camp for a second straight day, again he is working with the goalies along with Maxime Lapierre and Cory Urquhart. When the practice ended Ribeiro took the time to autograph a t-shirt a fan had handed him.

10:30AM-12PM: Today Ribeiro stayed for the 2nd practice and participated in the drills. The players went through the routine 1 on 0, 2 on 1, 2 on 2, 2 on 3 drills, the goalies faced more shots then usual today. Then it was onto the 3 forwards vs 2 D drill, Ribeiro, Lambert and Locke were used as a group of 3, Ribiero showed a bit of rust during the drill and mishandled a few passes, Lambert and Locke clicked well together, with Locke being the setup man and Lambert finishing off the plays. Lambert’s shot was on target today and he filled the net with it. The practice wrapped up after Andre Savard gathered the players at centre ice, gave them a short chat which was followed by the players tapping their sticks on the ice.

The 2 players who stood out today for me were Michael Lambert and Loic Lacasse, Lambert was a scoring machine today, he had pinpoint accuracy. Lacasse has improved tremendously since the start of the camp, all his work with Melanson is paying off. Loic made more then one spectacular save today.

Final Thoughts: That does it for development camp, its been a fun 10 days but all good things must come to an end. The 25 players who attended this camp have gained valuable on and off ice skills and experience that should help them for years to come. Some players have improved their game (Lacasse) while others have showed great character and leadership (Chipchura). Personally I cant say I’ve enjoyed writing articles for 10 straight days, but I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them. I’ll see you in Pierrefonds this September for the Prospect Tourny!

Development Camp Grades (based on performance at the camp)

LW
Michael Lambert: B
Danny Stewart: B-
Gregory Stewart: B-
Jimmy Bonneau: C

C
Kyle Chipchura: A
Corey Locke: A
Christian Larrivee: B+
Maxim Lapierre: B+
Corey Urquhart: C+

RW
Andrei Kostitsyn: A+
Jonathan Ferland: B-
Olivier Labelle: C+
Kevin Petit: D-

D
Andrew Archer: A
Ryan O'Byrne: A
Oskari Korpikari: A-
Jean-Phillipe Cote: B+
Mark Flood: B-
Alex-Dulac Lemelin: D+
Olivier Magnan: D

G
Yann Danis: A+
Christopher Heino-Lindberg: A
Jaroslav Halak: B-
Loic Lacasse: C+

[montreal]

NWTHabsFan said:

LW
Michael Lambert: B
Danny Stewart: B-
Gregory Stewart: B-
Jimmy Bonneau: C

C
Kyle Chipchura: A
Corey Locke: A
Christian Larrivee: B+
Maxim Lapierre: B+
Corey Urquhart: C+

RW
Andrei Kostitsyn: A+
Jonathan Ferland: B-
Olivier Labelle: C+
Kevin Petit: D-

D
Andrew Archer: A
Ryan O'Byrne: A
Oskari Korpikari: A-
Jean-Phillipe Cote: B+
Mark Flood: B-
Alex-Dulac Lemelin: D+
Olivier Magnan: D

G
Yann Danis: A+
Christopher Heino-Lindberg: A
Jaroslav Halak: B-
Loic Lacasse: C+

I watched some of the camp with Jake and Mike from inside hockey, and while I was only at 3 of the 10 days, I'll give different grades.


LW
Michael Lambert: B+
Danny Stewart: C-
Gregory Stewart: B-
Jimmy Bonneau: C-

C
Kyle Chipchura: A-
Corey Locke: A-
Christian Larrivee: C-
Maxim Lapierre: B+
Corey Urquhart: B+

RW
Andrei Kostitsyn: A-
Jonathan Ferland: A-
Olivier Labelle: C+
Kevin Petit: D

D
Andrew Archer: A+
Ryan O'Byrne: A
Oskari Korpikari: A-
Jean-Phillipe Cote: A-
Mark Flood: B
Alex-Dulac Lemelin: D-
Olivier Magnan: D

G
Yann Danis: A
Christopher Heino-Lindberg: A
Jaroslav Halak: B
Loic Lacasse: C+

[Habs_fan_in_LA]

All of the grades for the campers are about what I expected. I didn't see the camp so I assume they are correct.

The only disappointment is Urquhart. I was hoping he could be the big center we need. Maybe this camp is one small slice in the development of a big man.

Locke will never win many one-on-one drills along the boards with defensemen. His game like Ribeiro's is based on game time hockey sense and not figure skating skills.

Chipchura showed that he can play with guys who are older and more experienced. If his development continues, Gainey made a good decision not to pick Shremp over my initial objections. Bob didn't even call me to apologize for his oversite.

For a while our defense was our strength. It seems we have a couple of guys coming up in O'Byrne, Archer and Cote. They will take some time.

I'm going to miss the Hab's news now that camp is over.

[blaise]

If Archer, O'Byrne, and Korpikari looked impressive, then there's hope that at least one of them will eventually play for the Habs. That's good news, because the organization is really thin at defense. Only eight players (Komisarek, Brisebois, Rivet, Souray, Markov, Bouillon, Hainsey, and Beauchemin) are presently of NHL caliber. Also, Hainsey and Beauchemin are on the bubble and Bouillon hasn't silenced his critics (although the intensity of the criticism, mostly having to do with his size, is somewhat muffled nowadays).

[montreal]

Part 2 article,

www.habsworld.net/show_prospect.php?id=656

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Two galleries of 19 photos each from camp, on the Habs official site.

[franko]

NWTHabsFan said:

Development Camp Grades (based on performance at the camp)

For a moment I thought that I was reading Guy!'s post-game evaluations with all those high grades! Bodes well for the future if those "A" guys can play an "A" game when they hit the bigs.