2022 Minnesota Wild Development Camp

[CreaseAndAssist]

2022 Minnesota Wild Development Camp Roster & News

 

I share my thoughts on this weeks short and sweet Wild Development Camp.  All of our picks from the 2022 draft will be there except Danila Yurov.  Its a smaller group and if you have the time and want to attend practices that certainly is an option too.  I really hope they decide to stream the 3-on-3 tournament on Thursday.  No word on that yet.  Enjoy and discuss...

[Jimtown guy]

Apparently this belongs here. My bad 

 

 

[CreaseAndAssist]

I wasn't at the practices but I know some people who were.  Here's what they have told me.  

 

Marco Rossi looks noticeably faster than last year (a good sign)

Hunter Haight looks fast and has terrific hands

Jesper Wallstedt was very impressive, good rebound control and refined in his movement

Brock Faber looked poised, mobile and skilled

[CreaseAndAssist]

Adam Beckman also stood out by what I've been told, but he should having played in the AHL for a full season.  Russo also pointed out giving him the captaincy of the team was important to let him know the team hadn't given up on him after not making him a black ace near the end of the last season.  

[CreaseAndAssist]

I watched the prospect 3-on-3 tournament where Adam Beckman's "Team Surf & Turf" won 2-0 on two goals from Hunter Haight.  Beckman's team included the following: Beckman, Haight, Servac Petrovsky, Marshall Warren, Simon Johansson and Hunter Jones.  

 

Hunter Haight was very impressive; great edge work, can dangle and has great hands and had a bunch of goals in the 3-on-3 games.  He could change speeds and gain time and space for himself.  Decent distributor of the puck too.  

 

Adam Beckman looked a step slow to me; had a lot of shots (most of which went on goal) but most were stopped as was the case as last year for him.  Still takes just about any chance to shoot the puck.

 

Liam Ohgren looks like he's well-built, powerful had a few nice finishes of his own.  Wish we could've seen a full-ice game to get a better idea as to his speed and acceleration.  

 

Marshall Warren, good defender and likes to jump up into the play, looked pretty poised out there.  Showed good recovery when he mishandled the puck and cleaned up his own mistake.  

 

Marco Rossi, looked quicker than last year, played on a team that only had 5 players instead of six so he played a bit more conservatively because he knew he wasn't going to get any rest.  

 

Ryan O'Rourke - Looked more offensively inclined at this year's camp, which is what they hoped he'd get by playing in the OHL this year.  Moves well, better hands.  

 

Daemon Hunt - Played almost more like a forward than a defenseman.  Even attempted a Michigan Goal but didn't bury it.  

 

Brock Faber - Very smooth, strong on the puck and battles in the corners.  Had the strength to not only to win, but also the quickness and athleticism to skate out of trouble.  I thought he looked like the most polished defenseman at camp.  Next to Addison, I'd say he looked like the most NHL-ready of the group.  

 

Simon Johansson - taller, a bit passive at times but he still took chance to be involved offensively which is what you'd hope in a 3-on-3 small area game.  Didn't seem overly physical; could weather a hit more than he appeared to want to dish one out.  

 

Jack Peart - Smart, mobile and looked like he's added a lot of muscle after one season of playing college hockey.  Broke down some 2-on-1's with smart play.  

 

Mikey Milne - Hustles well, had not good chemistry with Josh Pillar.  Both kind of similar players; waterbugs...not tremendously skilled but they work hard.

 

Max Strand - For a HS kid (from Roseau), its always interesting to see how they handle being against players that are probably more talented than they are.  He showed some dangle and I thought he made a good showing for himself.  Undrafted; going to be a freshman at Vermont next year.  

 

Jesper Wallstedt - Wow, very impressive.  Very controlled in his movements and angles.  Very square to the shooter.  Did a decent job at absorbing pucks and not giving up much in the way of rebounds.  

 

Hunter Jones - A bit more scrambly.  Did well enough, but can still make ordinary saves look tougher because of how he commits so hard in his movements making him have to twist and flop to make a stop.  

 

Ryan Healey - Probably the biggest surprise of development camp.  Looked very skilled, smooth skater and seemed to make a lot of things happen out there offensively.  I thought he performed pretty well in the small area 3-on-3 games I saw him in.  I can see what the scouts were talking about him being raw but also some steal potential if he develops.  Lots of natural gifts to him if he can bring it together with a hockey mind.  

 

Carson Lambos - Didn't stand out as much as many of the other defensive prospects.  Again, perhaps that's a side effect of playing in small-area 3-on-3 compared to what he could do in a full-ice format.  But he anticipates well.  He didn't get as involved offensively as some of the other defenseman did.  Decisive with the puck.  

 

Caeden Bankier - Lanky, but slow.  He looked like a power forward trying to be a skilled forward.  Meh.  

 

Sam Hentges - Looked physically built as a recent college graduate, seemed to want to throw his body around more but that wasn't really the tone of the scrimmages.  Again, another player who I think may have impressed more if it had been a full-ice format.  

 

Mark Senden - Another tryout, just graduated from North Dakota.  Good wheels.  Looked mature and confident.  I would liked to have seen how he would've fared in a full-ice format.  

 

The small area games certainly gave people a lot to watch, but I also think it doesn't allow some of the players to show all of their abilities.  Especially speed.  I watched the Detroit Red Wings development camp scrimmages yesterday morning and they were full-ice.  They had more players at camp than did the Wild, so they broke it up in 4 teams.  They had their radio guy on the play-by-play and even scoreboard. 

 

The Wild broadcast had no scoreboard so it was hard to follow who was winning, was Iowa's Ben Gislason (their radio / TV play by play guy that replaced Joe O'Donnell) and Kevin Falness.  It was really tough for them to keep up what was going on in both games.  It really deprived Gislason the chance to actually call the game.  So all they sort of did was just talk about random players they'd see which was ok but almost distracting to what was happening out there.  You can watch it for yourself.  

 

2022 Minnesota Wild Development Camp Scrimmages

 

Edited July 15, 2022 by CreaseAndAssist

[TallyTigerShark]

11 hours ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

Hunter Haight was very impressive; great edge work, can dangle and has great hands and had a bunch of goals in the 3-on-3 games.  He could change speeds and gain time and space for himself.  Decent distributor of the puck too. 

I don’t know who it was because I joined late, but on NHL radio someone said the Wild getting Haight where they did was one of the steals of the draft. This talking head REALLY talked Haight up. Lots of potential there.

[CreaseAndAssist]

Haight looked really good, that was a universal observation from just about anyone at development camp.  His ability to change speeds almost reminded me of Kaprizov.  I don't think he's as well built as Kaprizov, but he has good hands and did a decent job of moving into tight spaces and finishing from in close.  A lot of people felt his potential is pretty high; for whatever reason his production was just ok in Barrie.  Perhaps he could really light up the OHL next year.  

 

Hentges actually looked more powerful as I watched the whole scrimmage a 2nd time.  You can see the maturity he has as college graduate; he wasn't afraid to go into the high traffic areas and demonstrated some impressive vision on his passes.  

 

Faber was on a line with Marco Rossi and the two really started to show some chemistry together.  Faber always does a good job at keeping his head up and looking for opportunities connected with Rossi a pretty redirection goal early-ish in the scrimmage.  I think there are more offensive tools to his game than he's normally given credit for.  

 

Bankier had some better dangles and was fairly active out there.  Still, he plays more like a smaller player than using his body.  

 

Kyle Masters isn't a big offensive producer but he moves well and showed some offensive skills he probably never gets an opportunity to show on his major junior team Red Deer.  

 

Lambos is a pretty smooth skater, I liked his movement with and without the puck.  

 

This was part of the broadcast I didn't pick up when I first watched the scrimmage because I missed it as I was in a Zoom meeting while it started.  But Brett McLean, who was a Wild prospect back in the earliest days of the club and he remembered going to the team's first ever prospect camp.  They had it up at Breezy Point, he said it was 3 weeks long!!!  He talked about staying up there, and that it really was meant to be a "how to be an NHL'er camp" which is something Bob Woods talks about later in the scrimmage broadcast.  So a lot of it was something like an NHL boot camp. 

 

Now he he says its about giving the players some skills, drills, information and knowledge they hope they can bring back with them.  Either way I thought that was some good perspective there.  

[CreaseAndAssist]

Last night on my YouTube feed, Blues Prospect Development Camp scrimmage popped up.  They do full length of the ice games of 4-on-4.  It certainly was an easier broadcast to watch than the simultaneous 3-on-3 small area games the Wild employ.  

[Alexandron]

Interesting, how eliteprospects described Hunter Haight skills on their link:

"The clear-cut best of the lot is Haight's puck skills. You'll often see him use that handling ability in unexpected, creative ways to get around opponents, outmanoeuvring them with deception at points and pure talent in others. An advanced give-and-go game allows him to work past well-positioned defenders, repositioning himself to collect the return pass and continue his approach. And once Haight gets past the first layer of the defence, there's more than enough shooting and passing skill at his disposal to press his advantage to productive ends. -EliteProspects 2022 NHL Draft Guide".

 

He is looking very promising. Probably, he is our real steal of the draft during a second round #47 overall this year. We highly need creative players.
 

[Alexandron]

After watching 2022 Wild Development Camp Scrimmages on YouTube I liked the most #23 Rossi; #43 Haight; #53 Beckman; and #71 Lambos. Interesting , Lambos is a pretty good size defenseman who could be a very nice playmaker. His stats in assists and +/- are high for Winnipeg Ice team last season: in 51 played games there he had 47 points( 10 goals; 37 assists; +/- +42).

[CreaseAndAssist]

Lambos didn't do much for the Ice in the playoffs though.  I'd still put Lambos behind Addison and Faber on the Wild's defense prospect depth chart.

[Alexandron]

26 minutes ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

Lambos didn't do much for the Ice in the playoffs though.  I'd still put Lambos behind Addison and Faber on the Wild's defense prospect depth chart.

Maybe you are right, that Lambos could be behind Addison and Faber, but he still played not bad at playoffs last season:  he had 8 assists; +/- +9 in 15 played games. Actually, and Faber has a good size too.

Interesting regarding Addison. He is already placed in the Wild team for 2022-2023 season according to the eliteprospects link. 

Edited July 18, 2022 by Alexandron

[Alexandron]

In that winning team at the Wild Development Camp I liked also a 17 y.o. player from Slovakia Servac Petrovski who was a very active and smart. Definitely he has a nice potential. Last season in OHL he had 54 points(28 goals; 26 assists; +/- +6) in 65 played games; and in 7 playoffs games he had 6 points (2 goals;4 assists; +/- +3).

[CreaseAndAssist]

Petrovsky is pretty young, he's not even 18 yet.  He looked reasonable on the Beckman team; but I felt Haight did a lot more to stir the drink on that group along with Beckman and Marshall Warren.  Johansson looked promising too.  

 

Either way, this team is very deep in quality defense prospects.  There are not enough spots for them all; so it will be interesting to see if they start using that as an asset to sweeten deals to make trades.  But the next 2-3 years they will have a quality pipeline of young defenseman available.  Skilled, two-way kind of players.  

[Alexandron]

On 7/19/2022 at 9:29 AM, CreaseAndAssist said:

Petrovsky is pretty young, he's not even 18 yet.  He looked reasonable on the Beckman team; but I felt Haight did a lot more to stir the drink on that group along with Beckman and Marshall Warren.  Johansson looked promising too.  

 

Either way, this team is very deep in quality defense prospects.  There are not enough spots for them all; so it will be interesting to see if they start using that as an asset to sweeten deals to make trades.  But the next 2-3 years they will have a quality pipeline of young defenseman available.  Skilled, two-way kind of players.  

I agree, we have a very deep in quality of young defensemen prospects. I just read about Lambos skills on eliteprospect link:

"Lambos is a potent shooter with the skill and instincts to manipulate defenders and improve his shooting location. With and without the puck, he activates from the point, becoming a passing option and a scoring threat. He fakes shots and passes, waits for the defender to commit, then bursts into the space he created. Constant head fakes add another layer of deception". -EliteProspects 2021 NHL

[Icechipper]

Senden returning to UND as grad student and captain with his COVID year of eligibility