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Prospect Info: The 2023 Lightning Development Camp (July 2nd - 5th)

The invites:

Dillan Bentley - 22 year old, 6'4" forward who had 5 points last year for UMass-Lowell

Tyler Duke - 5'9" dman that transferred this off season from Ohio State to Michigan to play with his brother Dylan Duke. Had 12pts in 40 games as a freshman.

Scott Walford - Former Habs 2017 3rd round pick. Spent the past 2 seasons playing defense for McGill University

Ludvig Persson - 23 year old goalie from Sweden. Spent 3 seasons at Miami of Ohio where he had a good freshmen season making the all-rookie team and 2nd team all star in the NCHC, but put up terrible numbers as a sophomore and junior. He's transferring to North Dakota for his senior year.

Kind of strange they would release this now and not wait until after the draft. For one, Tyler Duke is still draft eligible, and although unlikely, could be selected tomorrow by another team. Murray also mentioned yesterday they were zeroing in on 6-10 players they liked that could be available near the end of the draft, and expressed an interest in acquiring more late picks to scoop them up. I'd rather try to invite any of those guys that may go undrafted as opposed to some of the names above.
 
TheDaysOf 04 said:
The invites:

Dillan Bentley - 22 year old, 6'4" forward who had 5 points last year for UMass-Lowell

Tyler Duke - 5'9" dman that transferred this off season from Ohio State to Michigan to play with his brother Dylan Duke. Had 12pts in 40 games as a freshman.

Scott Walford - Former Habs 2017 3rd round pick. Spent the past 2 seasons playing defense for McGill University

Ludvig Persson - 23 year old goalie from Sweden. Spent 3 seasons at Miami of Ohio where he had a good freshmen season making the all-rookie team and 2nd team all star in the NCHC, but put up terrible numbers as a sophomore and junior. He's transferring to North Dakota for his senior year.

Kind of strange they would release this now and not wait until after the draft. For one, Tyler Duke is still draft eligible, and although unlikely, could be selected tomorrow by another team. Murray also mentioned yesterday they were zeroing in on 6-10 players they liked that could be available near the end of the draft, and expressed an interest in acquiring more late picks to scoop them up. I'd rather try to invite any of those guys that may go undrafted as opposed to some of the names above.
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The Pens released theirs like a week ago.

None of these invites will be in the system next year.
 
Felonious Python said:
None of these invites will be in the system next year.
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They feel more like filler than guys that could potentially earn a contract. If you go back, the staff has done pretty well with inviting guys to development camp that later played in the NHL. Cory Conacher, Austin Czarnik, Seth Griffith, Andrej Sustr, Andrew Agozzino, Alex Iafallo. Kodie Curran got close as well making it on a taxi squad. And of course this almost included Ondrej Palat, who they were able to obtain a late 7th, after already using their 7th, to avoid him from potentially going to another teams camp.

If there's a few guys that slip through our fingers tomorrow in the 7th round because we run out of picks, but Murray likes them, and they go undrafted, those are the guys I would want here to get a closer look.
 
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Will be interesting to see how Walker has recovered from his season ending injury and surgery last year. He did not look out of place for an "enforcer" as far as skating and skill wise, and was starting to look comfortable whenever hje was given the opportunity to play. The players and fans seemed to enjoy what he brought to the club, and with Labrie not back will be the closest thing to a deterrent the Crunch have for games against teams with tougher lineups.
 
TheDaysOf 04 said:
They feel more like filler than guys that could potentially earn a contract. If you go back, the staff has done pretty well with inviting guys to development camp that later played in the NHL. Cory Conacher, Austin Czarnik, Seth Griffith, Andrej Sustr, Andrew Agozzino, Alex Iafallo. Kodie Curran got close as well making it on a taxi squad. And of course this almost included Ondrej Palat, who they were able to obtain a late 7th, after already using their 7th, to avoid him from potentially going to another teams camp.

If there's a few guys that slip through our fingers tomorrow in the 7th round because we run out of picks, but Murray likes them, and they go undrafted, those are the guys I would want here to get a closer look.
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It's probably not a good thing to let other teams know what undrafted players you're interested in.
 
How is Mr.Swag Howard progressing from last year? He may have an opportunity come knocking this year?
 
Have to ask; is Walker skating and if so, how does he look? After the injury he had at the end of the year he was not expected to be skating until late camp/early regular season.
 


Among the new faces are AHL Syracuse head coach Joel Bouchard, hired last week to replace Benoit Groulx. Bouchard’s longtime assistant, Daniel Jacob, is also joining the organization as the Crunch’s assistant coach.

“That’s why we brought a lot of the Syracuse guys in, for that reason to meet the new staff and just to get familiar,” said Lightning director of player development Stacy Roest. “But we’re not judging them on what they look like now. It’s July, so we want to keep it pretty low key. ... But it’s support for them to get to know each other so when training camp comes, the rookie tournament, then they’re ready to go.”
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Lightning prospect Jack Finley, the team’s second-round pick in 2020, participated in skating drills Sunday wearing a red no-contact jersey. He still is working his way back from a shoulder injury that slowed his first full season at Syracuse.

“He was one guy last year who was really trending up,” Roest said of Finley, who had 12 goals and nine assists in 62 games with the Crunch last season. “Got off to a little bit slow start and was playing big minutes, big faceoffs, big penalty-kill guy and then had the shoulder and now he’s back cleared to skate and get on the ice. But it’s July so we want to be careful.”

Finley should be fully healthy by training camp, Roest said.
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"After I had a good playoff run and then went to the World Championships, I had a couple NHL teams there that were interested," Merelä explained. "Of course, I've always wanted to sign in the NHL. I'm a little bit of an older guy, so I felt like this was the right time to sign.

"I had a couple of good options, but the way Tampa handled everything and all that they did was just perfect. They were really interested. They called my agent many times and I was able to chat with Julien BriseBois and Jon Cooper for a bit as well.

"Tampa is one of the best organizations in the NHL. For them to have their Head Coach and their GM actually take an hour of their time to talk with me really meant a lot. They just handled everything perfect.

"I have a couple of buddies who played in the organization, and I talked with them. Of course, the agents know a lot of stuff about all the NHL organizations as well. I haven't heard anything but good things about Tampa."
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Merelä said his time in Liiga helped him grow a lot as a player, pointing to his 200-foot game and ability to play in all situations as some of his biggest strengths. ...

"I think the biggest thing is my complete game," said Merelä. "I know I'm not good enough yet to play on a power play in the NHL or anything like that, but I've played a lot of PK, and I can play the fourth line role if I need to and play a good two-way game.

"You can trust me pretty much in all situations. I think that's my biggest strength. I got to play a lot of minutes over there. I got thrown into a lot of different situations in really important games during the playoffs. I learned a lot."
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"I just want to learn as much as I can," Merelä said. "These first two ice sessions have already shown a lot of new stuff to me. Barb Underhill, the skating coach, has a lot to give to me, and then there's all the new kinds of drills we're doing with the coaches on the other rink for skills.

"There's a lot of new stuff for me to work on during the summer so I can become a better player before training camp. I just want to do everything as good as I can, improve with every ice session and hopefully learn some new stuff."
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"He played a big role," said Roest when asked about Dylan's sophomore season at Michigan. "Big role on a good team. He really came on."

"Obviously, he's getting stronger and getting a little bit quicker. Hopefully another year of school and playing an even bigger role will help him more."
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"I just want to learn as much as I can," said Dylan. "Take as much as I can back home with me for the rest of summer and then into the school year. I want to keep getting better.

"I don't think there's a better place than here to get better and to work on our skills, skating, everything. Obviously, Barb Underhill is here and she's unbelievable. She's helped me a lot over the past couple of years, so I definitely want to take a lot from her this week."
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“I want to be first in line,” Howard said. “I know we did all these drills last year and stuff, so I just want to (show) a little bit of leadership in that way and just keep growing myself. Obviously, I’m still young and so much improvement can be had, so I just keep working.”
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In March, Howard entered the NCAA transfer portal. He decided to transfer to Michigan State, where he will be united with his old USA Hockey NTDP coach, Adam Nightingale.

“It’s completely different,” Howard said. “(Duluth) was kind of a more defensive-first, not the most-skilled team on the ice. And then kind of making the move to that Big Ten game (at Michigan State) to kind of just get back to my game a little bit more.”
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“This year, I got to gain a lot of wisdom for sure,” Howard said. “It was not the year I wanted offensively by any means. But I thought I had plenty of good games with no points. But I just want to now get back to where I know can be.”
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“It’s just keep getting stronger, keep playing, getting big minutes. Hopefully, he gets more ice time this year in bigger situations,” Lightning player development director Stacy Roest said. “You can see the skill and the skating and the shot and the passing. He’s got all the tools. It’ll just be a matter of time and progression.”
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Duluth has won 3 national championships in the last 12 years, 2 of them coming back-to-back in 2018 and 2019; all under the same coach.

Mich State has won 1 national championship back in 2007 under a different head coach.

As I'm biased toward Duluth (my bachelor's degree alma mater), I take what I hear lightly. Isaac needs to grow up and show up. He wouldn't do what was asked in Duluth.

He was -13 on a nationally ranked Bulldogs team, didn't put up a point in 14 games. And he blamed the 'Dogs for not having skilled team (Howard played 3rd line).

Something smelled in Duluth and it wasn't the paper factory or Cloquet...
 


Gabriel Szturc listed. Was probably invited after the draft.

5'10" center and captain for the Kelowna Rockets (19 years old)

- 24 goals, 79 points in 56 WHL games this season
- 5 goals, 8 points in 7 games for the Czechia squad that won silver at the WJC
 
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Engblom is impressed with Jack Harvey so far. Likes his quickness, awareness, and patience defensively
 
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