Arizona Coyotes Prospect Development Camp Kicks Off

The Arizona Coyotes started their on-ice preparations for the 2016-2017 season by welcoming their prospects to Gila River Arena for their annual prospect development camp.

On a warm day in Glendale, Gila River Arena was a cool place to be as Arizona Coyotes fans got to see the draft class of 2016 take the ice with a Coyotes sweater for the first time.

Jakob Chychrun, Clayton Keller, Patrick Kudla, Dean Stewart and Cam Dineen all hit the ice as Coyotes development staff put the young prospects through their paces.

The Coyotes staff had their entire prospect pool and non-prospect camp invitees work through a series of drills, starting with some straight shooting on net which built up to 3-man forward line rushes versus two sets of defenseman pairings.

The Goaltenders and Line Combinations

The 41 players who skated on Monday afternoon were broken down into two main groups. Adin Hill and Evan Sarthou were the goaltending tandem for the first group out while Erik Kallgren and Vasily Demchenko took up the net for the second group.

Hill looked pretty phenomenal, allowing maybe 3 goals the entire time he was out on the ice. Sarthou and Kallgren also looked fine, but Demchenko looked like he has a long way to go.

The forward line combinations for Group 1 were:

Brandon Perlini – Clayton Keller – Anton Karlsson

Brendan Warren – Ryan MacInnis – Yegor Babenko

Alex Goulet – Lane Pederson – Cole Sanford

Jared Fiegl – Jeff Kubiak – Lewis Zerter

Group 2’s lines were comprised of:

Michael Bunting – Dylan Strome – Conor Garland

Christian Fischer – Christian Dvorak – Jens Looke

Matthew Boucher – Mason Kohn – (extra defenseman)

James Sanchez – Niki Petti – Max French

Goaltender Marek Langhamer and forward Nick Merkley did not dress Monday.

The top lines in both groups looks outstanding, as well as group two’s second line. The bottom lines all looked a long way from an NHL roster but some of them may eventually fit in building a decent team down in Tucson.

The forwards you’d expect looked like they may be able to compete for roster spots with the Arizona Coyotes come September.

Those names include Brandon Perlini, Dylan Strome, Christian Dvorak and Conor Garland.

Others like Ryan MacInnis, Christian Fischer, Michael Bunting, Clayton Keller and Anton Karlsson will hopefully be knocking on the door in the next few years.

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A few things stood out Monday afternoon that are worth noting; Strome’s added bulk, Garland’s speed and Perlini’s wrist shot.

Defenseman

Fourteen defensemen were dressed on Monday, with many of them mixing pairings as the practice went on.

• Jakob Chychrun looked like an elite defensive prospect. He showed off his footwork, speed and hockey IQ every shift with his pass anticipation and puck movement. One interesting tidbit is that when Chyckrun paired up with camp invitee Aaron Titcomb, they looked like the best pairing on the ice.
• Kyle Capobianco‘s skating didn’t stand out among the defenseman, but his slap and wrist shots looked like he was primed for a shot at an AHL roster and eventually an NHL team.
• Both Cam Dineen and Dean Stewart had some good puck movement and footwork all afternoon, but neither appear to be close to making a immediate run at an Arizona Coyotes roster spot just yet.
• Arizona State commit Patrick Kudla had a handful of great snipes from the slot, most notably when he scored one of the few goals on Adin Hill from one knee.
• Jalen Smereck may be undrafted, but his play Monday looked like he should have been. Smereck played hard on the puck, making it seem like he was bigger than he really was. His puck handling seemed reminiscent of P.K. Subban‘s defensive stylings.

Overall Impression

Arizona Coyotes fans have heard all about how strong the prospect pool is and it really showed Monday. The forwards looked stellar and the decision to make cuts in September will be a hard one.

Next: Clayton Keller Might Be The Next Patrick Kane

However the defense was surprisingly decent, with some of the camp invites looking much better than just unsigned rookie free agents.

The prospect scrimmage Friday night will go a long way to determining who may get an invite to training camp in the fall.