Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Jon Cooper’s Tampa Bay Lightning have strength between the pipes. Top NHL goaltending propsect Andrey Vasilevskiy, the 19th overall pick from the 2012 draft who made his debut last season to back up arguably elite starter Ben Bishop, will be backed up even further by impressive goalie prospect Kristers Gudlevskis. Each of the trio are tall and athletic. Each of them play a confident game in the crease, using technical prowess to cut off geometry for opposing shooters.
With the speculated and probable top line of Vrana, Stephenson and Barber receiving shutdown treatment from CHL Defenseman of the Year Anthony DeAngelo and company, it will be up depth players on our second, third and fourth lines to create scoring chances. Thankfully, we’ve got quite a few of those on hand already.
Zach Sanford is a likely candidate to get it started. A second round pick for the Washington Capitals (61st overall) in 2013, the Boston College product impressed coaches during this most recent Development Camp with his ability to elevate the play of those around him. While he’s still a bit of a raw project for coaches, his size and speed combined with his sense of locating nearby players on the rush bring a nice upside. Another savvy passer can be found in Travis Boyd who has ironed some of the wrinkles out of his pro game and has earned a reputation in amateur ranks as being a big-time scorer that would benefit from the additional exposure to the NHL level.
Thomas Di Pauli could make further impressions in the tourney by continuing to run his high motor into the corners to win puck battles and create offensive looks for awaiting shooters. While stories like Liam O’Brien, the un-drafted free agent training camp invitee in 2014 that signed an entry level contract with the Washington Capitals last October, are inspirational, what seem more valuable to prospects are opportunities to shine and impress coaches by their continuing efforts.
While training camp will give these opportunities to all of those invited every year, tournaments like the one coming next month provide a spot light that’s a little larger and a little brighter. These will be only prospects and rookies playing, not the whole club battling for spots. The exposure will be intense and may be the last for some who will attend, but the divergence of attention in the hockey world, even if only for a few days, onto those who are stand to benefit the most is a win-win for every team, coach, player and fan and should be applauded on the whole.
I’m eager to see how the cards land in this round of show-all hockey. I’m wagering that it’s not too bad at all.