The Flyers wrapped up their annual summer prospect camp yesterday with the second of two weekend intrasquad scrimmages. Team Orange, which won by a 7-2 count on Saturday, prevailed by a 6-5 score yesterday.
After trailing 3-0 early in the second period, Team Orange rallied over the remainder of the game. Invitee forward Christopher Clapperton scored a hat trick to lead the way. Goaltender Cal Heeter stopped penalty shots by Nick Cousins and Shane Harper in the final 1:52 of play to nail down the victory. Andrew Johnston had a pair of primary assists.
Other Team Orange goals were scored by Kyle Mountain, Trevor van Riemsdyk (penalty shot) and Cole Grbavac. Team Black received goals from Terrence Wallin, Harper (penalty shot and even strength), Matt Konan and Luke Pither.
There was a pair of fights in the game. Immediately after a heavy hit on Tye McGinn by invitee defenseman Chris Williams, 2012 first-round draft pick Scott Laughton went after Williams and dropped the gloves. On the first shift of the third period, McGinn made a beeline to fight Williams.
Today on the Flyers' official web site, I have a
feature-length wrapup on camp and the scrimmages from the big-picture perspective. Ian Laperriere, who organized the camp and served as an on-ice instructor, candidly offered his over-arching thoughts on what such camps should accomplish.
While Laperriere emphasized repeatedly that this was not a tryout camp for contracts, he admitted that players tried to leave an impression -- especially in the two scrimmages -- that might ultimately lead in that direction. The unaffiliated invitees in particular wanted to be noticed for potential September camp invites.
Following are some notes and personal impressions on players and happenings at the camp and yesterday's scrimmage:
* Scott Laughton looks the way you'd expect a first-round draft pick to look. I can easily see the upside comparisons to players ranging from Mike Richards (at the top end) and John Madden (in the mid-range). He's got a tenacity that you don't find with many players, and you can also see there is untapped offensive potential as well. His pure skills are not off the charts, but you get the feeling he's going to wring out every ounce he can.
Laughton made several good setups of teammates in the scrimmages. He has good hockey sense and I don't recall him getting caught on the wrong side of the puck defensively even once in the shifts where I focused on him. There is also future leadership potential. He's a tone setter. I especially loved that he stepped to the defense of McGinn yesterday without a moment's hesitation.
The biggest thing Laughton needs to do is add muscle. When you see him without pads, he looks like a typical teenage athlete whose body has yet to fill out. He's currently listed at 6-foot, 170 pounds. I'd say he's a shade (but not much) below 6 feet tall and the weight looks pretty accurate. Ultimately, he'll need to play at about 190 pounds.
Over the course of camp, Laughton and Nick Cousins developed a pretty spirited rivalry on the ice while bonding off the ice. They got under each other's skin in both scrimmages, and mixed it up several times behind the play. Cousins is the type who likes to stir the pot without necessarily dropping the gloves, but Laughton would gladly have obliged him.
* Cousins is a bit of a smaller version of Steve Ott. I don't think he'll have the NHL offensive upside of Brad Marchand (the elite speed isn't there) but he can definitely be the sort of pest everyone on the other side hates, who can also pot double-digit goals.
I asked Laperriere if he thought Cousins would ultimately be better suited to playing the wing as a pro rather than his more accustomed center spot.
"Maybe, who knows? If he's going to play wing, I think he needs to work on his skating a little more, but I think he's capable of it," Laperrriere said.
* Anthony Stolarz is a delightful young man. He's very bright, personable and enthusiastic. You can also see the second-round pick's raw athleticism in net and a legitimate desire to work at improvement. However, do not expect a quick process with him. If and when he's someday ready to challenge for a job with the Flyers, Ilya Bryzgalov will be in at least year five or six of the contract he signed last summer.
Stolarz needs to work on reading and reacting faster to plays as he acclimates himself first to the collegiate pace of play and then, hopefully, to the pro-level pace. Even in the first period of yesterday's scrimmage there were plays where he seemed surprised how fast things developed. He made some saves due to his size. As the game wore along, he settled in. He looked good in stopping a couple penalty shots in the middle period before giving way to Cal Heeter.
As one would expect, the 23-year-old Heeter's current level of development is far ahead of the 18-year-old Stolarz's. After four years of college hockey at Ohio State, Heeter appears ready for minor league play. His mechanics were by far the smoothest of the four goalies at camp. Like Stolarz, Heeter is also bright and personable off the ice.
* In the second period of yesterday's scrimmage, 2012 fourth round pick Fredric Larsson had to be helped off the ice by Jim McCrossin and two teammates after getting steamrolled in the corner by invite forward Alex Emond. On the play, Larsson momentarily looked down to play the puck along the end boards and failed to see the oncoming Emond in time to avoid a freight-train body check.
Larsson appeared to hit his head on the boards and fell heavily to the ice. He laid on the ice for a couple of minutes and was still woozy when he was helped off. Thankfully, he soon regained clarity.
I spoke with him briefly after the game. He said he felt OK. His head wasn't hurting at the moment and he was fully aware of his surroundings although he had no recollection of the play itself. The player is slated to fly home to Sweden today, which is great news considering how scary the hit and its immediate aftermath looked.
* Clapperton stands a chance of earning a formal camp invite (assuming there is a camp) in September. On Tuesday, Lapperiere indicated that Joel Bouchard was very high on Clapperton and it became evident by Sunday why.
Apart from the four goals he scored in the two scrimmages, the little winger showed some moxie yesterday in surprising Nick Luukko with a body check and knocking him to the ice. Despite being listed at 5-foot-9, Clapperton appears to be closer to the size of 5-foot-5 Buffalo Sabres forward Nathan Gerbe. He's a skillful puckhandler and passer as well.
Clapperton plays his junior hockey for the QMJHL's Blainville-Boisbriand Armada (formerly St. John's Fog Devils), in which Bouchard is the majority owner and both Laperriere and Danny Briere hold minority interests.
Ranked 199th by Central Scouting despite averaging close to a point-per-game (55 points in 56 games) as a 17-year-old rookie last season, Clapperton went unselected in the 2012 NHL Draft. On the advice of Bouchard, the Flyers invited Clapperton to the summer camp.
"I wasn't too surprised I wasn't drafted," Clapperton said after yesterday's scrimmage. "I'm a little guy and I have to prove myself. I really liked this camp, it was a great experience. If I get to go [to full camp] with the Flyers, that would be amazing. But I'm just taking it one step at a time, and this was great experience for me."
If Clapperton were to earn a full camp invite and impress enough to be offered an NHL entry-level contract, the contract could slide for the next two seasons without counting against the 50-contract maximum during the season. Because he was not drafted by Philadelphia, an NHL contract is the only way the Flyers could own Clapperton's his rights without him going back into the Draft next year.
Last season, Clapperton primarily played on a line with Cedrick Paquette (selected by Tampa in the 4th round of the 2012 Draft) and 16-year-old Marc-Olivier Roy. Teammate Etienne Marcoux, a goaltender, was also at the Flyers' prospect camp this week.
Clapperton's lack of size undoubtedly works against him. If he does NOT earn a camp invite, I suspect that will be the number one reason why.
* Among the other undrafted camp invitee forwards, I was most impressed by winger Cole Grbavac of the WHL's Medicine Hat Tigers. He threw some serious hits and created turnovers on the forecheck. On Saturday, he got the better of a fight with 6-foot-5 Seattle Thunderbirds foward Mitch Elliot.
Chase Hatcher and Trevor van Riemsdyk also had very solid second scrimmage games, and Greg Coburn quietly had a solid performance while keeping his game very simple. TVR, who is a defenseman, looked particularly good moving the puck.
* With Shayne Gostibehere unable to play yesterday after sustaining an upper-body injury from Laughton's monster hit in the Saturday scrimmage, I focused heavily on Reece Willcox and Larsson among the drafted defensemen in the scrimmages. I thought Willcox (who had to get a facial cut stitched) settled in nicely as play progressed. Unfortunately, Larsson had a bit of a rough day even prior to the Emond hit.
The two best defensemen in the scrimmages were Brandon Manning and Oliver Lauridsen, which is what one would expect. Lauridsen hit everything that moved and shoved aside smaller players with ease. He's worked a lot on his skating and still has a way to go. Manning looked like a guy with NHL experience playing against teenagers and collegiate players -- he was easily the best all-around defenseman on the ice.
* In similar fashion to the dominance of Manning and Lauridsen, it was clear that Shane Harper was a professional playing against young amateurs. He was able to pretty much do as he pleased offensively in both games. What it showed was NOT that Harper is some burgeoning star even at the AHL level. Rather, it demonstrated to the young players how much they will need to improve to be pros.
Anyone who plays hockey professionally -- even at the minor league level -- is one hell of a good player. Some of these kids have the potential to catch or surpass players like Harper and Tye McGinn, but they aren't there quite yet.
On the flip side, I don't think Jason Akeson or Luke Pither routinely stood out as much all week as much as they should have given the age and experience level of most of the players participating in the camp. Ditto defenseman Blake Kessel. They all did OK but I hoped to see a little more than that given they have 1-2 years at the pro level under their belts now.
* 2010 draftee Michael Parks came along nicely in his freshman collegiate season at the University of North Dakota. He looked more assertive and more confident this year than at previous camps. In particular, he was one of the offensive standouts in the Saturday scrimmage and looked to have some two-way skills emerging.
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