The Shawnigan Lake portion of the Vancouver Canucks Development Camp wraps up today with one more morning on-ice session, then a scrimmage at 5 p.m., followed by a fundraising dinner.

Join us for an evening with the @VanCanucks prospects and management. Proceeds to @canucksautism & @Canucksforkids. pic.twitter.com/UYRJcrqXLa

— Shawnigan (@Shawnigan) July 6, 2016

Our regular commenter LeftCoaster was at the on-ice session on Wednesday and provided this report, in case you missed it in yesterday's comments section:

Just leaving camp...

I watched them scrimmage for about 15 minutes, the first thing that struck me is how very young they all look and are. Really lean kids! Secondly, even with a program it's hard to look at and recognize all of them in a short amount of time.

Standouts, Brock Boeser, the kid was going 80%, unlike most of the others, and he was heads above all the other forwards in terms of pure talent. Juolevi is really poised with the puck, tall lean kid with excellent wheels.

Never heard of Jacob Sweeny before but he's a frickin monster of a kid!

After the scrimmage they brought all the dmen back out for drills, this allows me a smaller sample size to look at. What stood out, Troy Stetcher, holy crap that kid is an extremely gifted skater, so much better than most others. Brisebois is also an effortless skater, but he's a thin kid. Carl Neil, Juolevi, Stetcher and Brisebois were their best kids....today anyways.

Oh, they all came out to sign autographs for the kids, I met eye to eye with demko, big kid!!

It's good to hear the positive reports on the skating of Boeser, Juolevi, Stecher and Brisebois. If the NHL is becoming more and more of a speed league, skating is going to be crucial. The boys will fill out over time.

I wonder if this trend toward leanness comes, in part, from young athletes focusing more on eating healthy diets from a much earlier age? I'm currently reading the memoir of Olympic speed-skater and cyclist Clara Hughes, and she talks about how she didn't even begin to start thinking about what she was eating until she was already competing at a world-class level. That was in the late '90s—not so long ago, but around the same time that these kids were being born. They're the first generation to have grown up with a focus on nutrition right from Day 1.

Of course, these kids are still growing into their bodies, but perhaps we're also seeing an organizational preference at work?

Here are the players at development camp who are listed as being at least 6'2" and/or at least 200 pounds:

D Guillaume Brisebois 6'2" 175 lbs.
D Olli Juolevi 6'3" 179 lbs.
D Carl Neill 6'3" 206 lbs.
D Tate Olson 6'2" 185 lbs.
D Mackenze Stewart 6'4" 215 lbs.
D Jacob Sweeney 6'4" 215 lbs.

C Rodrigo Abols 6'5" 188 lbs.
RW Alexis D'Aoust 6'0" 200 lbs.
C Brett McKenzie 6'2" 188 lbs.
F Andrew Miller 6'1" 205 lbs.

G Thatcher Demko 6'4" 195 lbs.

Who is Jacob Sweeney? He's a 21-year-old defenseman who just wrapped up his fifth season in the QMJHL. As noted above, he's a big boy, but he's also older than most of the other players at camp. After scoring 17 goals and 46 points, plus 16 playoff points, with the Moncton Wildcats in 2014-15, Sweeney took a step backwards with only 14 points in 45 games last season.

Sweeney's hockey development will continue in college next year.

Jacob Sweeney is committed to University of Ottawa next season.

— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) June 29, 2016

Comets Now Have Coaching Vacancy

The Utica Comets have hung onto their head coach Travis Green for another season, but one of his assistants, Paul Jerrard, was hired away on Wednesday to become part of Glen Gulutzan's team as an assistant with the Calgary Flames.

Jerrard worked with Gulutzan in the Dallas Stars organization between 2009 and 2013.

Paul Jerrard ran the penalty-killing unit that finished in the top-7 in @TheAHL each of the last two years (86.0% and 86.3%). #Comets

— Brendan Burke (@brendanmburke) July 6, 2016

The Flames penalty killing was last in the league in 2015-16, with a success rate of just 75.5 percent.

And finally—the Canucks have announced that they'll be returning to Whistler for their 2016 training camp.

#Canucks Training Camp returns to Whistler Sept. 23rd.

PRESS RELEASE → https://t.co/HVzMOG2nOC pic.twitter.com/y1XXmP0aHe

— Vancouver Canucks (@VanCanucks) July 7, 2016

After the Young Stars tournament in Penticton from September 16-19, veterans who are not in the World Cup of Hockey will report to the team on September 22.

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