Wild prospect camp scrimmage report...MVN article

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Wild Prospect Camp Update: Scrimmage Report, Heroes and Duds

By Derek Felska | August 1st, 2007

One of the most popular sports novels in the past 20 years is Friday Nights Lights by H. G. Bissinger covers a town in Texas which profiles one community which describes in great detail that state’s mania over high school football. The ‘Friday Night Lights’ is the big moment for these young athletes to shine and show that they live their sports dreams. While there were no TV cameras or even a crowd of onlookers cheering them on for many of these prospects this is their chance to show an NHL team that they deserve a ’shot’ to stick with the organization. For some of these players this could be there only shot to convince NHL coaches they can play at that level. It puts things into perspective that for some of these players their hockey careers come down to their performance in a game without a crowd, without fanfare. The ‘Friday Night Lights’ of Prospect camp is the White and Green scrimmage where the prospects are split up and go head to head in two 30 minute periods with running time.

Team White consisted of defenseman Maxim Noreau, Paul Albers, Clayton Stoner, and Justin Falk, along with forwards Riley Emmerson, Chris Hickey, Colton Gillies, Benoit Pouliot, Ryan Hamilton, Petr Kalus, Peter Olvecky, Brennan Vargas and Morten Madsen. Team Green was made up of defenseman Shawn Belle, Jeff May, John Scott and Kyle Medvec working with forwards Danny Irmen, Cody Almond, Carson McMillan, Roman Voloshenko, Ryan Graham, Ryan Jones, Cal Clutterbuck and James Sheppard.

The team’s 3 prospect goalies; Niko Hovinen, Miroslav Kopriva and Anton Khudobin split time between the teams.

With Wild assistant coaches Mike Ramsey playing the role of official the puck is dropped and the two teams of prospects face off. It took just 53 seconds for the 0-0 tie to be broken when Team Green’s mammoth 6′7″ defenseman lights the lamp with a rocket from the point that blows by Anton Khudobin. The Green lead didn’t last very long, just about 2 minutes as the ‘Great Dane’ Morten Madsen would lift a shot over the shoulder of Miroslav Kopriva to tie the game at 1-1. Despite the quick strike scoring there was also elements of physicality that have to have Wild coaches (as well as Aeros’ head coach Kevin Constantine) smiling as both teams took the body with great ferocity and frequency. One battle that got pretty heated was between Team White’s Clayton Stoner and Team Green’s forward Ryan Graham (who is a tryout player from the St. John’s Fog Devils of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League). The 6′3″ Stoner laid a heavy hit on the smaller 5′11″ Graham, but the smaller forward wasn’t going to just take the hit and count his blessings. The feisty Graham got back up and got in Stoner’s face letting him know he wasn’t happy and Stoner responds by giving him a stiff forearm shiver. Graham then takes his chances and puts a heavy hit on Stoner and the two exchange verbal jabs on the way back to the bench. The Wild need more attitude and this altercation seemed to boost the emotion level.

With tension boiling, it is relieved slightly when Roman Voloshenko (a prospect who is on the ropes right now after his terrible season this year) found Shawn Belle with a pass from behind the net and the pinching defenseman made no mistake as he fired home the chance to give Team Green a 2-1 lead. With much of the focus on the more higher profile (1st round) prospects, one player who made a statement was Cretin Derham-Hall star Chris Hickey. A late round selection (7th round, 192nd Overall in 2006), Hickey demonstrated some good determination as he kept swinging at the puck in the crease until it was in the back of the net to tie the game at 2-2. However questionable goaltending allowed Team Green to re-take the lead as Carson McMillan moved in down the side and just let off a lazy wrister that deflected off of Khudobin’s glove to unknot the game at 3-2. With Team Green holding the lead Minnesota’s 1st round pick of 2007 , Colton Gillies (playing for Team White) decided to let his presence be known physically when he almost launched Voloshenko into his own bench, yet he wouldn’t get the chance to admire his monster hit very long as the Belorussian’s teamate Danny Irmen laid out Gillies to settle the score. Perhaps the greater intensity inspired the goaltenders to focus a bit more on stopping the puck and both Anton Khudobin and Niko Hovinen would come up big with nice saves. Khudobin would deliver as he denies Ryan Graham fires a wrister and then stops his rebound chance with a beauty of a pad save and the giant Finnish goaltender Niko Hovinen used his lanky 6′7″ frame when he robbed Benoit Pouliot on a breakaway attempt with a sweet glove save. Team White would get back on the board as Hovinen apparently wasn’t quite ‘tall’ enough as the even taller ( 6′8″ ) Riley Emmerson somehow managed to wrap a puck around the gangly netminder to even the game 3-3. The last scoring of the “half” was due to a faux pas by Team White goaltender Miroslav Kopriva. Kopriva has struggled with puck containment and it was exactly that which haunted him once again as he tried to corral the loose puck only to have it tapped away from him by Ryan Jones and University of Miami (Ohio) Redhawks star promptly deposited it into the net to give Team Green a 4-3 lead.

In the 2nd half, the Wild would add a bit more “spice” to the game as penalties will now result in a penalty shot for the opposition. Team White would try to even the game at 4, but the 2-on-1 led by U.S. National Team forward Brennan Vargas is foiled by a nice save by Khudobin. Yet, Team White would not be denied for long as a Green penalty gives Chris Hickey a chance to show what he can do on on a penalty shot and he buries a backhander with ease to tie the game 4-4. Hickey’s offensive efforts do not go unrewarded so to speak as he gets crushed by a nasty (but clean) hit by Cal Clutterbuck. As Team White seemed to be making a push to take the lead Team Green would get a flukey goal as a shot puck would pinball off a bunch of skates in front of the net and by Hovinen to take the one-goal lead. Team White defenseman Clayton Stoner decides to take matters into his own hands and he rifles a shot by Khudobin to tie the game 5-5.

While Chris Hickey had a strong showing, another late(r) round selection, Morten Madsen (4th round, 122nd Overall) also had a great scrimmage as he lights the lamp for a 2nd time when he tears off a wicked wrister that Kopriva simply has no chance on to give Team White a 6-5 lead. But Team Green isn’t going to let that last for long as James Sheppard seems to become possessed by Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard and he basically goes coast-to-coast before making Khudobin look silly on a beauty of a wrister to even the game at 6-6. Yet, it would be Team White that would have the last laugh when Petr Kalus would rip a wrist shot that finds the iron and Stoner is there to bury the rebound for the scrimmage-winner. A few extra laps for Team Green, and the Wild coaches and upper management have a better idea what their prospect pool brings to the table.

Prospect Camp’s Heroes and Duds

Heroes

Morten Madsen - The Danish-born centreman impressed with his great work ethic as well as his great skills with the puck. While he probably will not make the Wild this season he is giving the Wild coaching staff lots to salivate over. He is a skilled two-way player with decent size, his stock is definately on the rise.

Shawn Belle - The solidly-built defenseman knows the time to shine is now and he had a strong showing in camp, in no small part assisted by the fact he arrived in shape. Belle played well enough in the scrimmage and knows he’ll have to perform similarily well at training camp if he hopes to make the team.

Clayton Stoner - The former teamate of Belle’s with the Tri City Americans had a strong showing at camp. He demonstrated good physicality (which is something this team sorely needs), and played superbly in the scrimmage. His strong play might allow him to have an outside chance to make the Wild; especially while Sean Hill serves his 19-game suspension for steroid use.

Petr Kalus - The right winger acquired in the Manny Fernandez trade impressed Wild brass with his great skating and strong two-way play. His solid play at the prospect camp has him as the front runner to be the team’s 4th line right winger unless he has a serious setback at training camp.

James Sheppard - Sheppard was a leader on his Cape Breton team, and he demonstrated that along with a tremendous work ethic has intrigued the Wild coaches. He had an “ok” day at the scrimmage but his skillset will earn him a long look at training camp.

Chris Hickey - Cue “Gonna Fly Now” the song made famous by the Rocky movies. Little was thought of the Minnesota High School star coming into this prospect camp but he demonstrated his great innate hockey skills in the scrimmage, and his shining performance was a very nice surprise.

Duds

Benoit Pouliot - Injuries caused the skilled winger to sit out the 2nd half of the scrimmage, his performance overall still left a lot to be desired considering he was selected 4th Overall in 2005. Little has been said about Pouliot, which is a bit disconcerting when he had a year in the AHL to hone his game. Considering his skills you would expect a player like Pouliot to dominate, but he did not. It might seem mean to malign a player who was battling an injury, but when you select a player so high in the draft the expectations are high and right now he’s not living up to them.

Wild prospect goaltending - All of the Wild prospect goaltenders; Miroslav Kopriva, Anton Khudobin, and Niko Hovinen struggled. This is an organization that has had some of the best goaltending in the league, and its likely going to take a long look at addressing this area unless we see better performance soon. Kopriva still has not solved his puck control issues, Khudobin is still prone to giving up a soft goal or two, and Hovinen is still a very raw prospect who’s game needs serious work. While it is fortunate for the Wild that we do not need one of these prospects to step up to play for the big club this season it is still unnerving the issues these guys are still having at this stage in their development.

While the scrimmage gives the fans a lot to be excited about it is hard to say that gives us a definitive picture of what these players can do. We will get a better idea of what this group brings to the table when they participate in the Traverse City Tournament later this summer.