Yesterday, I spent the day at Flyers Development Camp, where Flyers prospects and invitees worked on drills to hone their skills with the Flyers’ development team, including Derian Hatcher, Ian Laperriere and Riley Cote. Obviously at these camps, you won’t learn a whole lot about a player, especially doing repetitive drills. Many of the drills were set up to see what the players could do, with the Flyers brass (including Paul Holmgren) watching. The day was split into two sessions, defensemen early and forwards later.
Most of the fans’ eyes were on both Brayden Schenn and Sean Couturier. Schenn seemed to struggle in some of the early drills, but the team will probably take a deeper look at the young center during Flyers’ training camp in September. Couturier showed some nice hands throughout the session. His goal this year is to make the NHL, but between the Flyers’ lack of roster space and no need to rush him, he will likely find himself back with Drummondville of the QMJHL.
Zac Rinaldo is a curious case. Not drafted by the Flyers for his scoring prowess, Rinaldo’s three years in the OHL got him 27 goals, 69 points and 669 PIM. If you include postseason, he has yet to have a season under 200 PIM. He had 331 PIM with the Phantoms in the AHL last year, and collected more suspensions (4) than goals (3). So why is he even worth watching? Well, it’s just development camp, but he looked impressive yesterday. While some of his counterparts coasted through the drills, Rinaldo seemed to give his all throughout the morning. If he can tone down his antics, maybe he can develop into solid role player. That’s a big if though at this point.
Some other quick thoughts:
