Neutral Zone will be in attendance for the entirety of the camp and will be evaluating each player selected; however given that a lot of coaches, scouts and hockey community couldn’t be in attendance we wanted to bring you some free content of what is going on out in Plymouth, MI.
The Miami Meat Market
Miami-Ohio longtime Head Coach Rico Blasi was let go from Miami recently but there are 5 players here committed to the school. So there are lot of phone calls and behind the scenes work going on to figure out which kids are “free agents” and which kids are going to wait to hear the next coach hire. Not only do they have 5 commits here, but one of the top defenders in the camp Jacob Martin (Gentry 15U). It will be interesting to see what happens with these players in the coming weeks/months.
Left Shot Defense
The hardest spot to make on this team will be left shot defenseman as the 16 players who dressed on defense for the 3:30pm game 10 were left shot. Not only that but some of the top names like Luke Hughes (Little Caesar’s), Luke Mittelstadt (Eden Prairie HS) and Aidan Hreschuk (LA Jr. Kings U16) are all left shot defenders.
Uncommitted Players Showing Well
Now most all of these “uncommitted” players are by choice, they mostly all have offers but the group as a whole had a strong opening day. Liam Gilmartin (Shattuck St. Mary’s U16) is a big, athletic forward who played a strong, direct game and Davis Codd (Little Caesar’s U16) was the best we have seen him as a quick, explosive, elusive playmaker. Ty Murchison (LA Jr. Kings U16) is a tall, athletic, versatile defender with deceptive stick skill and puck carrying ability. Colby Saganiuk who is drawing plenty of attention from NCAA and OHL scouts is a highly skilled, high motor prospect who can access his full skill set at top speed.
Any Surprises?
It would be hard to say any of these kids are under the radar as they are the top 50 or so prospects in the US. However, there is a top tier of kids like Luke Hughes, Dylan Duke, Chaz Lucius, etc. In our estimation there are 7 forwards and 4 defenseman who are locks (in our opinion only, not official) so the rest of the camp is trying out for the second half of the roster. Of those players we were impressed after day #1 with the performances of Davis Codd (Little Ceaser’s U16), Vincent Salice (Oakland Jr. Grizzlies U16), Davis Burnside (Chicago Mission U15), Sasha Pastujov (Compuware U16), Ethan Starky (Oakland Jr. Grizzlies U16) and Daniel Sambuco (ISS Kings U16).
Who is Missing?
Most everyone is here; it depends who you ask as to the players who were “misses” but it’s safe to say the next 20 or so 2003’s could do just fine here at camp. With that being said the two major prospects who are both NTDP caliber who didn’t play yesterday were Cole Huckins (Stanstead College) and Roman Schmidt (Don Mills U15).
Photo Credit: Dan Hickling/Hickling Images
