Hockey Pete wrote:

ratonmono wrote:

insideout wrote:Can someone enlighten me as to which of the Blues defensive prospects (in addition to Lindbohm) is closest to NHL-ready? Might we see any of them in 15/16?

Just a guess but I'd say that Edmundson is the closest. I'd be surprised if we don't see him up in STL for at least 20ish games this year. I still think Gunnarsson is not going to finish the season with us. After Edmundson it appears to be Parayko. Everybody else is at least a year away from serious NHL time.

The problem Edmundson has is that he's a RD, and we're set with RD at the NHL level, and now he has Parayko pushing hard behind him. I agree with the 20+ games if there's an injury AND Colton is struggling at the AHL level, but if injuries on RD are a non-issue, it gives Colton more time to mature his game, and IMO Parayko's ceiling is higher than Joel's. If Colton reaches that ceiling, Joel won't see any ice with the Blues.

Joel's window was last season, but unfortunately he was injured for the entire first half. Since then, the Blues have fortified the bottom RD with Bort, and I just don't see Edmumdson unseating him in the near future.

I do recall Edmundson mostly playing the right side in the Wolves games I've seen but he does shoot left so I would imagine that he's more than capable of playing the left side. He should be more comfortable there anyway. My thought was that Joel was only playing the right side for the Wolves due to them being short of righty shooting d-men...but maybe he actually prefers that side. I don't know. With righties Parayko, Schmaltz and Vannelli in Chicago this season though, I would expect to see Edmundson to play the left side and the the top LD callup. Or is there something I'm missing here?

I agree though that based purely on skill, Edmundson is behind Parayko, Schmaltz and Vannelli. I'd even put him behind Walman and Dunn longterm as well...but with him being a lefty and very close to being NHL ready, this season is his best shot to show he's NHL caliber IMO.

He certainly brings a different dynamic than the offensive defenseman that will populated the Wolves roster. He does have a bomb from the point.

Had fun this afternoon. While my daughter and I sat a traffic light before pulling into the Mills parking lot, I glanced over to the car next to mine and got a smile from Bill Armstrong. I'm sure he noticed my 'diques cap and thought "hey, a hockey nerd. I know where he's going."

Once the players hit the ice I noticed Dunn and Dunda right away. Dunn was pretty relentless during the drills and really confident on the ice. I noticed Dunda's size right away but not much else struck me. I didn't realize he's a forward, I thought he was a dman. Those two players made up the "guest" squad and that's who I got see to the most of due to our location in the rink.

Once the scrimmage started Parayko pretty much had my attention. Obviously his size made him stand out but he was really vocal during the play and more or less controlling the flow. What impressed me the most was his skating/leading rushes to the net and getting shots off.
Fabbri looked great and scored a beautiful goal from inside the dots that had the whole rink making noise. And he has speed. That was exciting to watch him anticipate the action and head to the net. Sigh....the season can't start soon enough. Selman(?) also scored two really nice goals. Vanelli appears to have added some mass.

I think it's great the Blues offer this exhibition to the public and I'm happy the fans have shown up and packed the rink. Later, I noticed all the Blues brass sitting atop the bleachers and watching. When Fabbri scored his goal I looked over at them and Hitch and B Armstrong had shit eating grins and chuckling with Stillman. Made me smile too. Oh one other thing, Jeremy Broduer made a great save and Marty yelled out an atta boy. Thought that was cool.

Sorry for the rambling post but I'm blaming this stout mojito.

Andy

So I didn't get to see as much of today's camp as I would have liked, showing up about half way through the scrimmage. I did stick around to see a bit of the second practice session before heading out.

Obviously Fabbri gets your attention. The kid clearly has hands that are leaps and bounds better than anyone else on the ice. He was beating defenders left and right in one on one drills. Another player that caught my attention was one of this year's draftees, Musil. I didn't notice him much during the part of the scrimmage I was able to see, but during drills he was among the more successful finishing from up close. Some of the Junior experts on the board will probably be able to tell if this is actually a part of his game in real action, but he seems quite comfortable in tight. Also as everyone has said, Parayko is huge and was very strong in his own zone.

Unfortunately I didn't get to see a lot of Barbashev and a few others, so the fact that I'm not mentioning some of the more prominent names (Vanelli, Schmaltz, etc.) isn't necessarily a reflection of poor performance on their end.

I think the structure of the scrimmage, 4 on 4, then eventually 3 on 3 certainly provides greater opportunity for the D men that can make successful stretch passes and the forwards that have wheels. Towards the end there were a fair amount of breakdowns that left the camp invitee Appleby (sp?) hanging out to dry. I think he got beat on 3 straight breakaways in a matter of a few minutes. Not sure he's gonna catch on here with our depth at that position.

All in all, a fun little afternoon for the small part of it I could attend. Really good to see a packed house, and nice to see that all of the big Blues brass (Hitch, Doug and Bill Armstrong, MacInnis, Brodeur, Stillman) were all in attendance and watching closely.

STL fan in IA wrote:

Fred Garvin wrote:Guys, I think I speak for everyone when I say I appreciate the tidbits of information for us not lucky enough to be there in person. Thanks!

Absolutely!

Keep the reports coming, guys!

My sentiments too, thanks for the insight. Always appreciate and enjoy the input regarding the progress of the teams prospects.

Random thoughts from the scrimmage on 7/8:

Fabbri looked like a superhero, but he should. He's a highly skilled high draft pick that everyone expects to crack an NHL roster now. He should be walking a bunch of kids waiting for their junior assignments.
Parayko is a manchild-beast. He was barking like a quarterback and controlling the play. He reminds me of a Tyler Myers, but has Pronger's bow-legged stance. It was hard to NOT watch him every time he was on the ice. Keeper.
I did not know Tyler Schantz was that big.
No idea who Carson Stadnyk is, but he did not want to be sent home. Kid was flying and had great hands in tight.
Blais, MacEachern, Poganski, and Selman all looked really good.
Jaedon Deschaneau may have been one of the best players on the ice. He made a couple moves and about broke someone's ankle on a filthy zone entry. I really like that kid.
Barbashev only saw a few shifts from what I could tell, not sure what that was about.
Vince Dunn skates like the wind

Sounds like we have a squad full of the next Gretzsky, Kurri, Orr, and Pronger coming through the pipeline

Again, very much appreciate the updates Andy, Dave, Mitts, Mook and all others.

Barbashev at camp

http://video.blues.nhl.com/videocenter/ ... L|STL|home

I also wanted to point out that at the end of the first practice yesterday, who was the first one helping the staff retrieve all the pucks and then the first one on his knees putting the pucks in the bucket....none other than Robby Fabbri. Pretty cool to see him setting the example for the other guys, when he's pretty much the creme of the crop at this camp.
Dunn continues to be very impressive, can't wait to see how he looks in a couple of years. He's going to be a big time player for us down the road.

Alright, you all officially have me buying the Parayko hype.

Thanks for the updates everyone, its much appreciated.

NHLTIM wrote:I also wanted to point out that at the end of the first practice yesterday, who was the first one helping the staff retrieve all the pucks and then the first one on his knees putting the pucks in the bucket....none other than Robby Fabbri. Pretty cool to see him setting the example for the other guys, when he's pretty much the creme of the crop at this camp.
Dunn continues to be very impressive, can't wait to see how he looks in a couple of years. He's going to be a big time player for us down the road.

Saw that too, and was impressed enough to snap it.

SickMittsRomKnee wrote:No idea who Carson Stadnyk is, but he did not want to be sent home. Kid was flying and had great hands in tight.

I liked what I saw of Stadnyk on Tuesday, and I've read enough to think he might be offered a contract. I'm not sure where we stand against the contract limit, but if they have room and they like him as much as we do I expect he'll turn pro and spend the season in Alaska in the ECHL rather than go back to Everett as an overager. He certainly seems like a guy who could make one of Ryan Tesink, Zach Pochiro or Yannick Veilleux expendable. I don't see any of those three having shown enough to believe that they have any shot of making it to the NHL, which I find disappointing given that I was a huge Veilleux honk just two years ago.

SickMittsRomKnee wrote:

NHLTIM wrote:I also wanted to point out that at the end of the first practice yesterday, who was the first one helping the staff retrieve all the pucks and then the first one on his knees putting the pucks in the bucket....none other than Robby Fabbri. Pretty cool to see him setting the example for the other guys, when he's pretty much the creme of the crop at this camp.
Dunn continues to be very impressive, can't wait to see how he looks in a couple of years. He's going to be a big time player for us down the road.

Saw that too, and was impressed enough to snap it.

fabs.JPG

Impressive. Certainly projects the impression that he's willing to earn a job, and doesn't expect it to be handed him. Good for him.

Considering heading to the Mills today to catch the last day of camp.

How was the crowd leading up to the start? How early do you think I should arrive?

HockeyFan85 wrote:Considering heading to the Mills today to catch the last day of camp.

How was the crowd leading up to the start? How early do you think I should arrive?

When I was there yesterday it was SRO, but there was plenty of room. Not a lot of seating.

We grabbed a seat around 1:30. My daughter and I were two of maybe a dozen people. Folks started to slowly file in and by 2:30 it was fairly full.

Am loving reading these breakdowns on the future Blues.

Thanks and keep the updates coming guys.

STL fan in IA wrote:I do recall Edmundson mostly playing the right side in the Wolves games I've seen but he does shoot left so I would imagine that he's more than capable of playing the left side. He should be more comfortable there anyway. My thought was that Joel was only playing the right side for the Wolves due to them being short of righty shooting d-men...but maybe he actually prefers that side. I don't know. With righties Parayko, Schmaltz and Vannelli in Chicago this season though, I would expect to see Edmundson to play the left side and the the top LD callup. Or is there something I'm missing here?

I agree though that based purely on skill, Edmundson is behind Parayko, Schmaltz and Vannelli. I'd even put him behind Walman and Dunn longterm as well...but with him being a lefty and very close to being NHL ready, this season is his best shot to show he's NHL caliber IMO.

I completely stand corrected on this one, as the kid may be a right handed fighter and writer, he actually uses his stick correctly, and is a LD.

Completely changes his opportunity with this organization, as we are truly short at that position, and he could very well see 20+ games with the Blues this season, as he's literally the only D prospect that is ready, and no one in the system will be close for at least a year.

Management has said some good things about him. I would like to see how he would handle himself. As Noel Picard would say Edmundson is a tough cookie. He can throw with his right and left. He is not a dud offensively. Not an offensive defenseman by any means but can put some pressure on with a big shot from the point.

For people that have seen him play or maybe just follow more closely, if Fabbri reaches his full potential, is there a current NHL player that you'd compare his game to?

Loving all the updates on Camp thank you!

Fred Garvin wrote:For people that have seen him play or maybe just follow more closely, if Fabbri reaches his full potential, is there a current NHL player that you'd compare his game to?

I'd say a more skilled Brad Marchand, with a ceiling of Claude Giroux. He's going to want to mix it up like Marchand does, which is why it is so important for him to be physically ready for the NHL when he makes the jumps so he can stay in the lineup.

MissouriMook wrote:

Fred Garvin wrote:For people that have seen him play or maybe just follow more closely, if Fabbri reaches his full potential, is there a current NHL player that you'd compare his game to?

I'd say a more skilled Brad Marchand, with a ceiling of Claude Giroux. He's going to want to mix it up like Marchand does, which is why it is so important for him to be physically ready for the NHL when he makes the jumps so he can stay in the lineup.

I totally agree, he reminds me of Giroux big time. I doubt he'll reach that ceiling but playing style-wise they are very similar.
Giroux started out on RW in Philly as well.