WILMINGTON, Mass. — Boston Bruins rookies and prospects will travel to Tennessee on Friday to participate in a rookie camp against prospects from the Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Nashville Predators.
“It’s a real good evaluation tool,” Bruins assistant general manager Don Sweeney said Thursday at Ristuccia Arena. “You get to have some practice time with your own players so you get to know them and have some teaching moments. But you also play against your peers, players that are on the same level as you and starting out as pros or first-year pros, so you control that environment a little bit.
“The players on the other side are highly regarded prospects in the other organizations. … It does allow the players as young pros to sort of ease themselves into a training camp environment because training camp stuff gets ramped up pretty quickly.”
Among the prospects expected to participate in the four-team rookie camp are Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad (first overall pick in 2014 draft) and Lightning winger Jonathan Drouin (third overall pick in 2013 draft).
The abundance of quality talent present at these games will give the Bruins a great look at where their prospects are in their development. These practices and games also will allow the B’s to see at which positions players will be the most productive.
Here’s the rookie camp schedule:
- Saturday vs. Florida Panthers
- Sunday vs. Tampa Bay Lightning
- Monday vs. Nashville Predators
— Malcolm Subban and Adam Morrison were the goaltenders during the Bruins rookies’ Thursday skate.
“You want to have a strong start, that usually leads to a strong year,” Subban said.
What did he take away from his first season in Providence?
“Being professional and taking care of your body away from the rink,” Subban said. “And just being more consistent in terms of in practice, and it’ll carry into games.”
— First-round pick David Pastrnak centered Anthony Camara and Seth Griffith during drills.
“I love his infectious personality. He just shows up wanting to play hockey and get better,” Sweeney said of Pastrnak. “His skill set sort of separates him at times because it’s awfully good. Now we got him playing some center and some wing just to get him comfortable. He’s excited and we are as an organization to have him as a part of our group.”
— Ville Leino, Simong Gagne and Bracken Kearns are coming to Bruins training camp on a tryout basis, and their time to impress the coaching staff won’t be long.
“In this situation, the window might be very short, might be very narrow for them to put their foot in the door and kick it open,” Sweeney said. “I told them that last night that they need to come out and (not) hold anything back and don’t be nervous about the situation they’re in. … You gotta push somebody out of the way in this business in order to take somebody’s job.”
— Sweeney said Seth Griffith started a bit slow in Providence last season but really picked up his progression and became a stronger player with whom his teammates enjoy playing.
