Tracy Tutton prepares to lasso a prospect for a skating drill. Photo credit: Nadia Archuleta
This year, the Colorado Avalanche development camp had one clear focus. The large majority of ice time was used to work on skating –mostly without pucks — with the help of power skating coach Tracy Tutton and Avs legend Adam Foote. That, however, proved to be a great decision.
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Skating is becoming more and more important in professional hockey. When reading scouting reports and rankings before drafts, you often read things like “he would be ranked much higher, if it wasn’t for his below-average skating”. Watching prospects at the Avalanche development camp proved that many players need that extra work, if they want to make it to the NHL.
So obviously, skating drills don’t tell the whole story. But they do tell an important part of it. Therefore, here’s a list of players who came out of the three days of ice time as winners and who came out at losers. Please don’t take this as an overall player evaluation.
Luckily, we have a longer list of winners than we have of losers — six winners and three losers to be exact. But how much of a loser can you be after three on-ice sessions anyway?
Next: Avalanche development camp winners