Colorado Avalanche: Impressions from Prospect Development Camp

The Colorado Avalanche’s first day of prospect development camp gave us some insight into what the future holds for the team.

The Colorado Avalanche held their first day of the 2018 prospect development camp. The morning session went from 8 to 12:45 with an hour break in the middle. The afternoon session started at 3 pm and consisted of a scrimmage (I was unable to attend that one).

A little housekeeping. Conor Timmins did not participate in the prospect development camp, and the news is not encouraging. According to BSN’s AJ Haefele, Timmins is still recovering from a concussion he received during the post-season with the Soo Greyhounds.

Here’s a picture from Denver Post’s Mike Chambers:

So, since he was here, I’m guessing he went through medical testing yesterday and they discovered he’s still recovering from concussion symptoms.

Here’s an update from Hounds Updates:

That’s a big blow, and we’re all hoping him a speedy and full recovery.

Martin Kaut also did not participate in any of today’s morning activities for no obvious reason. In fact, he looked raring to go:

AJ Haefele put the situation a cute way:

There’s no word on why he didn’t participate in the first on-ice session, but he participated in the second:

During the Scouting Combine, the doctors discovered that Martin Kaut had an unspecified heart condition that required a “routine procedure” to correct, something he did while home in the Czech Republic. He’s supposed to have received a clean bill of health and is apparently healing well. No news if this morning’s absence  had anything to do with the condition or healing.

Moving on to my impressions. The first is that Cale Makar is good. That may seem obvious, but you might remember that I didn’t want the Avs to select Makar. I thought he was just the consolation prize for the player Colorado really wanted — Miro Heiskenan.

Well, he was, but it turns out Makar is a heck of a consolation prize. I was so impressed with his skating and puck handling. He participated with a group of all defenseman, so there wasn’t any way to judge too much about him defensively. However, his offensive game is there.

I got some video of his work with skating coach Tracy Tutton:

I had a look at some other players specifically. Nick Henry was of interest to me because he dropped in the draft last season. He’s a scrawny kid who has moves.

Denis Smirnov is another player I wanted to check out. He was Colorado’s over age pick last year, and he’s said to be close to being ready for pro — he just completed his season as a sophomore at Penn State. He’s going to be 21 this summer.

Finally, I wanted to check out Shane Bowers, whom Colorado received as part of the Matt Duchene deal. He’s known as being a versatile player who plays a grounded game. That’s hard to see in drills, but apparently he did pretty well in the scrimmage.

Next: Guide to Prospect Development Camp

Here’s the remaining schedule for prospect development camp:

• Saturday, June 30: Four groupings, 8 am to 12:45 pm MT
• Sunday, July 1: Four groupings, 8 am to 12:45 pm MT
• Sunday, July 1: Scrimmage at EPIC (Blue Arena) in Fort Collins, 5:30 pm MT

The camp is scheduled to go through Monday, July 2, when they’ll presumably do team-building and other fitness events.