Colorado Avalanche: Best Tweets from Prospect Development Camp Day 2

ENGLEWOOD, CO - JUNE 29: Colorado Avalanche forward Shane Bowers, #67, skates during the Av's Development Camp at the Family Sports Center June 29, 2018. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
ENGLEWOOD, CO - JUNE 29: Colorado Avalanche forward Shane Bowers, #67, skates during the Av's Development Camp at the Family Sports Center June 29, 2018. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

The second day of the Colorado Avalanche prospect development camp started out similarly to the first, but the afternoon session was very different.

Day 2 of the Colorado Avalanche’s prospect development camp started at 8 am MT. That’s awful early for teenagers — which most of the attendees are. However, they’ve been participating in early-morning skates for most of their lives.

Anyway, the on-ice portion of the second day of camp was pretty much like the first. The prospects participated in both hockey drills and power skating, the latter with Tracy Tutton.

Side note: Prospect development camp goes for around 12 hours a day.

Here’s some more of Tyler Weiss, Sampo Ranta and Martin Kaut:

During a drill, Peter Kvaca made a save on Brandon Saigeon:

Petr Kvaca was 2017’s fourth-rounder. He’s expected to return to the Czech Republic to play for the HC Ceske Budejovice. (Side note — I’ve been to Ceske Bedejovice. It’s a gorgeous city.)

Justus Annunen makes the initial save on Martin Kaut, but ultimately our new Czech winger scores:

Annunen was the first of out third-rounders from the 2018 draft. He’s expected to play in the men’s Liiga next year in Finland. That’s the same league Mikko Rantanen played in.

Mesmerizing:

Pictured are Brandon Saigeon, Nick Henry, Shane Bowers (from the Matt Duchene trade) and Robbie Holmes, an amateur tryout.

Smiley prospects:


And now we know why:

Travis Barron was getting “interviewed” by fellow prospect Josh Anderson. Anderson has also been signed to his entry-level deal.

In the afternoon, the prospects got another workout in, this time a spin class. Besides fitness and endurance, the purpose of the spin class was so they could learn about different heart rate levels.

The prospects got put through the paces on the bikes:


Check Cale Makar power-cycling like it ain’t no thing:

I think CycleBar means they do cycling in a pink light:

Actually, I wasn’t far off. CycleBar is a workout that includes a mix of strength, endurance, challenges, hills, and drills. Specifically, the workout is set to music — and, yes, the ambient lighting is part of it.

That wrapped up the second day of prospect development camp. The young men worked hard, but also seemed to enjoy themselves. Indeed, Travis Barron said of the experience:

"“They’re long days, so you got to survive each hour and stick together and have some fun.”"

What I find noteworthy is how the prospects came together as teammates. Technically they’re in direct competition with each other for a handful of select spots. Most of them won’t make it out of the AHL, if even that far.

Yet they seemed to come together in the spirit of hockey.

Barron talked a little about what he expected out of the experience:

"“I’m here to be a leader and work hard. The other guys here are working hard. We’re having fun. That is what it’s all about here, having fun and learning.”"

As I noted, Barron is one of the players who has his entry-level contract with the Colorado Avalanche. But, while he did play two regular season games with the Rampage, the majority of his experience came in the playoffs with the Colorado Eagles.

Next: Best Tweets from Day 1 of Development Camp

In any case, it was a good experience for the Colorado Avalanche prospects to get an idea of what kind of physical and mental shape they need to be in to even consider getting into the NHL.