Wednesday, September 08, 2004

Canucks Prospect Camp

The Canucks prospect camp gets underway tomorrow, with a total of 37 players looking to impress coaches and management. Check out the Canucks press release for more details.

The complete roster has also been released. There are definately some notable prospects to keep an eye on, including Thomas Mojzis, Kiril Koltsov, Marc-Andre Bernier, Brandon Nolan and of course Nathan "Probable First Round Bust" Smith. The list also includes semi Canuck regulars Alex Auld(I guess you can consider him a 'full' regular now), Ryan Kesler, Jason King and Nolan Baumgartner.

Of note Fedor Fedorov and not surprisingly Brandon Reid are not on the list.

If anyone reading this is planning on attending any of the scrimmages I would love to read some of your impressions/thoughts. Post a comment or send me an email.

So with the pending lockout you might be asking what's the point of having a prospect camp? Well for one the Canucks would like to get a look at the progress their prospects have made over the offseason. With no NHL season on the horizon guys who can still play in minors(without having to clear waivers) get a chance to play and practice, while some other guys also get to audition for a spot on the Moose. One interesting 'battle', if you will, might be between the pipes. Alex Auld will obviously be the number one man for the Moose if there is no NHL season, that leaves newly acquired veteran Wade Flaherty battling it out with Rob McVicar. McVicar had a solid year last year splitting time between Manitoba(10 games) and Columbia of the ECHL. Flaherty meanwhile was brought in to replace Tyler Moss and give the Canucks some depth in case of injuries.

BTW the Manitoba Moose camp gets underway September 29th.

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