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WHL rookie camp wraps
COLLIN GALLANT
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More than a hundred hockey players headed
home Sunday from Medicine Hat Tigers training camp after five full
rosters of prospects played 10 full scrimmages at The Arena.
Dylan Busenius is staying put, so to
speak, after his initial Western Hockey League Training camp.
As a 15-year-old this season, midget AAA
is the likely destination for the 6-foot blue-liner who the Tigers
chose in the first round, No. 16 overall, in last May’s
Bantam Draft.
He showed why on Sunday, showing loads of
presence during the weekend’s final game, a hot contest that
featured hard hitting and a curtain-closing scrap between
16-year-old invitees Adam Zbitniff and Tyler Bird.
"It was getting pretty intense out there,"
said Busenius, a well-spoken Sherwood Park native. "That’s
good to get in a game like that."
The Sherwood Park native is one of a
select few who joined the veterans on a team building retreat in
the Cypress Hills and will return for main camp on Wednesday.
"It went pretty well," said Busenius. "I
don’t know if I brought my best game (on Sunday), but I was
putting numbers up.
"I consider myself more of a defensive
defenceman. I like to play in my own end. Over the last half of
last year, I started getting the numbers."
That sounds suspiciously like a plan a
year or two down the road.
Tigers associate coach Shaun Clouston, who
handles the blue-liners, has preached own-end first mentality while
guiding a potent blue-line attack.
The team itself has waited for prospects
to acclimatize to the speed and toughness of the WHL schedule
before counting on production in years two, three and beyond.
For right now, Busenius is were the Tigers
want him to be.
"He’s played well and done the
things we expected him to do," said head coach and general manager
Willie Desjardins.
"I thought he played really well.
He’s a really solid player, and I can see why we drafted him
so high. A lot of the things we look for in players, he has."
Without the benefit of a spring camp,
Desjardins got his first look at the 2008 draft class including
Busenius, second rounder Dylan Bredo (5-foot-7, forward from
Edmonton), plus third rounders Boston Leier, (forward, Saskatoon),
and Sean Collins, (defence, Winnipeg), among others.
"There are a lot of good players in this
camp," said Desjardins. "They’re only 15-years-old, and
there’s lots of time for change.
"For us it was good. We saw lots of key
players compete hard. The skill level was good."
Many of the draft picks skated in a
pre-camp conditioning sessions with the veteran players then left
with the vets for a two-day team building retreat.
They return Tuesday night ahead of the
opening of main training camp on Wednesday.
On Friday, they head out for Edmonton and
the first of two pre-season tournaments.
They face the Regina Pats on Saturday
afternoon at the Edmonton Oil Kings exhibition tournament at the
2,000-seat Servus Place arena in St. Albert.
They play the Edmonton Oil Kings on Sunday
before returning home. |
