Baby Birds To Watch At Thrashers Prospect Camp

The Atlanta Thrashers' annual prospect and player development camp begins tomorrow afternoon at the Atlanta Ice Forum.  All sessions are, as always, open to the public, and the Thrashers have been kind enough to put a schedule and roster on their website so you can tell who's who out there on the ice.  This is always a great chance to get a look at potential future Thrashers and see just what we have in the pipeline.  There's no guarantee that any of these guys will make the team this season, as we seem to be having some sort of log jam up front, but it'll be close to 100 degrees out tomorrow.  You know you want to come in, cool off, and see what our kids have to offer.  

I'll be floating around on and off at camp - not going to be there every day courtesy of the insane amount of time it takes to get to Duluth from where I live - but I will have a chance to really look at some of these guys so that those of you who can't make it can still be informed.  Also, Birdwatchers should be having a radio show (hopefully) from camp at least one day for your listening pleasure. 

Last season I got a chance to interview some of the kids including Evander Kane after watching them.  Hopefully we'll be able to get that chance again this season.  Here are some of the ones I saw last season and was impressed with, and some of the new kids'll be here too.

• Alexander Burmistrov - this year's first round pick, he had 65 points in 62 games for the Barrie Colts of the OHL.  So yeah, he'll be good.
• Carl Klingberg - last season's second round choice
• Patrice Cormier - formerly the Devils' top prospect; acquired in Kovalchuk trade - going to be a big 3rd line center; about a ppg player in the QMJHL.
• Akim Aliu - late of the big trade with the Blackhawks - big former 2nd rounder who can get into some scraps
• Paul Postma - one of the top prospects currently playing with the Chicago Wolves - 7th round 2007 steal
• Zach Redmond - another late round choice (7th round in 2008, 184th overall) who has some serious speed and strength. Great late pick for the team - very impressive
• Chris Carrozzi - future goalie of the future, futuristically speaking
• Ed Pasquale - see above, though slightly less so.

The guys from last year I was excited about - Carrozzi and Redmond, specifically - have had a year to develop, and seem to have done pretty well for themselves.  Carrozzi's area of concern - his lateral movement - should be worth watching.  He identified that as a problem and said that he was working with a goalie coach to specifically resolve this problem.

Taking stock of the prospects is always interesting, though our pool might've been mildly cut into with the flurry of activity of this summer.  I'll have a re-cap of what I've seen so far on Sunday, before the camp wrap-up on Tuesday the 13th.