In many people’s eyes today marked the beginning of the NHL season. You can count me as one of those people. Rookie camp opened this morning at Family Sports Center in Cenetennial, Colorado. Unfortunately, I can’t make the 1,725 mile trip to be there, which would take 28 hours if I were to drive if you were wondering, but I can do my best to write about it based on what I read online.

One of my Twitter followers, @DarioinDenver, was at the camp today and provided some insight on the first day of camp which thankfully included some videos and photos.

Gabriel Landeskog

The one player everyone has their eyes, and money, on this training camp is 2011 draft pick Gabriel Landeskog. It looks like he had a very solid first day at camp and is already staking his claim at a spot on the Avalanche roster.

Gabriel Landeskog | @Avalanche

From Mile High Hockey:

Landy was indeed the first guy on the ice today. He spent the first several minutes working with Lake Erie coach David Quinn and Tyson Barrie taking shots at Sami Aitokallio while the rest of the skaters slowly filed onto the rink and began warming up. Landy was far and away the most polished skater and it showed nearly every time he ran a drill. His skating was clean and crisp and he showed good burst when he wanted to. He had zero problems handling the puck and looked comfortable in every drill.

Not bad for someone entering his first day of an NHL training camp. Here is a video of Landeskog participating in one of the drills the rookies ran during their 45 minutes on ice this morning, and he looks great!


Rookie Camp | @DarioinDenver

Other players who were quite impressing included top defensive prospects Tyson Barrie and Stefan Elliott.

More from MHH, this time on Elliott:

His skating was decent as he had fluid hips transitioning from skating forwards to backwards and showed an impressive short area burst. His passing was crisp and for the most part he received the puck well. His big showing came in the form of a wicked wrister that he consistently abused Aitokallio with. Elliott locked onto the puck a bit too much when skating with it for my liking but this did improve as the day wore on and he settled in.

Players who were a bit disappointing to watch were Troy Rutkowski who appeared to be a poor skater and was consistently behind in drills.

Joey Hishon

One player who was absent from today’s camp was last year’s first round draft pick Joey Hishon. Hishon was concussed in last years Memorial Cup after taking a hit from Sabres prospect Brayden McNabb. Adrian Dater reported that Hishon is still suffering from concussion symptoms and has not been cleared by team doctors to take part in on ice activities.

I sure hope this doesn’t turn into another Peter Mueller incident where this kid misses a whole season due to a nasty concussion. I wish him the best in his recovery and hope to see him in an Avs uniform next season.

I’m sure the fine ladies and gentlemen over at Mile High Hockey will have more expert analysis from tomorrow’s rookie camp, so make sure you check them out!

The one player everyone has their eyes, and money, on this training camp is 2011 draft pick Gabriel Landeskog. It looks like he had a very solid first day at camp and is already staking his claim at a spot on the Avalanche roster.