The Buffalo Sabres Development Camp came to a close yesterday with the 3-on-3 Tournament, aptly named after the famed French Connection who pulled on the Sabres jerseys back in ‘70s.
The rosters were a mixed bag, with experience and skill pretty equally distributed across the seven teams.
Click here for the full camp roster with player career stats.
Here are some highlights from the tournament.
Team Teal took the honors on the day, making an inspired play and grabbing Hudson Fasching after Victor Olofsson went down with an injury, ironically from an unintentional charley-horse by Fasching. Here is Will Borgen with the championship winner in the shootout, the eleventh shot of the round after the goalies had stopped every shot in the first go-around. The unlucky runners up were Alex Nylander’s Team Gold.
Championship winner for @wborgen19. 🚨🙌🏻 #SabresDevCamp pic.twitter.com/cb9z7Dk7cg
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) July 12, 2016
There was a scary moment for the prospects after defenseman Michael Campoli was injured by a check from William Carrier. Campoli is a camp invitee and the undrafted free agent is committed to Boston College next season. He was taken to hospital for further checks but released later in the day.
Carrier commented on his hit, which drove Campoli hard into the boards –
“I just finished my check and I didn’t really know what happened.
“I’m sorry to hear it, I just finished my check and I think he lost footing and fell back. I feel really bad for the kid.”
Cliff Pu finished the competition as top scorer with five goals. Nick Baptiste and Carrier had four, and so did newest fan favorite Vasily Glotov. The Russian has won everyone over with his cheerful demeanor, and here is what Rochester Americans coach Dan Lambert had to say about him –
“I just overheard a few players saying, ‘This kid is awesome.’ They just love being around him and he’s got that aura about him that’s very positive and likable.
“It’s funny because his first period in the scrimmage, he came up to me and he said, ‘You know what, that was my first time on the small ice’ and ‘I’ll get better, I’ll get better.’ He’s such a lovable young man and he did get better.”
Here’s Brian Duff’s recap of the tournament, along with more interviews with players, Lambert and General Manager Tim Murray as well.
The Craig Ramsay Award is annually given during the Development Camp to the hardest-working player. This year the award was shared by two players – forward Justin Bailey (Buffalo native, fourth development camp, drafted 2nd Rd, #52 overall in 2013) and defenseman Ivan Chukarov (second development camp, drafted 7th Rd, #182 overall in 2015).
Here are a couple more interviews, first off Lambert talking about the prospects, and then Murray on Nylander, Jimmy Vesey, and more.
Gotta love GMTM’s sense of humor though, and how he feels he’s compelled to talk to the press at times.