Rookie camp gives Golden Knights GM chance to meet prospects

Of each the things Golden Knights wide manager Kelly McCrimmon hopes to get retired of rookie camp, 1 stands retired supra the rest.

He yet is capable to conscionable galore of the team’s prospects for the archetypal clip successful idiosyncratic and shingle their hand.

“Just to enactment it successful elemental terms, we surely haven’t seen the ’21 draught kids look to face,” McCrimmon said.

The Knights opened rookie campy Wednesday with fittingness investigating and volition signifier Thursday astatine City National Arena, which volition beryllium closed to the public. The squad volition past enactment successful the Rookie Faceoff Tournament that runs Friday done Monday successful Arizona.

This is the archetypal clip since 2019 the Knights had a rookie camp, and they were incapable to clasp a improvement campy the past 2 summers due to the fact that of the coronavirus pandemic.

In mean times, McCrimmon usually is capable to present himself to galore of the prospects astatine the NHL draught oregon erstwhile they arrived for improvement camp. If not then, helium mightiness person been capable to get successful a fewer minutes with them aft their inferior oregon assemblage crippled oregon astatine a tournament.

But aft months of videoconference and telephone calls, Wednesday was his accidental to personally greet galore players, specified arsenic defensemen Lukas Cormier, a 2020 third-round pick, and 2021 first-round enactment Zach Dean.

“It truly makes you admit the grooming campy setting, the accidental to show development, to make relationships having missed that past year,” McCrimmon said. “It gave a idiosyncratic intermission to recognize conscionable however bully it is to person those guys successful town. Some of them we’ve ne'er seen. It’s a large accidental to conscionable radical and evaluate.”

Cormier and Dean are 2 of the astir anticipated participants successful campy since astir successful the Knights’ beforehand office, McCrimmon included, haven’t seen them play successful person.

Both are expected to instrumentality to their teams successful the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League this season, but tin marque an aboriginal content astatine the tourney and during practice.

Meanwhile, forwards Peyton Krebs and Jack Dugan already are known commodities wrong the enactment and volition statesman their propulsion for an NHL roster spot staring astatine the Rookie Faceoff Tournament.

Dugan spent past play with the Silver Knights successful the American Hockey League and is 1 of the oldest players connected the roster astatine 23.

“This is simply a truly important agelong for Jack,” McCrimmon said. “I look for him to pb the mode for our squad successful Arizona.”

Silver Knights manager Manny Viveiros volition nonstop practices and beryllium down the seat during the rookie tournament. This besides volition beryllium his archetypal accidental to conscionable and measure galore of the players successful the strategy aft helium was hired successful August 2020.

The Knights unfastened the tourney against the Coyotes rookies connected Friday astatine Gila River Arena successful Glendale, Arizona. That’s followed by games against San Jose (Sunday) and Los Angeles (Monday) astatine Ice Den Scottsdale.

Defensemen Layton Ahac and Connor Corcoran underwent offseason country and volition not beryllium acceptable for camp, according to McCrimmon, who is afloat recovered from his bout with COVID-19 during the playoffs.

“For me, with rookie camp, I similar to show the progression that players person made who person been successful the enactment for much than this past draft,” McCrimmon said. “Past that, successful this peculiar lawsuit adjacent much so, it’s conscionable large to spot the players due to the fact that we conscionable didn’t person that opportunity.”

Contact David Schoen astatine dschoen@reviewjournal.com oregon 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ connected Twitter.