Jackets Development Camp 2026
Some notes from being there and snapping pics:
Whitelaw and Mannisto are smaller guys who play big. They both like bodying guys in the corners and on the boards, even during drills. Whitelaw impressed me a lot — lots of speed, and the game seemed to follow him around the ice. Seemed solid positionally.
Lindstrom looked pretty awesome to me. I know he should look good against prospects at this point, but it was clear that he, Smith, and Henning were on another level.
Lindstrom likes to play the body a lot and uses change of speed to create space when he has the puck. He likes to make plays — passes that didn't look like legit chances, saucers through crowds that landed on tape.
Andreyanov and Lindstrom have a social gravitational pull. They seem to be buddies with everyone — crowds form around them wherever they end up on the ice.
Smith likes pushing others to their limits. Those of you who've watched Smith in his college games - does he fight much? He really seems to like pushing buttons - not nasty, just finds something that bugs a guy or a weakness and leans into it. A bit of a pest. He also liked drawing forecheckers, toe-dragging them out of position, then making a long stretch pass. Smith is pretty clearly ahead of the guys he skated with, especially with his skating.
Smith and Lindstrom were giving it to each other quite a bit. Maybe they know each other from college hockey, but it looked like they had dibs on each other whenever one had possession during the prospect game.
Elick and Vass both have surprisingly good, hard shots and caught goalies off guard a couple of times.
Holy smokes, Hemming is a big dude. He looks even bigger next to Proverov. The kid can skate, too, and was working with trainers more than most to improve his skating even further. Smith did this too.
DW definitely has a type: big guys who skate well, and smaller, skilled guys who are greasy in the corners and in front of the net.
That's all I got. Keep in mind I'm just a beer leaguer who enjoys photographing events. It was nice seeing professional athletes get annoyed by the same rough patches of ice that I've fallen on myself.
I've got around 315 photos total from the event. If there's interest, I'll post an album link, but I don't want to blow up the sub with a bunch of posts about the same event.