Kristo, MacMillian and Dell day two Habs development camp

Dan's Daily Dose

Three current and one former UND Fighting Sioux players are participating in the the Montreal Canadians development camp this week. Dan Kramer from All Habs has a really good run down of what has transpired over the course of this week.

GOALTENDERS

Aaron Dell: My favourite of the goalies on day one. I expect him to be offered a contract, be it a two-way deal or an AHL agreement with the Bulldogs. He’s a little slow-moving, but he’s a scrambler, battling for pucks and not giving up.

Based on all that we have heard around here during the offseason – we probably won’t be seeing Aaron Dell in a UND uniform next season. The last word that I had heard, from a pretty good source it’s about 99% that Dell isn’t coming back to UND - so I guess we shouldn't be shocked if to see Aaron Dell sign a professional contract.

Kramer also explains Dell's style to a "T" - Dell is positionally a very sound goaltender and there isn’t a lot of wasted movement.

FORWARDS

Former Fighting Sioux - Mike Cichy: Cichy is very small and skinny. He had to sit out a year of hockey for switching Universities, and doesn’t seem to have spent much of it in the weight room. His legs stand out as being remarkably thin (at one point I quipped that he almost looks like a kid wearing his father’s equipment), not something you want in a professional hockey player for reasons of balance, skating, and strength, so at this point, he doesn’t seem to have much of a future as a prospect.

Danny Kristo: I came away from day one thinking that Kristo looked very small. He is very quick, despite short strides (which can hamper a player). For example, despite both being undersized, his style is almost the opposite of Gallagher’s, who has longer stride but isn’t as fast, which is a testament to Kristo’s footwork. He also has good hands, though he didn’t seem particularly engaged when it was his turn to charge in on net. As such, he wasn’t remarkable. One the size issues, I felt he looked bigger on day two, so I’ll attribute my initial impression in part to his being grouped mainly with the defensemen on Wednesday, all of whom are 6’1″ or taller. Hopefully he commits fully to training with his final year in college, and adds some strength. Tended to only interact with players he was familiar with in Leblanc and MacMillan.

Mark MacMillan: I’ll call MacMillan a pet prospect of mine. He’s filling out slowly, now generously listed at 183 lbs after being drafted at 150, but he does look bigger than in the past. He’s a skilled guy with interesting offensive tools, but had some trouble with a few skating drills (he looked alright at times as well, but it’s an area for him to focus on). A longer-term project, he may be a go-to player at UND next season, so that’s perhaps the only reason to be happy that Kristo will be returning there for another season.

Here is what All-Habs had to say about a few of our forwards as well as about former Fighting Sioux forward Mike Cichy. Kramer kind of confirms what Sioux fans already knew about Cichy – during his time at UND.  During Cichy's short time at UND,  there were rumblings that Cichy wasn’t the most dedicated or hardest of workers on the ice or in the weight room.

This was basically confirmed after his first season, when Fighting Sioux coach Dave Hakstol confirmed that Cichy had come into his first camp with the Fighting Sioux out of shape.  Looks like this might have worked out best for the Fighting Sioux in the end.

Interesting take on Kristo and Cichy at the Montreal Canadiens Development Camp

In case you haven't see this it's worth a look. I really hope that soon to be Fighting Sioux sophomore Mike Cichy can get his act together and play up to his potential. Last December at the Sioux Boosters Luncheon head coach Dave Hakstol said that Cichy came into camp a little behind in his conditioning. Maybe his trip to the Hab’s development camp will wake him up.

At the Montreal Canadiens 2010 development camp, the one ingredient in short supply is passion.

For the most part, it has been a quiet, polite affair. After two days, the most intense person on skates has been Habs' assistant coach, Kirk Muller.

An exception to the rule is Danny Kristo who has approached every task with enthusiasm. He also seems to be injecting some creativity in repetitive drills. While Kristo navigated the cones like everyone else, he banked the puck off the boards to give the exercise an additional challenge.

Kristo seems to be enjoying himself and is showing some leadership qualities by chatting otherwise silent teammates.

The forwards went through a number of skating drills on Wednesday morning. Kristo has good acceleration but it was Joonas Natinnen who excelled with powerful cuts and excellent body control. Gabriel Dumont and Michael Cichy were clearly the weakest of the group. [Read the rest of the article]