Off-ice relationships a priority for Sabres at development camp

Gavin McCarthy already had his Buffalo Bisons hat prepped as of Monday afternoon, with he and the rest of the Sabres prospects in town for development camp set to attend the ballgame later that night.

McCarthy, a Clarence Center native and a third-round pick by the Sabres at the NHL Draft last week, is well-acquainted with his hometown ballpark. He attended a game as recently as two weeks ago and caught a ball in the stands.

Most others - like first-round selection and British Columbia native Zach Benson - are not.

"I haven't really watched a baseball game before," Benson said. "So that will be pretty cool."

Therein lies one of the main purposes of development camp - not to get acquainted with baseball, but for prospects to get to know each other in social atmospheres, to be introduced to the Buffalo community, and to familiarize themselves with the Sabres coaches and support staff.

"We're not really making judgements in terms of their playing ability at this point," Sabres associate general manager Jason Karmanos said. "It's more of an introduction to the organization for most of them. Getting to know staff better, getting to know the city. Making them feel more comfortable when they come to training camp, that's the primary purpose."

McCarthy, a right-shot defenseman set to begin his college career at Boston University next season, has a head start in those regards. He's recognized several of the drills being orchestrated by Sabres development coach Tim Kennedy, his former coach with the Buffalo Jr. Sabres. He's had family and friends in attendance for both on-ice sessions to this point.

Others like Benson were pleasantly surprised to see a packed house inside LECOM Harborcenter on a Monday morning in July.

"It's pretty surreal," he said. "When you look around, there's a lot of people in the stands. Start of July and you have that many fans, it's obviously a hockey city."

The Sabres prospects will have the day off from on-ice activities Tuesday, instead using July 4 for off-ice team building and sightseeing. They have their third and final on-ice practice Wednesday, followed by the annual 3-on-3 French Connection Tournament on Thursday morning.

Rochester Americans coach Seth Appert said the hope is for prospects to use the on-ice sessions to become acquainted with the Sabres' style of play and possibly gain tidbits of information they can take home for their training. He echoed Karmanos in saying the true growth happens off the ice.

"Those relationships, the culture that we want them to stand for in our organization and that Kevyn stands for right on through, that's critical," he said. "Those are things that a true organization is built upon. It's not just talent. It's having the right people, people that want to be here.

"It's having the culture and being proud to be Sabres. It's having that culture in Rochester. You don't create that without relationships. And those relationships, as well know, they take time because the first thing we have to do is we have to earn the players' trust."

Here are more notes from Day 2 of development camp.

1.Karmanos said the search for assistant coaches to fill out Appert's staff in Rochester is nearing its conclusion. Former assistants Michael Peca and Mike Weber have both departed for jobs as NHL assistants this offseason.

"With the couple years we've had the last couple years in particular, we've just had tremendous interest in the positions and it's been a great an exciting process, quite frankly," Karmanos said.

2. Aleksandr Kisakov was the lone Russian player on the Rochester Americans last season, his first in North America. It was a year of adjustments for the 20-year-old, from learning English to adding size to support his high-level skill.

The work should pay off not only for Kisakov, but for his fellow Russians joining him in Rochester this season. Forward Viktor Neuchev and defenseman Nikita Novikov both signed their entry-level deals this summer and are participating in their first development camp.

"It's been great to see this week the group of Russian players that we have here kind of laughing and talking," Karmanos said. "Their personalities are coming out more. When Kisa came over last year, he was obviously just basically by himself other than [defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin] being [in Buffalo].

"He took the steps on his own. I think he was already making progress and integrating himself, so him having been here last year … it will help the other two adjust."

3.The Sabres prospects return to the ice inside LECOM Harborcenter at 11:45 a.m. on Wednesday. The session is free and open to the public.