In his own words: Fitzgerald on the importance of development camp

Defensive prospect Casey Fitzgerald (2016, third round) shares what his week has been like during Sabres development camp presented by BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York with Sabres.com.
Hands down, the biggest honor of my career was being selected as captain at Boston College last season. I was one of two captains for our team along with Chris Brown, who's also here at development camp with the Sabres.
Our team had no senior class, so Chris and I were named captains as juniors. I was honored because it's not just coaches who select the captain, it's not just the staff. It's the players. Whoever the players feel is the captain, that's who's going to be captain. That also means it's a major responsibility.

As a team, we had our struggles, but I felt Chris and I stepped to the plate and took on the challenge of developing our freshmen. We were one of the youngest teams in college hockey, so that's a challenge itself, teaching guys how to step and be ready to play a college game every night.
In a way, that's part of what we're trying to accomplish this week. I haven't been able to get on the ice - I'm nursing some minor issues, taking care of the little things to make sure I'm 100 percent - but development camp is as much about learning how to be a pro off the ice.
That's one thing I love about this organization, the emphasis they place on development. It's why they're going to have success. Off the ice, they're making sure we're learning the Sabre way, being leaders, taking initiative and stepping up where we can.

A big thing for us this week is reaching out to younger players. There's a lot of Swedes, a lot of college guys. It's making sure we're interacting all as one group. This is my third camp, so I believe it's an area where I can help.
Looking back at my first year and how I felt at my first camp, my advice to the new players is this: Take a deep breath. It's not an evaluation camp, and whether you have a good camp is not going to be the final determination of who you are as a player.
This week is about development. It's about developing these relationships with the staff as well as the players and kind of just growing as a person. It's learning to use the resources given to us to the best of our ability and being able to take advantage of everything at our disposal.
My roommate is Lawrence Pilut, another defenseman from Sweden who's coming to play in North America for the first time. He's already done a great job of stepping in and taking charge. You can tell he's going to have a lot of success here.
I'm going to take everything I learn this week and bring it back to Boston College for my senior year. I always said before I was even drafted that, no matter where my career takes me, I would stay and play all four years at college. It's important to me and my family that I earn my degree, and the Sabres have been really supportive.
Hopefully, I can continue to develop as senior - on the ice and off.