Training Camp Notebook - 26.09.24

It’s been one week since on-ice sessions began at Flames training camp, and there’s no sign of things slowing down at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

In today’s Training Camp Notebook, we touch on a pair of goaltenders, as well as expectations for a pair of prospects set for big things this winter in the Canadian Hockey League.

Ready For Battle

The camp competition is fierce, especially in goal.

Dan Vladar is the most experienced of the goaltenders vying for roles with the NHL club the season.

He says that the battle between the pipes has only helped ratchet up what’s already been a competitive week.

“It’s been probably the toughest camp that I’ve ever been to,” Vladar said Friday. “Obviously, lots of recovery but at the same time, I think everybody is having fun.”

Vladar returned to the Flames crease Monday in a 6-1 win over the Oilers, turning aside 18 shots over his 40 minutes of work.

He’s seeing each ice-time as a chance to stand out, with the likes of Dustin Wolf and Devin Cooley also fighting for playing time with the big club.

“With the competition too, it keeps you (motivated),” he said. “You don’t want to give up on any puck, you want to show off every practice, because you don’t know who’s watching.

“You want to make yourself better.”

Cool Under Pressure

Every conversation with Devin Cooley, meanwhile, is simply electric.

He shares his thoughts honestly, in an up-tempo, stream-of-consciousness speaking style that - frankly - has put members of the media pool in stitches already this pre-season.

It’s a frenetic type of energy.

But Thursday, he shared some insight on how he’s slowed things down, and how that’s helped him continue along in his pursuit of personal improvement, and ultimately an NHL job.

“I didn’t have, really, any consistent goalie coaching until I went to the USHL at 18, 19 years old,” Cooley explained. I feel like my entire career, I’ve been trying to play catch-up.

“I always had this raw, athletic ability; I was mobile, I was quick, I was tall, so I had all the tools but I honestly had no idea what I was doing, for the longest time. In the USHL I finished like last in save percentage and goals-against average, so that wasn’t good at all, but I had all the tools, but like if you would have asked me ‘Hey, in this situation, what do you do here?’ I would be like ‘I dunno, I just figure it out.’ So that doesn’t work at the higher levels.”

“So now it’s like taking this raw talent and structuring it, and now being a lot more technical with things. Now I’m feeling a lot more confident, where it’s like if there’s a certain situation, I feel like ‘OK, I know exactly what to do here.’ Now it’s just continuing to build off that muscle memory, and get better and better.”

This summer, Cooley focused on staying taller in his net, along with little adjustments - ‘having my butt up,’ he says, for starters - along with a move away from ‘sitting back’ in his crease, and hand positioning.

His summer work was all about building the aforementioned muscle memory, rep after rep after rep.

“That’s been like a huge game-changer for me, just letting pucks come to me and using my body for them to hit me instead of feeling ‘I’ve got to get so low and track everything.’ It’s so hard to track, like it comes so fast sometimes.

“Having pucks hit me a lot more, it’s just made the game a lot easier for me.”

Junior Jottings

The club re-assigned forwards Matvei Gridin and Andrew Basha to the CHL Thursday morning.

Gridin will skate with the QMJHL’s Shawinigan Cataractes, while Basha heads back to the Medicine Hat Tigers of the WHL.

But Flames head coach Ryan Huska was beaming when asked about his impressions of the pair of 2024 draftees, and how they each fared at their first NHL main camp.

“I thought both were excellent,” Huska said. “With Grids, like you can see the skill set; he’s already, as a young 18-year-old, he’s a man. I almost envision him as a guy that’s going to go away and he’s going to dominate in the Q, and he’s going to come back next year and be in a position to make our team.

“Like, you have a sense about him, he’s got the ability to play the game.”

Basha’s Tigers are the early-season favourite in the WHL, stacked with a roster that features the likes of fourth-overall pick Cayden Lindstrom, as well as 2026-eligible centre Gavin McKenna.

Huska is hopeful Basha - who tallied 85 points in Medicine Hat a season ago - will lead the charge in the Gas City, as the Tigers go in search of their first league title since 2007.

“With a good team, our expectation is that he’s going to be the guy that drives it,” Huska said. “We want him to be the guy that’s the hardest-working guy, he’s setting the pace in practice. All the good teams, their top players are their hardest-working, best players, and that’s what we want him to be.”

“He has an opportunity to do that on a team that’s going to be very competitive.”