Dev Camp Diaries: Continuing to Build

Jeff Tambellini and his staff work tirelessly with prospects year-round to support them as people and players as they move through their careers and across increasingly difficult levels of hockey. Once a year, all those prospects come together to development camp to connect with one another and with the organization to which they belong. Tambellini shared his reflections on the third development camp held in Seattle and what comes next.

Every year’s camp is a little different, and this year it was our biggest camp to date in terms of drafted players attending, but it was also unique because it’s the first time we’ve held a big group of our prospects out. Players who were part of the Calder Cup run with Coachella Valley, like Shane Wright, Ryan Winterton, Logan Morrison and Jacob Melanson. It was different, but I liked that we had guys here who were really pushing. We had players who are coming out of the CHL and NCAA and haven’t yet had a taste of the AHL, so we had guys who wanted to be here, who were fresh. We thought overall it was a really good camp.

The biggest thing of this week has been to expose our players to the city of Seattle, the Seattle Kraken organization, and the standards that we have within the Seattle Kraken. That's first and foremost. We think it's been great to have all these guys come in. We've been so impressed with all the guys and it's exciting for us to see the development of where they are at over halfway through an offseason. We've seen great results in the gym. We saw great results on the ice, and it's been a really good week.

It's important to remember, however, that this camp isn’t about evaluation. We want to see where these guys are off the ice, physically and mentally. Again, we're trying to expose them to the National Hockey League and get them used to being in the building, being around our general manager, our head coach, our assistant coaches, our trainers. We’re preparing them for when they come to training camps for real. So, the more reps they get in what NHL life is like, the better prepared they are for day one when they actually get here for real. We think we've done a good job of just letting them feel what the NHL feels like.

And this isn’t just for the players. This time helps my team get to know each of them individually so we can work with them throughout the coming months and seasons. Eight new players were just drafted into the organization. Just having the opportunity to spend the week with them - that's the hardest part during the season – finding that kind of time to spend together. This week, we’ve been able to just get to know our players as people first, and that's where we'd like to start. These weeks where we really get to spend time with the player on the ice but also the player off the ice are fantastic. Especially our new Draft classes. We added eight new players to our group at this year’s Draft and each year a brand new draft class comes in that is going through the whirlwind of the NHL draft and coming to Seattle. It's great to go through the week with them, get to when they've settled in a little bit and just get to talk to them, meet them and see what they're all about.

Now, as we send them back to their hometowns and teams, we can use all we’ve learned about them as individuals, and hopefully the players can use what they’ve learned about the building blocks to becoming a pro to take the next steps in their playing careers. We’re seeing a lot of good things - It’s impressive the amount of guys who had good seasons and we try to put that into context – if you’re going to be a top six player in the NHL that is the level that is going to be expected, if not more. So now it’s about understanding what comes next and how to get there.

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