Sharpen Up: July 10, 2017

One more day of on-ice workouts before tomorrow's 3-on-3 French Connection Tournament at HabrorCenter. We'll see you at 10:30 and 1:45 for today's sessions. All development camp practices are free and open to the public.
Here's what you need to know.

From yesterday...

Here's Brian Duff and Kris Baker on some prospects that have caught their attention through two days of camp. Here, they talk about Rasmus Asplund, Sean Malone, Casey Fitzgerald, Vaclav Karabacek, and who to watch for in the 3-on-3:

If you missed their breakdown on Saturday (with commentary on Casey Mittelstadt, Marcus Davidsson, Ukko-Pekka Lukkonen, Oskari Laaksonen, Jacob Bryson and Vasily Glotov). Group 3 took the ice while filming.

When the Sabres selected Laaksonen in the third round of this year's draft, they did turn some heads, just because Laaksonen was not ranked by Central Scouting and his vitals were not up to date (he was originally listed at 5-foot-9, 130 pounds). We had our first chance to talk to the (accurately measured) 6-foot-1, 165-pound right-shot defenseman for the first time on Sunday:

Jourdon LaBarber has a written feature on Laaksonen posted here if that's your jam.
From the first-year guys to the camp veterans, every player wants to impress the new front office and coaching staff with both their on-ice and off-ice habits.
For some of the players entering their fifth development camp like Nicholas Baptiste and Justin Bailey, they see this a way to get a headstart on September's training camp.
"Any time you go into a new season, you have the best outlook on it," Bailey said. "For me, last year, I tried to have the best year I could. I was fortunate enough to play a few NHL games and I thought in some of the games, I played well and showed what I can do in the future. I've been fortunate enough to have a decent amount of success in the minor leagues.
"I want to take that success I've had in the AHL and translate it here to help the team."
Looking at the team's situation, they certainly see opportunity. Baptiste referenced Sabres general manager Jason Botterill's teams in Pittsburgh, where a young player like Jake Guentzel was able to come up from the AHL midseason and contribute to the team's run to the Stanley Cup.
Botterill has made it clear that young players will have every opportunity to make the NHL roster, but only when they're ready. The additions of free agent forwards Seth Griffith, Kyle Criscuolo and Kevin Porter and defenseman Matt Tennyson were made to encourage competition in training camp, which Botterill has stressed as a vital experience for young players.
Malone is another player in his fifth dev camp, although this is the first time he's skated in one since 2013. After a stellar season at Harvard last year, he signed with the Sabres and made his NHL debut in the final game of 2016-17:

C.J. Smith dressed for two games toward the end of the season and found that experience invaluable:

And how about one more strong interview from yesterday? Here's last year's second-round pick Rasmus Asplund, who will spend another season in Sweden:

Today's groups

Group One
Forwards
56 Justin Bailey
13 Christopher Brown
41 Vasily Glotov
37 Connor Hurley
74 Vaclav Karabacek
24 Bobby McMann
77 Casey Mittelstadt
70 Alexander Nylander
84 Victor Olofsson
19 C.J. Smith
17 Linus Weissbach
Defensemen
5 Jacob Bryson
38 Casey Fitzgerald
46 Anthony Florentino
54 Brycen Martin
51 Austin Osmanski
6 Billy Sweezey
Goaltenders
50 Jonas Johansson
1 Jake McGrath
Group Two
Forwards
65 Rasmus Asplund
73 Nicholas Baptiste
86 Eric Cornel
8 Marcus Davidsson
52 Hudson Fasching
27 Brandon Hagel
42 Sean Malone
81 Brett Murray
61 Cliff Pu
57 Maxwell Willman
Defensemen
10 Erik Autio
3 William Borgen
79 Vojtech Budik
45 Brendan Guhle
20 Oskari Laaksonen
58 Devante Stephens
Goaltenders
33 Kyle Keyser
60 Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

Bulking up the scouting staff

Yesterday, the Sabres announced that Ryan Jankowski will serve as the new director of amateur scouting. He's spent the last four seasons in various roles with Hockey Canada.
Hired by the organization in June 2013 as head scout, Jankowski was later promoted to director of player personnel. In this role, he was responsible for overseeing all player evaluation and selection for Canada's national junior team, as well as the country's under-18 and under-17 programs. In addition to his scouting duties at all levels, Jankowski's time with Hockey Canada included managerial duties with Canada's under-18 team.
Head amateur scout Jeff Crisp has also been promoted to assistant director of amateur scouting.

Coming up today

We'll have full coverage of today's on-ice sessions and prep you for tomorrow's tournament, which will be streamed live here on Sabres.com and on Facebook starting at 9:15 a.m. Brian Duff and Rob Ray will be providing commentary throughout.