RICK NASH Reflects on the Columbus Blue Jackets 2024 Development Camp, Cayden Lindstrom Comparisons
I know uh Kaden didn’t get a chance to skate a ton but it was just nice to have him here he talked about how much he enjoyed seeing the city of Columbus things like that get a chance to meet everybody how valuable can that kind of stuff be and even doing maybe some of the offi stuff too in the bonding and things like that yeah it’s something that we um try to key in on on a development Camp is having these young prospects fall in love with the city the way uh you know some of us on the staff did so it’s you know even though he wasn’t on the ice it’s still important to uh you know ingrain him in the city and and meet some of the fans and and see what this this city is all about and uh I think you got a great feel from it want to ask about brenley too he’s the only guy in this camp that played some NHL minutes so kind of makes him a leader in some ways was it did you see him kind of embrace that he talked about taking Kaden under his wing a little bit and talking to him was that a big thing you wanted to see out of Gavin this week yeah for sure you know you always find some leaders uh at at a prospect tournament or development camp and Gavin is is definitely won he’s obviously been around a winning culture in in Michigan and then you know went on to um play an NHL game and then play the world championship so I’m sure that experience that he had over there being around some of uh great NHL stars and leaders kind of uh you know Embraces it when he gets back uh back here with our prospects want to ask you about want to ask you about just the value of having this development Camp some teams are getting away from it some have it before to start a training camp uh how do you feel about this and do you think Don wadell will have the same uh opinion as you do yeah um yeah it’s probably you know obviously I can’t speak for Dawn and don’t know where where he stands exactly on it um you know I thought this year’s development Camp was great that we that we were able to have it at Nationwide Arena and um not have to worry about all the logistics of it doing it at the chiller the last two years uh um I put value in it me personally I think it’s great to get the draft picks in here right away that we drafted for number one to to meet everyone um number two to just to start to get to know Columbus in the city and in the arena and just how how you get around what the feel is um you know a lot of our draft picks have never really been to Columbus Ohio and um I think that part is important so hopefully hopefully we keep it around do you like it with the smaller numbers this year well yeah I mean you know we we always try to keep it right around the 30 number so obviously sometimes that’s going to be 34 35 and just you know an odd year we were at 29 29 this year so it’s sometimes it’s a bit hard right at the end with with free agency or I should say free agent invites to uh to figure it out with if if a guy gets drafted or a guy doesn’t Rick some some teams across the league are going away from the on Ice stuff entirely are you sort of constantly evaluating how you want to do this and thinking about it and rethinking how how best to run a development Camp yeah for sure and um you know we’re you know I talked to a lot of the other other uh development guys that are running other camps and and um you know what they put value in whether it’s no on Ice whether it’s hard on Ice um I think right now um I like I like some on Ice stuff I think it’s important that these these guys don’t get out of the routine of not skating they’re all skating already anyways um obviously there’s some rare cases with me cup guys yeah um but for the most part I I like to say it’s not an evaluation Camp it’s a uh it’s a development Camp um but it it seems like people in the hockey world are always evaluating so so we we try to enforce that on the ice that is a development camp we want to give them some tools that they can take back for the summer and use and do you give them specific tools for them to go back and use or is there a broad message to all of the players when they leave yeah you know it’s um it’s something that we’ve been working on uh for for you know what what’s important for you to be a blue jacket and I think those things kind of change when you get a when you get a new GM or a new coach in so we’re kind of in that transition stage right now but uh our idea as a development team is is to give them some keys on on what’s the what’s the best pathway to become a blue jacket so that’s something that uh I’ll have to work out on with uh with the new coach coming in and obviously Don to uh to figure those keys out the other development guys are they Kings as well that is a great question for verus Todd Todd’s at the back that’s a question for Todd one king king’s got a court you know is there anybody here that kind of reminds you of yourself when you were coming in you know Columbus as a young kid um yeah you know it’s it’s it’s tough to obviously key it on I think pory asked me the other day about Kaden and then hearing some um resins there uh obviously he’s a big power forward you know with with a set of hands and can skatee but uh just to answer your question that’s kind of the the only one that I’ve heard just through you guys M yeah what would you tell him you know as far as approach you know coming back there’s some question of whether he’s going to go back whether he’s going to stay here do you want him just kind of come in here and try and kick the door down basically yeah I I I I believe that’s got to be everyone’s mindset who’s coming to an NHL training camp um if you come with the mindset that you’ll be back in junior or back in the minors in a few weeks then um you know you’re probably never going to reach your full potential so I would hope that his mindset would would be to come in and and make the team for sure which I hope is uh however many guys we have I hope that’s their mindset coming into Camp you’ve made it pretty clear that it’s not an evaluation Camp by any means but from day one until today what do you think of the on ey stuff and the offi stuff in terms of how the group came together yeah I thought it was I thought it was great um you know the the practices were were high paced I thought uh Derek Dorset and Tommy cross and Y Ru did a great job on on the ice with with the drills and making sure we work uh specifics with with the D and with the forwards so overall I thought it was great I thought the offi stuff the guys had a lot of fun with um going to the police academy and and uh you know we did some educational stuff with the guest speaker and and the Clippers game yesterday so I thought it was a great camp and and the feedback I got from the players that they had a had a good time and learned a lot so that’s all you can ask for from these had the police academy thing come up because every player I’ve asked said that’s been uh his favorite part of the week yeah so you know it’s it’s tough you it kind of works in threeyear cycles and you try to look for different ideas and you know whether it’s cooking classes or uh grocery shopping all these different things and um just I just had a had a friend in the in the police department and uh I set up with the uh the coaches earlier on to do some team building and then you know we thought it could be uh something good for the prospects um when we talked to Don in in Las Vegas we obviously big defenseman four big defensemen but he’s he was quick to point out these are guys who can skate as well as being big did you see that out there I mean can you see something like that out there when they’re just kind of skating around a little bit just how they move yeah for sure and that uh it definitely sticks out when when you watch the Lee Harris uh sessions when they start doing their Edge work and I thought Charlie did a did a great job and you saw him kind of breaking today and score a goal and and same with um with Luke Luke has has a a heavy shot but he can skate too and he’s huge so it was obviously um you know Don Don’s comments were were bang on yeah that’s impressive like when they’re that tall I A lot of times the bigger guys can kind of struggle skating a little bit right well especially at this age too where they’re they’re just kind of um you know growing into their bodies or feeling comfortable in their in their bodies or just had a huge growth spurt a year ago so yeah so it is uh it is different but um you know nowadays these these these kids have been having skating coaches since since they were young and and it seems like everyone in the NHL can skate and and has great Edge work and great balance when did you get your first skating coach how old were I still don’t still never hired one just at the end of my career I hired Lee Harris that was my that was my first and only yeah yeah funny good question
Director of Player Development, Rick Nash, reflects on the Columbus Blue Jackets 2024 Development Camp.
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1 comment
Why didn’t Lindstrom skate much?