Jets rookies draw a crowd

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/09/2011 (5198 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The crescendo doesn’t peak until Oct. 9 and the minute the Winnipeg Jets skate onto the ice at the MTS Centre against the Montreal Canadiens.

But the build-up to that moment has certainly has had its definitive signpost moments along the way, including Saturday at the MTS Iceplex.

And so it was on the first day of the team’s rookie camp as roughly 1,000 fans thumbed their noses at a glorious day to huddle up inside and watch 22 Jets’ prospects practice for just over an hour.

So hyped up are people in these parts they erupted in a hearty roar when goaltenders Chris Carrozzi and Edward Pasquale first stepped onto the ice wearing Jets’ practice unis.

They cheered every move by first-round draft pick Mark Scheifele. They oohed at physically imposing defenceman Cody Sol (6-foot-6, 240 pounds). And they aahed every dangle, top-shelf shot and lightning-quick pad save along the way.

“Wearing a Jets’ jersey is pretty cool and walking off the ice and having fans bombard you at a rookie-camp practice is unbelievable,” said Jason Gregoire, the Winnipeg-born forward via the University of North Dakota.

“It’s awesome. You look up… it’s a practice and I’ve never seen anything like this for a practice. I know what Winnipeg’s about. I know the fan base, but I honestly didn’t even expect this.”

The truth is, no one really knows what to expect other than more fandemonium and more hysteria. And even those who have been on the ground here for awhile — including Swedish winger Carl Klingberg — continue to marvel at it all.

“That was awesome,” Klingberg said. “I knew there were going to be a lot of fans at main camp later, but this was awesome for sure.”

Asked if that surprised him, Klingberg grinned and added:

“Not really. I know Winnipeg is a great town to play hockey in. There’s a lot of people coming here cheering for us and I see it out in the street all the time. It’s awesome.”

The Jets’ prospects will skate again today at MTS Iceplex (10 a.m.-11:30 a.m., open to the public) before flying out to Penticton later in the day. They’ll spend four days in B.C. practising and participating in the Vancouver Canucks Young Stars tournament that also includes the Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, and San Jose Sharks.

Winnipeg’s prospects meet San Jose Monday night (9:30 p.m.), Edmonton on Tuesday evening (9:30 p.m.) before wrapping up with a Thursday matinee against the Canucks (1:30 p.m., all broadcast on Sports Radio 1290).

And it’s there were the Jets’ brass will get a better feel for the best and brightest in the organization talent pool and decide who will get in invitation to main camp, which opens next weekend.

“I liked it,” said Jets’ head coach Claude Noel. “I thought they had pretty good energy. It was a pretty hard day (the prospects went through fitness testing before taking to the ice). It was an early day for the players and they died out a little bit at the end, but I thought they were good.

“There are some good kids, good size and I thought they worked hard. You could see some guys have been in junior camps for a couple of weeks so they had a little bit of an advantage. But these things have a tendency to level out after a couple of days.

“What players have to understand at this stage is they want to show people their growth is coming along and that the future is what we’re looking at,” added Noel.

“I don’t know a lot of the players, this is the first time for me to see a lot of them. A lot of the drills were shooting drills, so everybody has a chance to shine there. The opportunity to really see players is when they get into a game format and there’s one puck and 12 players. That’s when you start to see who can play in that type of game.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPEdTait

FAST FACTS

Players in camp: 22

Nationalities: Canadians: 16; Americans: 3; Swedes: 2 Russians: 1

Manitobans: 3 — Jason Gregoire, Winnipeg; Jordan DePape, Winnipeg; Shayne Wiebe, Brandon

Draft picks: 16

Tallest: D Cody Sol — 6-foot-6

Heaviest: Sol — 240 pounds

Shortest: F Michael Kirkpatrick; F Shayne Wiebe — 5-foot-10

Lightest: D Julian Melchiori — 167

Combined NHL games played: 1, Carl Klingberg

Combined AHL games played: 42 — G Edward Pasquale — 24; Klingberg — 8; D Zach Redmond, C Eric O’Dell — 3; D Cody Sol, G Chris Carrozzi, D Ben Chiarot, C Shayne Wiebe — 1.