What To Expect from Rookie Tournament in BC

A year ago, the Edmonton Oilers rookie camp was a media bonanza. Hall, Eberle and Paajarvi were big box office and the city of Edmonton couldn't get enough of these kids. I get the feeling that this year's camp is going to be more subdued, not just because of the lack of a trio of big time prospects, but because RNH's status is so up in the air. The rookie camp and main camp are going to be a place to audition for a big league job, so a media coronation is not on the agenda. .

At last year's rookie camp, the learning process was detailed by the media.

• Taylor Hall via tsn: "It was definitely faster than an OHL game. I haven't had a lot of interaction with pro guys, but you can see the guys here who have been to pro camps before. When I got the puck, I didn't have the same time that I would have had with the Spits. That was something I was expecting and I need to get used to."
• Renney on Hall: He played hard both ways. You can see there's a level of intelligence there that maybe separates him from others and certainly the way he anticipates the game. We like that. The competitiveness is obviously there. The first one is out of the way now, so good for him."
• Hall on Sportsnet: "Everyone wants to be a difference-maker. You kind of have to take a little bit less of a role some shifts and drive the net and screen the goalie and stuff like that. As the game wore on, I thought we got a lot more comfortable with each other and by the end of the game we were clicking pretty well."

ROOKIE ROSTER

• GOAL: Olivier Roy, Tyler Bunz, Adam Brown
• DEFENSE: Colten Teubert, Taylor Fedun, Martin Marincin, Jeremie Blain, Brandon Davidson, David Musil, Martin Gernat, Ryan Lowery, Tyler Schmidt, Wes Vannieuwenhuizen
• CENTER: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Anton Lander, Milan Kytnar, Ryan Martindale, Travis Ewanyk, Chase Schaber, Colin Smith
• LEFT WING: Curtis Hamilton, Antti Tyrvainen, Phil Cornet, Drew Czerwonka, Tobias Rieder, Brett Ferguson
• RIGHT WING: Tyler Pitlick, Kristians Pelss, Toni Rajala, Cameron Abney

These kids charter to the interior today and start playing games on Sunday. Games are streamed at the Oilers website and Sportsnet is apparently picking up some of the games.  My personal belief is that the big stories this week will be RNH, Tyler Bunz, David Musil and Anton Lander. I know--big risk with those names. :-)

--

Nation Radio hits the air at noon today on Team 1260. Scheduled to appear:

• Skip Krake, former NHL and WHA player will talk to us about Ace Bailey and his tragic loss a decade ago on 9/11.
• Jason Gregor, who will give us the latest on the Oilers and offer some insight into some of the training camp battles.
• Kent Simpson, Oil Kings color commentator will tell us the latest on Edmonton's junior team and we'll pay special attention to Oiler picks Martin Gernat and Kristians Pelss.
• Jonathan Willis, who will talk Oilers and the Nations Fantasy Draft Primer.
• Thomas Drance, who writes good things at Canucks Army every week. We'll talk about the Canucks summer and ask are they better than one year ago?

Emails welcome at nationradio@theteam1260.com