Caps Camp – July 19, 2009

Angus here – fire away with your fantasy hockey-related questions to me all afternoon! Check it out in my section on the DobberHockey boards!

The Flyers signed Jason Ward as a UFA. His presense will not impact the odds of Nodl or JVR making the squad. Maybe Powe, Asham or Kalinski – depth guys like that.

Some notes on the washington Capitals’ development camp, thanks to Tarik El-Bashir, the Capitals Insider: He really liked unsigned and undrafted winger Michael Dubuc. He was the first star of camp. The QMJHL grad had a cup of coffee with Hershey last year, but spent most of the year dominated the ECHL. After a camp like that, it’s hard to imagine him going back to the ‘E’. In fact, continued improvement could see him in the NHL in a couple of years, not unlike Alex Burrows’ ascension.

The second star according to El-Bashir was Dobber favorite Mathieu Perreault. Small and skilled, I knew it would be a long wait for him, but what I think we’ll see from him this year are signs of dominating the AHL like he did the ‘Q’. With age comes strength and experience, and with that comes more responsibility and ice time. That leads to a jump in points. A big AHL year would mean a long look in 2010-11 and a longer look in 2011-12 by the big club.

The third star was another Dobber favorite – defenseman John Carlson. Or as I like to call him – Mike Green II. He sees the ice really well, boasts size, skill and hockey sense. I saw him play recently against the Knights (to see that review, click Columnists/Articles and then “The Dobotomy” and look for Hockey Knight in London) and said he was the best player on the ice. Players on the ice included Tavares, Hall, Kadri, Del Zotto and Nemisz.

Injury notes – Stefan Della Rovere suffered a shoulder injury; Anton Gustafsson suffered a concussion.