What to watch at Thunderbirds training camp

Big things are expected of the 2015-16 Seattle Thunderbirds, who begin training camp with prospect scrimmages Tuesday morning.

Part of the reason for those high expectations is Seattle’s plethora of elite talent, featuring five 2015 NHL Draft picks led by Mathew Barzal, who was selected in the first round by the New York Islanders.

We know that Seattle’s top level talent will produce, barring injury, but for this team to be successful, other questions will need to be answered.

Who will start in net?

This question has been asked since the surprising retirement of Danny Mumaugh midway through the 2014-15 season. Logan Flodell was called up to replace Mumaugh as Taran Kozun’s backup, and while Flodell has loads of talent, he remains untested on a team hoping to go deep in the playoffs. Flodell, 18, will enter training camp with stiff competition from the newly-acquired Taz Burman, also 18, who the T-Birds picked up from Red Deer for Lane Pederson, who attended development camp with the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks.

Whoever earns the No. 1 job will likely receive plenty of rest as one would expect both Flodell and Burman to receive significant playing time. Behind them is 17-year-old Ryan Gilchrist, who the team signed to a WHL Standard Player Agreement at the very end of last season and also looks like he has a bright future in this league.

Who will make up the third defensive pairing?

The top four defensemen on the T-Birds appear pretty clear at this point, with 20 year olds Jerret Smith and Jared Hauf and 18 year olds Ethan Bear and Turner Ottenbreit returning after impressive seasons last year.

Who the fifth and sixth D-men will be is a bigger question. Sahvan Khaira, 17, saw playing time on the blue line as a rookie last year, while also playing some minutes up front towards the end of the year. A natural defenseman, it would be surprising if Khaira didn’t return to the backend full time this year. Next to Khaira may be 16-year-old rookie Jarret Tyszka, the team’s first round Bantam draft pick in 2014. Tyszka possesses the size and skating ability that will help him adjust quickly, but admits that he needs to add strength to excel at this level.

Another contender for that ice time will be Brandon Schuldhaus, a 17 year old who signed this summer after a strong season at Shattuck St. Mary’s. Many thought that he was ready to play in the WHL as a 16 year old, but the defensive group was too deep for him to get significant playing time in his first year of eligibility.

Which rookie forwards will step in and fill out the lower lines?

The team clearly feels they have some special incoming talent after dealing both Lane Pederson and Calvin Spencer in the weeks leading up to training camp. Pederson in particular has professional potential as made evident by his invite to Anaheim’s camp.

However, it would have been tough for either player to find significant ice time on a team with a deep and talented forward group. Much of the top six, where Pederson probably belongs, is already set in stone and the team felt that Spencer, 19, would be better served finishing out his career elsewhere while they got their younger prospects ice time.

A number of players are likely to contend for those spots, including 2014 draft picks Matthew Wedman and Wyatt Bear. Kaden Elder was one of the team’s first round picks in 2013 and played a limited role in 50 games last season, but should be in line for more responsibility this season.

With a training camp roster featuring over 70 players, don’t be surprised if a few lesser-known players made big strides last season and end up turning heads at training camp.

What kind of player will Gustav Olhaver be?

The T-Birds appear to have grabbed an impact player in the Import Draft, snagging Sweden’s Gustav Olhaver with their only pick. Olhaver, listed at 6-foot-6 and 215 pounds, was a seventh-round choice of the Colorado Avalanche in June’s NHL Entry Draft.

Most of the time there’s an adjustment period for foreign players, and Olhaver should be no exception. It’s a luxury for the T-Birds that they can get him up to speed at his own pace, but the sooner he gets used to the faster, more physical game, the sooner the T-Birds can have three impact lines.

Olhaver has imposing size and will instantly become the tallest player on the T-Birds, but reports on him say that he skates with the speed and agility of a much smaller player. He doesn’t project as an enforcer, but his impressive skating ability combined with his long reach and willingness to fight for the puck in the corners and down low give him a high ceiling.

Alexander True, one of the team’s import picks the year before, started slowly but came on strong after the World Junior Championships. An unfortunate injury sidelined him just as he started to get going, but if Olhaver can make the same adjustment, it will make Seattle’s forward group that much deeper.

How will NHL development camps affect players?

Seattle had nine players attend NHL development camps this summer, though only eight remain on the roster after Pederson was traded. The effects of those camps will be felt up and down the roster.

It’s expected that everyone made positive strides during the offseason, but those who attended camps led by NHL coaching staffs had the opportunity to learn from the best. From how to take care of their body on off days to knowing when and where to shoot, these camps teach players how to progress both on and off the ice. Players are able to pass this knowledge on to their younger colleagues who haven’t yet had the opportunity to take part in an NHL camp of their own.

Training camp will provide our first glimpse at the work each player put in during the offseason, and it will be exciting to see how players like Mathew Barzal, Ryan Gropp, Keegan Kolesar, and the rest of the camp attendees have improved their game prior to the season.

These questions won’t all be answered in training camp, and some won’t even be solved by the end of the preseason, but we should start getting an idea of what this team is capable of Tuesday.