The development camp provided important knowledge for both the Detroit Red Wings’ prospects and the hockey operations staff.
“It’s always beneficial to have a new draft pick on the team,” assistant director of player development Dan Cleary said Friday. “It’s awesome to have these kids on the team. It’s been a lot of fun for me and everyone involved, just getting to know each other. It’s been great meeting all these new faces, learning some new nicknames and stuff. I’m looking forward to working with these kids as we head into the fall.”
For the players, it’s about learning all the off-ice aspects of being a better athlete, from nutrition to sleep habits.
“I want to get stronger in the offseason,” 2023 second-round draft pick Brady Cleveland said. “I want to work on upper body strength and lower body strength.”
Learning that is one of the key elements of the five-day event, which culminated in a three-on-three tournament.
“It was awesome,” Cleary said. “The kids were so well behaved, they worked hard, they listened carefully. They were amazing. Probably one of the best development camps I’ve been to.”
“They’ve definitely become friends and hopefully will be teammates in the future. They learned a lot from (team nutritionist) Lisa McDowell about sleep and nutrition. I thought the skating part was great. They’re all basically going home with a plan of things to work on, especially the European athletes and the college kids who have to get out of here.”
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Meet the “Taxi”
One of those European players is Michael Brandseg-Nygaard, the Wings’ top pick in 2024, who will soon return to his native Norway and eventually to Sweden to play for Skellefteå in the Swedish Hockey League (where he will be teammates with 2023 first-round draft pick Aksel Sandin Pelikka).
“I learned his nickname was Taxi,” Cleary said. “I thought that was a unique story.”
Cleary said that Branseg-Nygaard’s family ran a taxi company in Norway and that his father, Kjell Richard Nygaard, who played in the Norwegian top league and for the national team, was often taken to and from training in a taxi, so much so that his teammates began calling him “Taxi.”
“They looked at his son and said, ‘Little City Cab, Little Taxi,'” Cleary said. “So I asked him, ‘Can I call you Taxi?’ And he said, ‘Sure,’ and so that became his nickname.”
But Branzeg Nygard is no economy-size cab driver: At 18 years old, he’s 6-foot-1 and weighs 207 pounds.
“He’s going from Allsvenskan to the SHL, which is obviously a big jump,” Cleary said, “but with his size and weight he’ll be able to control himself in the corners and defend and hold onto the puck a little better. I think it’ll be an easier transition because he’s got that size.”
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Hurry from Czech Republic
Ondrej Bettcher, who was drafted in the third round (80th overall) last weekend, was not in Las Vegas for the draft.
“I was at home in the Czech Republic, watching the game on TV with my family,” Boettcher said of how he found out about the incident. And so began a hectic 24 hours.
“It was very early,” he said. “I was called up in the evening in the Czech Republic and was supposed to be on a plane the next morning. It was really early.”
Bettcher is a late bloomer, coming off a breakout season with Prince George of the Western Hockey League at 20 years old, where he recorded 96 points in 58 games. Bettcher said he hasn’t yet decided where he’ll play next season.
The last word
During training camp, general manager Steve Yzerman watched the team from a comfortable players’ lounge above the end zone. There were no development camps when Yzerman was drafted in 1983. Even if there had been, the nutrition information might not have stuck.
“I don’t know if I paid any attention to it or took notice,” Yzerman said with a laugh.
In today’s professional sports, that’s invaluable. “Things have evolved and changed a lot,” Yzerman says. “From nutrition to skill instructors to skating instructors to the performance science part of the sport. Kids are getting so much more information and education, and we hope they’ll soak it up. For the most part, younger kids these days are obsessed with gadgets and science and find it interesting. Some of the older players are embracing it, too. It’s all designed to make them better hockey players.”
Please contact Helen St James email addressFollow us on Twitter Helenest JamesHer latest book is “On the Clock: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft.” Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personal copies are available by email at her.
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This article originally appeared in the Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings development camp ends as ‘one of the best’
