Justin Shugg Shines on Day Two
by Bob Wage on Jul 9, 2010 7:01 AM EDT
59 comments
Raleigh, N.C. Carolina Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward joined the prospects for the second day of on-ice training, but at least one of the young guns was not necessarily star struck. Windsor forward Justin Shugg lit up Ward and scored on his first three shots, the last one ringing the pipes as it went in.
Of course Ward has not played in awhile and was rusty, but the Canes' fourth round pick showed the form which helped him score 30 goals last season for the Memorial Cup Champs.
After the on-ice session was over, I asked Shugg what his goals were for next season.
"I'd like to improve my numbers and be a leader on the hockey team. I was told I would be counted on to be a leader and would be alternate captain. There will be a lot of new guys coming into Windsor and I look forward to helping out and being a good leader."
Ex-Windsor coach, Bob Boughner recently accepted a job as assistant coach in Colorado, so Windsor assistant Bob Jones will take over next year.
Boughner is known as a no-nonsense guy. I asked Shugg what it was like to play for the one time Carolina defenseman.
"He's a very serious guy. He played defense for a lot of years in the NHL and his attitude is defense first. I believe that when I came into Windsor, that's what they taught me, defense first and that's helped to develop my game."
Defense first, and he still scores 30 goals in a season? Impressive.
(Austin Levi skating drills)
Another impressive youngster in camp has been third round pick Austin Levi, who has shown good mobility and skating ability for having a big, (6'3) frame. Levi told me what camp has been like for him so far.
"It's been tough. It's a very good orientation, to get to know about the organization and the inner workings and things like that. The week is all about teaching, nutrition, training, everything that it takes to make it to the NHL. It's a lot of information to take in and it's been very tough, especially the workouts."
The hardest parts of the workouts?
"The stair workouts are the worst. Today we also did five miles on the bike which was also very hard. These are tests to see where we are and what we need to work on in order to get to the next level."
This is the first time Levi has been to North Carolina, but hopefully it won't be his last. He loves it so far.
"It's hot! And I'm not too used to that. But, it's nice here and I'm enjoying it a lot. I really like this organization, I like everything about it. I'm really excited to be here."
Next up, I asked the defenseman what his goals were for next year and what he needed to work on the most.
"I would like to expand what I do next year. I think I can jump up more on offense than what I show and I really need to tune into my potential there. So that's something that I will work on, not only for next season, but the seasons beyond. It's something I need to improve on, but yet, still keep my defensive game."
(All pictures by LTD. More photos of day two can be found here.)
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I had to
smile as Cam surely was rusty…but as i see and understand what camp is all about…this is the time for the prospects to show what they can and do bring to the table…very good and thanks to all at Canes Country and yes LTD too…and here HM2 thought or feared this was going to be a dull & boring summer…hehehe…guess not …
And if it Aint Hockey,It Aint Nothin !!
That Checkers 3rd Sweater ROCKS !!!
the kids at the end of LTD’s photos look like they are coming out of the building and thinking “Who the heck are all these people???”
Thanks for the information and photos. Can’t wait to be there myself today!
"The increase in pain is way beyond what you would expect a person to play with," said coach Paul Maurice. "Unfortunately it’s even beyond what Tim Gleason can play with, because he can play with just about anything."
We definitely have a few prospects at the LW position. I’m glad he got a little attention, its got to be tough playing well, only to get looked over because of Hall in Windsor and Skinner at this camp.
Triple Gold Juice - It's Potent and Guaranteed to Help You Score!
by PackPride17 on Jul 9, 2010 9:10 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
If I’m not mistaken, he’s too young. A ’91 birthday makes him only 18 (same age as my brother-which is scary to me on so many levels) and too young to be in the AHL. Sutter was in the same position his first year (too young for the AHL) so it was the NHL or juniors until his junior team finished the season.
I could totally be wrong though.
"What Carolina really has going for them is Brandon Sutter. When that kid first showed up, he looked like a skinny little thing that wouldn’t last two weeks. But he’s turned into a real star."
That’s a weird rule in my opinion.. why can you play NHL at 18 but not AHL, you’d think it’d be the other way around wouldn’t you? Does anyone know why they do that?
-Cory- LETS GO CANES.
by truheelzfan44 on Jul 9, 2010 1:54 PM EDT up reply actions
To protect the major junior leagues from being raided for talent more so than they already are, I suspect.
“Hey! That’s my moneymaker star!”, you know.
If good enough for the NHL, then a grudging ok, and wish them well. Otherwise, they’re mine until they get better, or reach age 20, seems to be the intent.
Ah
Yeah I can see that, good call good call.
-Cory- LETS GO CANES.
by truheelzfan44 on Jul 9, 2010 2:07 PM EDT up reply actions
Future looks bright
The first ( recent ) wave of youngsters like Boychuk and Bowman need to start looking over their shoulders. Not to say they are disappointing at this stage, but there are some talented young payers coming out of this draft. If all the young players drafted within the last 2-3 years just meet a reasonable expectation for themselves this team will be a wicked offensive machine!
Sharks sign Hjalmarsson to Offer Sheet
Surprising move… I expected maybe Bobby Ryan, Marc Staal, and Anti Niemi to get offer sheets but Hjalmarsson is a great D also. Glad to see Chicago getting big bites taken out of if, that is what you get for flirting with the Cap.
4 years, $14 million… Maybe this opens up the offer sheet market.
Interesting move considering they still have to resign 1st line Winger Devin Setoguchi + 3 other forwards and would only have about $3 million to do so after signing Hjalmarsson.
I certainly wouldn’t mind taking Setoguchi off their hands… If only we had moneys, so many opportunities!
What wing does Setoguchi play Jussi?
-Cory- LETS GO CANES.
by truheelzfan44 on Jul 9, 2010 1:55 PM EDT up reply actions
Probably out of our price range by quite a bit. He should take a huge paycut! lol.
-Cory- LETS GO CANES.
Probably would do it… I like Ruutu a lot but $3.8 million is just too much to pay a 2nd line Winger on a budget team.
To be clear, the PAY for our top-six winger next season is $4m, not $3.8m (that’s his cap hit).
Phoblographer and Finn Aficionado
SISU
by LTD on Jul 9, 2010 3:25 PM EDT up reply actions
Ah yes… And $4.4 million dollars next year. All the worse, I really like his play but he is constantly injured. Is a shame he didn’t really click with Staal, personally I just feel like that is a lot to pay a 2nd liner. However, he has a pretty good reputation around the league and a lot of GMs really like his playstyle. I would guess he would be our best trading chip if we were going after an actual 1st line Wing like Setoguchi (unless of course they have decided against resigning Pitkanen).
It would be silly for them to "decide against" signing Pits now.
However, to not plan for the strong likelihood he’ll be leaving because of an exorbitant salary demand would be even more silly.
Advance apologies if the contents of this sports-based post offended you. I'm just aiming to educate the masses. My law professor says they're asses.
Panthers '010: Save the Richardson family coffers! We'll take the winning if we stumble into it.
by MichaelProcton on Jul 9, 2010 5:44 PM EDT up reply actions
Constantly injured?
Since the 06-07 season he’s played 71, 77, 79, and 54 games… that’s an average of 70 games a year.
And… Since the 05-06 season he has played an average of only 59 games a year… Missing 23 games a year, on average, for the past 5 years is pretty bad. I would consider that “Injury Prone”. Not to mention Ruutu is well known for playing injured when he probably shouldn’t be… Ruutu even almost retired at one point because he was so frustrated of his poor performance coming back from consistent injuries.
Ruutu
Well, I feel certain nearly 29 teams would line up if Jim Rutherford suddenly had a lapse of judgment and decided to trade Ruutu. You can’t find players like Ruutu who combine hitting, skating, excellent shooting skill, and remarkable leadership ability. Ruutu was a great find for the Hurricanes. I note that Ladd is no longer with Chicago due to salary cap problems. That’s not a knock on Ladd, who has been excellent for Chicago, but is an observation that on Chicago’s team Ladd was deemed not to be indispensable.
He has a good overall game… But I do not think he is an absolute necessity of the team. He didn’t really show up at all in the ECF, 4 points in 16 games… I like what he does and I agree plenty of other teams would be interested in him… I just don’t think the Canes would be that bad off without him and he is really the only contract the Canes have that would 1) Bring back a good return 2) Clear a huge salary and 3) Replace an oft-injured player.
If he played better with Staal, he would be invaluable… But that really hasn’t happened. Plus his lingering shoulder issue is a red-flag, though I really hope he recovers fully from it.
Completely agree with your assessment that he’s injury-prone in terms of number of games played and I also think he plays hurt when he shouldn’t.
Don’t agree that he doesn’t click with Staal, they’re not indispensable together but I think they’re fine, I don’t think it hurts the team when they play on a line together. Ruuty’s versatile enough that you can play him up and down the lines and he can be effective at both center/wing, which I do believe makes him more valuable when you’re running on a budget and need to shuffle.
Totally disagree that he didn’t show up in the playoffs (assume that’s what you meant instead of ECF since you mention 16 games and he only played 1-1/2 in the ECF). You know you can’t just judge his value by his points.
I also agree with Doug that if there was an inkling that he’d be available, 29 other teams would be on the other end of the phone.
Phoblographer and Finn Aficionado
SISU
Ruutu and ECF
Ruutu was hurt in the ECF when Matt Cooke slew footed Ruutu from behind and his ankle was injured. Cole was hurt on a somewhat simliar cheap shot. The Canes tend to struggle against physical teams unless Ruutu is in the line up.
Sent from my Iphone
I apologize, I really like Ruutu and would love to have him for as long as he wants to stay. But, obviously I love Jussi (Username), so Ruutu is the only guy I can point out on our team that has a TON of value to other teams and could bring us back a real return to upgrade the team.
As far as Playoff performances, Cole was far behind Ruutu in actual value. I agree Ruutu brings an unclassified value to the team. I really do hope he recovers fully from surgery and can help the Canes, but I wouldn’t be against trading him if a great opportunity came along for a true top-line Winger.
Adding on to that, I was very upset the Canes couldn’t put together a Cup contending team in Raleigh this year. But I have realized this doesn’t change the fact that we have an awesome team currently. In another year, we an be a Cup contender if we play our cards right. Spend some money in 2011-2012, utilize our now-experienced roster, fill the gaps, and we will have no problem being a real competitor with the likes of Pittsburgh, Chicago, etc. Our young-guns need some real NHL experience and that can’t happen in the blink of an eye.
Who know, maybe some magic will happen and we will be in a good position at the trade deadline to pick up the pieces we need to compete with the big-boys.
For us to be a cup contending team in 2011-2012, several of the things below must occur
Staal reaches his potential of 45-50 goal scorer (doable)
Sutter becomes the next Peter Forsberg (maybe)
McBain becomes the next great offensive defensmen (perhaps, he was stellar in his 14 games played)
Pitkanen and Jussi are resigned (depends on how 10-11 plays out)
Three of Bowman, Boychuk, Osala, Dalpe, and Tlusty are decent top 9 players
One of the aforementioned is a top line player
by SouthernHockeyNutter on Jul 11, 2010 5:57 PM EDT up reply actions
Sutter, the next Forsberg?
That’s a huuuuge reach.
Advance apologies if the contents of this sports-based post offended you. I'm just aiming to educate the masses. My law professor says they're asses.
Panthers '010: Save the Richardson family coffers! We'll take the winning if we stumble into it.
by MichaelProcton on Jul 15, 2010 3:22 PM EDT up reply actions
You can't judge value by points alone, no...
But a top-six forward has GOT to score more than a point every four games.
Advance apologies if the contents of this sports-based post offended you. I'm just aiming to educate the masses. My law professor says they're asses.
Panthers '010: Save the Richardson family coffers! We'll take the winning if we stumble into it.
by MichaelProcton on Jul 15, 2010 3:20 PM EDT up reply actions
Gee I'd be careful poeple
if LTD and company sees or hears y’all talking trading Ruutu..there is NOT enough body armour or protective devices to save ya if she can get her hands on ya…remember…if you play with fire…you’re gonna get burnt …:-}
And if it Aint Hockey,It Aint Nothin !!
That Checkers 3rd Sweater ROCKS !!!
Eh, no worries. Besides, I hear San Jose is a nice place to live. ;)
And to truheelz’ point ^^ above I’m concerned about his recovery from the surgery myself. Some players never completely recover from major shoulder issues.
Phoblographer and Finn Aficionado
SISU
by LTD on Jul 9, 2010 3:28 PM EDT up reply actions
Eminger to NY for Voros
Very interesting… Pending negotiations with Marc Staal and the Ranges go out and trade for another Defensemen (after signing Girardi earlier today). With Redden, Rozsival, Girardi, Del Zotto, Gilroy, and Eminger the Rangers already have 6 serviceable Dmen. I wonder where that leaves Marc.
Also... Zherdev to Philly
Philly signs Zherdev for 1 year.
No doubt Gagne will be traded now, question is to who.
Gagne
last I heard he was not willing to waive his NTC.
Jeff Skinner made the biggest impression on me. His zest for the game and his competitiveness I think set him apart from most other players.
Editing Manager of CanesCountry.com
Your comments made me think of the background of the Kitchener Rangers Twitter page which I added to my follow list today. Check out this image and #53. A keeper.
Twitter @HMof2
by hockeymomof2 on Jul 11, 2010 7:55 PM EDT up reply actions
After to going to camp yesterday, I have to say I am VERY impressed with Staal’s size; like dani said “he’s 2 and 1/2 Erics across”. If he uses that size to his advantage in games, I think we may have found the guy to park himself in front of the net and rack up the “garbage goals”.
Skinner has amazing hands especially one-on-one with the goalie. And I kept finding myself watching Tommi Kivisto-he has quite a slap shot (at least to my untrained eye). Shugg also seemed to be everywhere at once. They were all going at 110% which was very evident by the number of wipeouts they had. They were skating at full speed to impress the coaches, but not above showboating for the crowd a little bit.
"What Carolina really has going for them is Brandon Sutter. When that kid first showed up, he looked like a skinny little thing that wouldn’t last two weeks. But he’s turned into a real star."
Jared Staal
Chip Alexander has a nice article on Jared Staal at the N&O
From day #1 and day #2 he seemed gigantic. I think he is bigger at this age than Jordan Staal was at the same age. Imagine the havoc in front of the net a line of J. Staal/Dalpe/Osala could cause in Charlotte (or in time with the Hurricanes).
Thanks for the updates on day #3.
Kivisto seems to have had an excellent camp.
Collection of Posts including Justin Shugg
Here’s a url that contains some interesting observations about Justin Shugg from his observations at OHL games he observed.
http://ohlprospects.blogspot.com/search/label/Justin%20Shugg
Here is one comment, among several:
Justin Shugg (2010)
This was the best game I’ve seen Shugg play. He was all over the place tonight and turned in a very solid effort. He earned two assists on the night, one of which he was critically a part of. This was the first Windsor goal where his hard work along the boards resulted in the puck getting to Mark Cundari at the point who released a shot tipped in by Scott Timmins. Shugg also demonstrated some solid stick work that I hadn’t previously seen, with a great drive to the net through two Rangers players, only to lose the puck as he was nearly free on Maxwell. Similar to Saginaw’s Josh Shalla, I’m still not really sure what to make of his NHL potential and thus his draft position, but if tonight is any indication, he might have a future as a hard working, offensively productive, complimentary top 6 forward.
Also at that link is a review of Skinner. Couple quotes from it:
Skinner played a really good game tonight I thought. Showed an ability to fight through bigger and more physical defenders.
and
While he’s not going out there throwing massive bodychecks, his intensity level is still high and he’s got this motor that just keeps running and running every shift. Those types of players will always get their scoring chances.
"The increase in pain is way beyond what you would expect a person to play with," said coach Paul Maurice. "Unfortunately it’s even beyond what Tim Gleason can play with, because he can play with just about anything."
URL Link showing Shugg Dop the Gloves
Justin Shugg video showing some fiestiness and drops the gloves.
Shugg leading the pack...
The fact that Justin Shugg was SOMEHOW left for the 3rd round only equates to one thing. A HUGE steal for the Canes. His showing at training camp is a testament that the kid is for real and he is here to stay. It is only going to be a matter of time until he cracks into the show and puts up solid points for his team. If you don’t know who he is, then you have not been following hockey. For those of you who know the game, I am confident that you would agree that when it comes to Shugg it is not a matter of if but, it is a matter of when.
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