Canes Prospect Development Camp scrimmage notebook

The Carolina Hurricanes finished up their first Prospect Development Camp since 2019 Thursday afternoon, as the slew of prospects took part in some different style scrimmages in front of a pretty decent crowd in Invisalign Arena.

The scrimmage was broken up into three periods: a full-ice 4-on-4, a blue line to blue line 2-on-2 and a cross-rink 3-on-3.

The group was broken into two teams, a red and a black, with players rotating in and out throughout the 60-minute scrimmage.

On the red team was Jackson Blake, Joe Arnsten, Bobby Orr Jr., Bryce Montgomery, Massimo Rizzo, Eric Cooley, Nick Nardella and Simon Forsmark. On the black team was Scott Morrow, Devin Phillips, Sam McGinley, Jeremiah Slavin, Lucas Mercuri, Alexander Pashin, Justin Robidas and Domenick Fensore.

Cruz Lucius and Cade Webber did not participate in Thursday afternoon’s session, while all three goaltenders (Nikita Quapp, Jakub Vondras and Dylan Ernst) rotated between the two nets.

Here’s a thread of a few of the goals scored during Thursday’s events:

We also spoke with Scott Morrow and Bryce Montgomery following the scrimmage.

Here are a few notes from Thursday’s session, as well as transcripts from Morrow and Montgomery:

Notebook

• Scott Morrow is good. Like really, really good. He’s so smooth with the puck, and his skating in general is fun to watch. He scored the only two goals of the full-ice 4-on-4 portion of practice.
• 2022 goalie pick Jakub Vondras did allow Morrow’s first goal (and plenty on the day with the high-paced action), but he also made a couple of really nice saves coming out of his crease and poke checking comfortably.
• Nick Nardella, a non-drafted camp invite, was really impressive considering he’s not actually a Canes prospect. He had a couple of nice goals in the tight 2-on-2 portion, and then he unleashed an absolute snipe in the cross-rink 3-on-3. He played for Michigan Tech in 2021-22, and he’s got some good skills.
• Massimo Rizzo is crafty. Had a really nice forehand-backhand goal.
• Raleigh-native Devin Phillips did score at least one goal, a nice backhanded slotted goal during the 2-on-2.
• Bryce Montgomery has a rocket of a shot. He’s so big that it makes sense, but he had a great long-range goal.

Scott Morrow

On returning to UMass: Could use another year in the weight room before I’m ready to play against men. That’s something I’m going to take really seriously during the college season. Just playing two games a week and having a whole week to prepare and be in the weight room is something that I look at as a huge positive.

On learning from his uncle and father: A lot of it is just kind of learning how to be a pro. I think from an early age because I have an uncle and dad who played pro hockey, they were always on me about treating my body well and doing the things off the ice to prepare myself. Even when you’re like 8-, 9-, 10-years old, a lot of kids just go to practice and that’s it. They just introduced me to weight training, eating right and stretching at a young age, it’s really benefited me.

On who is better between him and his sister: My sister. She’s a stud. I actually was out in Wisconsin watching her at the World U-18s, and I’m really proud of her. I skate with my siblings every summer. That’s something I never stopped doing. Just seeing her growth over the years has been tremendous...She’s going to Ohio State. She’s actually training there over the summer right now.

On his offensive style of game: From a young age I’ve always been a D. I think playing D at a young age and trying to be offensive really helped me because that’s when you’re really able to see the entire ice. That’s really where you grow your hockey IQ. My dad was a defensive-style defenseman. That’s kind of why he didn’t make it, I think. He always encouraged me to have that offensive growth in my game. To be honest with you I don’t know how much of it is learned and how much of it is natural, but I think it’s a little bit of both.

On if there’s anyone in the NHL he models his game after: Obviously being at UMass, everyone is talking about Cale [Makar] there. He’s a stud. I’m watching his highlights every week. He’s someone who is really good. And then Quinn Hughes as well, just watching the way he skates around and likes to play offense and with the puck.

Bryce Montgomery

On how the Canes were helping him and telling him what he needed to improve on in a year like last year without the camp: Last year with COVID we obviously didn’t have the camp, so this is my first camp with Carolina. Being here I’ve gotten to meet more one-on-one with the coaches, and they’ve gotten to get to know me a little bit better as a person and as a player too. They get to nitpick me a little bit more and be with me more one-on-one. Just being here and this being my first development camp, it’s just been super eye opening and I’ve learned so much being here in this one week. I can’t wait to come back again and just keep getting better.

On what the biggest thing he learned this week was: The biggest thing was probably just being patient, and knowing when to bite and when to make a move and when to make that play. It’s just being patient and knowing when a guy is on you and knowing when to make that move and cut in. And just playing hard and being consistent. Brind’Amour really stresses being consistent and giving 100 percent effort every single day, and that’s what we want to strive to do here. Compete and battle and get a little bit better and do the same thing every day when we compete.

On getting to spend time with the other prospects: It’s cool to be around guys who are in your same position being drafted by the same organization. We’re all flying here from different parts of the world, so it’s cool kind of being with peers. You get to talk and pick each others’ brains a little bit and find out that we have a lot of mutual friends, too. It’s just building friendships like that. It’s fun meeting new people and getting accustomed to how it goes here in Carolina. I’m really grateful for the opportunity.

On Morrow: He’s awesome. We’ve kind of been pairing up all week and battling against each other. It’s been kind of cool to see how he uses his footwork and deception. Just picking from him and going against him has gotten me better, too. He’s just an awesome player. I love playing with him and watching him play. He’s an awesome guy off the ice, too. He’s just an awesome all-around player and guy.