Development Camp Day 4 Recap – Catching Up w/ Hughes & Connors + Matt Greene Quotes

Day 4 is in the books, Insiders!

Today was the first deviation from the schedule we saw over the first three days of development camp. Each of the last three days was straightforward. Position-based drills in the morning, scrimmage, or scrimmage-like situations, in the afternoon. Today saw only the former, as the groups were on the ice earlier in the day, the defensemen first, followed by the forwards, before the group left the ice and hit the sand for a day at the beach. Always a fun day for the guys to get away from the ice for an afternoon and enjoy some volleyball and team building in a different setting.

As far as today’s on-ice drills were concerned, not a ton to report. Relatively straightforward, with about an hour on the ice for each group. The players will hit the ice for one final time tomorrow morning, with the final scrimmage session of the camp. Tomorrow’s scrimmage will be a true game-like scenario for the players. We’re talking four officials on the ice, score and clock on the board, two teams in a competitive environment, before the players return to their respective summer homes to continue offseason training.

For today, we checked in with Matt Greene from the player development team, who offered some insight on Brandt Clarke, Jakub Dvorak and the development camp experience as a whole for the defensemen. Additionally, Kenny Connors and Jack Hughes give their thoughts as returning development camp attendees, coming off of their respective collegiate seasons playing in Massachusetts.

Class Of ’22, Take 2
Forwards Jack Hughes and Kenny Connors are both getting a second go-around a development camp here in 2023.

The pair were the top selected players by the Kings in the 2023 NHL Draft, both came to development camp for the first time one summer ago and both players then went to Massachusetts to play NCAA hockey.

Starting with Connors, his freshman year was about as much as you could have asked from him. He totaled 26 points from 32 games, ranking second on the Minutemen in scoring, and represented Team USA in a depth role at the 2023 World Juniors, winning a bronze medal. Connors now looks to build upon a strong debut season as he heads back for his sophomore campaign. In his second go at development camp, he’s feeling more comfortable than he did the year before, settling in much easier as a more experienced player.

“I think that last year just helped to put some experience under my belt and make me feel more comfortable coming into this year,” he said. “Just knowing the schedule and knowing how the week’s going to go so you can prepare for it, rather than not knowing what’s going to come up during the camp.”

When the Kings drafted Connors as an overaged pick, they saw a player whose compete they loved, whose defensive game they loved, but as someone who didn’t quite have the offensive tools to match. The offensive tools came out in his final season in the USHL and again last season in the NCAA, providing another tool alongside the other traits that he was already highly-rated in.

Connors felt it was in that area – the offensive end – where he’s grown the most over the last 12 months.

“I think just adding in the offensive element to my game a little bit, while still trying to play a well-rounded game, [was the biggest area of growth for me], ” he said. “I think UMass helped me a lot, taught me a lot, I started to grow as a player and add to my skillset as well.”

Connors has made an impression on the development staff through his work ethic and his play this season.

Speaking with Mike Donnelly, he’s been impressed with the game Connors plays and the growth he’s shown, as well as his ability to take the instruction and the lessons from development camp and apply them to his game. A strength of a player can be his listening skills and coachability, and that shows up in Connors.

“He brings the same energy, the same speed, he brings it the same every day,” Donnelly said. “No matter if it’s practice or game, he’s going be really interesting to watch. I saw him play college this year and really liked his game, watch him at the World Juniors and we’re excited about him. He’s really quiet, you don’t get a lot out of him, but I think he’s absorbing the lessons and he applies what we tell him. He’s a great student.”

Across the state of Massachusetts is forward Jack Hughes, who was a Hockey East rival of Connors and a fellow 2022 draftee.

Hughes completed his second season at Northeastern, which will be his last as a Husky, as he will transfer to Boston University for his final two seasons of eligibility. Hughes was one of the youngest players in the NCAA during his freshman season and naturally one of the nation’s youngest sophomores this past year. While his points-per-game pace improved, Hughes felt like his first two collegiate seasons didn’t quite go as expected, so he’s hopeful a fresh start can jumpstart him.

“I kind of felt like I needed a bit of a fresh start, the two years there didn’t go quite as well as I’d hoped,” Hughes said. “It didn’t have anything to do with the players or staff, I’m still friends with those guys, but I kind of just felt like I needed a fresh start somewhere else.”

Hughes expressed a desire to continue to play in Boston to continue his hockey career and his education and with the Terriers, he’ll skate alongside several NHL prospects, while continuing to play in a familiar city and a familiar conference. As he works through development camp, and eventually into next season, he’s looking to bring more pace into his game with the Terriers, more consistently.

“Playing with more pace, just consistently shift in and shift out, constantly moving my feet,” he said. “That’s when I’m at my best. When I’m not, I’m not making as many plays and don’t have the puck quite as much.”

Donnelly noted similar things in his own availability when speaking about Hughes, wanting to see him play with more pace to match the pace during the scrimmage sessions. Donnelly praised the skill and the size, but wants to see Hughes add pace, consistently, to that combination of abilities. Should he be able to improve in that area, there’s an exciting prospect.

Matt Greene Day
Always good to hear from different voices and Matt Greene shared some terrific insight during his availability this morning.

We all know Greene’s pedigree and character and he was able to share some information on where he believes development camp to be valuable, as well as some thoughts on a couple of the higher-profile defensive prospects in attendance this week.

On the purpose of development camp
I think it should be all about teaching. This is development, it’s not really evaluation, it’s where they are right now. We’re really excited about where they’re going to be in a few years, especially with the guys that are just coming from first time. So just trying to teach, trying to build some trust, having them get to know us, us to get to know them and just build that relationship so we can work with them going forward and speed that along.

On how you work with a player like Brandt Clarke this week, who is at a different point in the process
OD has built a great template of teaching through defending. The stuff that Brandt Clarke does well, we’re not going to do that, he can. His IQ, his puck skills, his skating skills are unbelievable and that’s all on him. OD’s developed an awesome plan to work on defending, just being in the right position at all times and really helping out all these guys games. What we teach during this camp is universal for defenseman, to be able to defend first, take care of your own end, let the game kind of take it from there. Let your own personal skills and your own style dictate after that.

On his initial impressions of Jakub Dvorak
Great skill, great skillset, a really good grasp of English, we called him right away there and it was awesome, great to see him take the initiative with that. Big body, skates really well, great shot, he’s been good in the games. He’s been really impressive, it’s a good pick.

On the check-ins the development team has with prospects between now and next season’s development camp
We’re just trying to see them as many times as we can on the road, at least a few times a year with a d-men. Just being in contact with them, make sure that they know they can reach out with anything they need and we’ll kind of do the same, keeping tabs on them. The season’s long and you’ve got coaches, whether you’re playing USA college, major junior or over in Europe, it’s a long season and those coaches put in a lot of good hours. You’ve got to make sure that they’re doing what the coaches say but if we can help any way, that’s the goal just to make the player better.

One more day, Insiders, before we hit the dog days of summer. The teams will scrimmage tomorrow morning and we’ll have a full game thread and scrimmage recap here on LAKI!