Prospect Camp

The Tampa Bay Lightning have released their final roster for their Young Guns Prospect Camp scheduled for July 8-15 at the St. Pete Times Forum. The camp includes a prospect scrimmage on July 11 at 7pm that is open and free to the public and will include autograph sessions by the prospects and newly signed Lightning defensemen Mattias Ohlund and Matt Walker.

The camp roster includes the following Bolt prospects and non-organizational invitees:

Goaltenders: Dustin Tokarski, Riku Helenius, Jaroslav Janus, Bryan Mountain, and Michael Zador

Defensemen: Mark Barberio, Erik Gustafsson, Victor Hedman, Scott Jackson, Vladimir Mihalik, Kevin Quick, Ty Wishart, and Luke Witkowski

Forwards: Carter Ashton, Kyle DeCoste, Mitch Fadden, Tommy Grant, Alex Hutchings, Alex Killorn, Chris Lawrence, Matt Marshall, Matt Read, Juraj Simek, Dana Tyrell, and James Wright

Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune is reporting that six players originally scheduled to attend the camp have been omitted from the final roster and includes forwards Johan Harju, Justin Courtnall, Denis Kazionov, Dmitri Kazionov, Paul Szczechura, and Steve Downie.

TBL.com sat down with the Lightning's Brian Lawton following this week's Prospect Camp to get a feel for which prospects not named Stamkos raised some eyebrows. Getting special props from Lawton were Andy Rogers and Chris Lawrence.

“Chris Lawrence really surprised us, as did Andy Rogers. They are the perfect example of guys who just needed a fresh start and both responded very well. You can expect to see them in our main camp in Tampa and in exhibition games this year. We expect both of them to take a dramatic upswing in their careers.”

Lawton also praised new defensive prospect Ty Wishart acquired in the trade with San Jose for Dan Boyle. “Ty’s been a terrific surprise – he’s got such good size and mobility with strong stick and puck skills. He’s a lot further along than we thought when we made the trade for him.”

Other prospects specifically called out by Lawton include Riku Helenius, Mitch Fadden, Alex Killorn, Scott Jackson, Justin Courtnall, and Norfolk blueliner Darryl Boyle.