All last week I reported on the Rangers prospect development camp. Today comes an overview from that camp courtesy of the always awesome, Hockey’s Future.

The defense:

Nine blueliners were in camp, including Michael Del Zotto, Mitch Gaulton, Tomas Kundratek, Daniel Maggio, Tysen Dowzak, Matt Gilroy, Ilkka Heikkinen, Luke Curadi, and Samuel Klassen.

Standouts among the defensemen were Gilroy, Heikkinen, Kundratek, and Dowzak. Gilroy is very fast, confident with the puck, and sees the lanes very well. He can move the puck quickly, but doesn’t panic with it. His passes are accurate and he also has a good shot. The combination of Gilroy’s offensive skills with his solid play in his own zone made Gilroy very impressive this week.

Heikkinen has very good on-ice vision, an excellent shot, and moves well along the blueline to find shooting lanes. He contributed to much of the offense in Friday’s scrimmage and should be competing for a spot on the Rangers blueline in September.

Kundratek has excellent speed, a long reach (which he uses to clog up lanes), and when he has the puck, Kundratek is confident and patient enough to make the correct pass almost all the time.

Dowzak is the most defensively oriented of the four, and is very strong along the boards.

Somewhat disappointing this week was the play of Del Zotto, who had not been on the ice for several months and looked rusty. He was often beaten to the puck, displayed poor positioning, and did not have good gap control. More will be expected of Del Zotto when he takes the ice in the Traverse City Rookie Tournament in September.

The reports from the beat writers were not nearly as critical of Del Zotto as this was. Then again, they also had this whole free agency thing going on around them. This was really the start of training for next season for most of the prospects, most hadn’t been skating much since their season ended, so a little rustiness should be expected. Nonetheless, with a report like this, Del Zotto would really have to impress the Rangers to make the team out of camp. Gilroy seems like a lock to make the team.

The Forwards:

Thirteen forwards were in attendance this week, including Ryan Bourque, Max Campbell, Evgeny Grachev, Chris Kreider, Derek Stepan, Ethan Werek, Chris Chappell, Paul Crowder, Justin Soryal, Craig Cunningham, Trent Daavettila, Matt Maccarone, and Luke Pither.

Standouts included Bourque, Chappell, Grachev, Pither, Soryal, and Stepan. Bourque was the smallest player in development camp (Cunningham was listed at the same size as Bourque, but looked at least an inch taller), but Bourque was one of the fastest and most dynamic. His work ethic was one of the best in camp, and he has an excellent shot which he displayed every chance he got. However, Bourque often held onto the puck for too long or tried to make a fancy play, and either lost the puck or had it taken away. When Bourque made the correct decisions, he was very impressive, but when he did not, he created turnovers.

Grachev was the best skater in camp. He may not have been the fastest during the timed laps, but he had the smoothest stride, and watching him entranced many of the scouts and reporters in attendance. With no wasted motion and excellent acceleration, Grachev stood above the others. Although his shots were often off the mark during the scrimmages and even the one-on-ones with the goalies, Grachev dominated while carrying the biscuit on his stick. There were times when it looked like he just flicked the opposition out of his path as he skated down the ice. He did not skate in Friday’s scrimmage, which we were told was due to some nagging aches and pains, but to that point, he was impressive in every way except hitting the net on his shots.

Finally, Stepan’s on-ice work this past week is indicative of why the Rangers think he may be their first-line center of the future. His vision, decision-making with the puck, speed, acceleration, shot, and hard work were all superb. Perhaps the most creative player on the ice during Friday’s scrimmage, Stepan and Bourque on the ice together were an exciting duo. Although it was Bourque that got the winning goal on an excellent skate in on net, it was Stepan that stepped around defender after defender to make the plays during much of the scrimmage.

Stepan was the player I wanted to hear about the most. He doesn’t have Grachev’s hype but was a second round pick and with a report like this seems like he could be a real deal player.