With their 2025 development camp in the books, it was a weekend that left a mark for management and the coaching staff of the Soo Greyhounds.
The two-day camp wrapped up Sunday at the Northern Community Centre, a camp that featured practices, scrimmages and fitness testing for the 41 players in attendance.
Asked what stood for him over the course of the camp, Greyhounds general manager Kyle Raftis spoke Sunday of “how comfortably a lot of the guys really settled in together.”
“It’s always a good sign,” Raftis added. “Sometimes we look back and we hear guys do their graduation speech about meeting guys at development camp and kind of becoming real tight from that. It was great to see a lot of the ‘08’s together and then to ‘09’s all kind of mixing together and seeing that chemistry lead on the ice.”
Greyhounds coach John Dean added that he found it “really neat how quickly the guys’ real personalities come out.”
“It just takes a little bit,” Dean added. “First day, some nerves are there. I love the fact that we bring back players that played in the league last year (Carson Andrew and Brady T. Smith). They give the new guys an idea of what’s to be expected and also make them feel a little bit more comfortable and give them an idea of what things look like in Sault Ste. Marie. Over the course of the weekend, you always see the progression of personalities, comfort level, and then their skill starts to show off a little bit more as they’re more comfortable.”
Dean said he was impressed with what he saw in the two-day camp that wrapped up Sunday afternoon.
“We had a generous amount of skill out there,” Dean said. “Over the course of the two days, guys got more comfortable and looked a lot better. This is for these guys to feel comfortable and get used to the city and see our program.”
For Raftis, the Greyhounds 2025 development camp stood out for another reason as well.
“Just looking top to bottom through the two lineups here this weekend, it's one of the best camps I've been involved with in terms of a development camp,” Raftis said. “It's really exciting leading into the summer, and just seeing the excitement with a lot of the guys and the high tempo that went over that 48 hours was really encouraging to see for what's coming.”
Sunday morning saw the players go through fitness testing at the GFL Memorial Gardens prior to taking to the ice at the NCC.
“It’s more just to see where guys are at because when you’re dealing with 16- and 17-year-olds, when they come to main camp, some of the tests, I find that you have to get used to taking them,” Raftis said. “Not to say that you’re just mastering the test, but it’s not just what you’re training with in the summer. It’s getting used to those tests, understanding it. That way, a lot of times throughout the summer, guys will send in their reports and they know what we’re kind of looking for.”
Raftis added that the tests give the team a starting point to evaluate with the players.
“Especially those ‘09’s that we just drafted,” Raftis said. “You can see the ‘08 group that did it last year at development camp and then training camp, you can start to see how they’re developing on that side of it.”
As for potential signings, Raftis said the team does expect some signings to come from the camp.
Around the league, signings of players selected in the 2025 draft have been slow to trickle in since the draft.
To date, just three players selected in the opening round have been signed by their respective clubs including Brayden Bennett, selected 11th overall by Sudbury, Ryan Hanrahan, selected 13th overall by Saginaw, and Peter Green, selected 14th overall by Brampton.
The Spirit have also signed second round pick Drew Roscoe and third rounder Levi Harper while Sudbury also inked second round pick Vladimir Provorov.