RCI is in full swing as players continue to make their way back to Raleigh. Here’s who has been spotted at the informal practices so far.
- From last week and prior - Cam Ward, Jaccob Slavin, Trevor Carrick, Ron Hainsey, Victor Rask, Brock McGinn, Joakim Nordstrom, Justin Faulk, Jordan Staal, Elias Lindholm, Andrej Nestrasil, Jay McClement, Valentin Zykov*, Viktor Stalberg, Josh Wesley*, Lucas Wallmark*, Daniel Altshuller
- Newcomers this week - Noah Hanifin, Lee Stempniak, Brett Pesce, Phil Di Giuseppe, Ryan Murphy, Haydn Fleury*, Roland McKeown*, Alex Nedeljkovic*, Patrick Brown, Kyle Hagel, Jake Chelios, Keegan Lowe, Andrew Poturalski*, Sergey Tolchinsky*, Brendan Woods
*have since departed for Traverse City Prospects Tournament
Keeping in mind that the informal skates are nothing more than preseason on-ice workouts so it’s wise not to read TOO much into them, following are a few random (and by no means expert) observations from my visits:
- It’s always interesting to watch on-ice dynamics, and perhaps not surprisingly most of the direction appears to be led by the defense, with Ron Hainsey the most vocal, assisted by Justin Faulk.