Bylsma, Tippett to lead teams at RDO camp

If it's true that the best teachers make the best students, then the top players from the 2012 Entry Draft class will be pulling top marks this season.

The last two winners of the Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year -- Dan Bylsma of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Dave Tippett of the Phoenix Coyotes -- will be in charge when the 2011 NHL Research Development and Orientation Camp is held Aug. 17-18 at the MasterCard Centre for Hockey Excellence, in Etobicoke, Ont.

"The National Hockey League is coming off another thrilling season that reinforced our view that our game is thriving on the ice," said Brendan Shanahan, NHL Senior Vice President of Player Safety and Hockey Operations. "However, we remain committed to observing trends, studying our game regularly and testing new ideas to ensure it keeps getting better. The Research, Development and Orientation Camp provides a perfect environment to do those things while introducing many of our top prospects to pro hockey."

The camp also provides NHL talent evaluators their first look at some of the best players available for the 2012 draft. Last year's camp, the first of its kind, showcased eventual top picks Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Gabriel Landeskog and Jonathan Huberdeau.

"While our inaugural Research, Development and Orientation Camp was a great success, we expect to make this year's event even better," Shanahan said. "We again will assemble a remarkable percentage of the top talents eligible for the upcoming NHL Draft. And this year, we're providing them with the guidance of two of our League's outstanding current coaches, Dan Bylsma and Dave Tippett."

Bylsma won the 2011 Jack Adams Award for leading the Penguins to the fourth place in the Eastern Conference despite playing most of the second half of the season without All-Star centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Tippett won the award the year before for guiding the Coyotes into the playoffs for the first time in six seasons.

A list of players that will be attending the rules that will be tested will be released at a later date.

Contact Adam Kimelman at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @NHLAdamK