Overseeing the art of the development process and a major influencer in constructing the organization's prospect pipeline is Coyotes Assistant General Manager and Roadrunners General Manager Steve Sullivan, who provided insight on the main focus the camp.
"This is a measuring stick to see where our guys are at, and with the tournament this weekend, it's to see where they're at versus a lot of the other teams' prospects in our division, so it's great to see for a measuring stick that way, but also for us to see how much our players have developed in comparison to the year before."
One more practice will be held at Gila River Arena on Friday morning before the roster travels to California for the 2019 Anaheim Rookie Faceoff, where they'll play in three exhibition contests against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday, the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday, and the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday.
The rookie roster consists of three first-round draft choices in Victor Soderstrom (2019), Barrett Hayton (2018), and Nick Merkley (2015), along with seven names that dressed in the American Hockey League with the Roadrunners last season. There are also three free agent signings and six players attending on invite.
A wide variety of background and trajectory makes up the rookie roster as a whole; it's not only the first step in putting the organizational puzzle together for the coming season, but one of the most difficult ones.
"There are a lot of variations to it," Sullivan said when asked of what he and his staff look to identify during camp. "There are guys here in rookie camp that are going to be fighting for an NHL spot; some guys will be fighting for call-up positions, some guys will be fighting for as many exhibition games as possible in main camp, some guys will be fighting for contracts, and some guys are just fighting to come to main camp, so there are a lot of things on the line."