Team Gold Defeats Team White as Development Camp Concludes

The Nashville Predators prospects put on quite a show before a Smashville crowd of around 3,000 on Friday night at Bridgestone Arena in the Future Stars Game to conclude the week's development camp.
Team Gold took a commanding lead early in the game to carry them to a 7-4 victory over Team White. The teams played two 25-minute periods, and a five-minute 3-on-3 session, with a pair of shootouts following the first and third periods.
The Gold team, coached by Predators forward Austin Watson, featured 2017 Draft selections Eeli Tolvanen (first round, 30th overall) and David Farrance (third round, 92nd overall), along with Development Camp veterans, 2014 second-round pick Jack Dougherty and 2016 first-round pick Dante Fabbro.

Predators forward Kevin Fiala coached the White team, highlighted by 2017 second-round selection Grant Mismash, 2016 third-rounder Rem Pitlick, free-agent signee Victor Ejdsell and defenseman Alexandre Carrier, who skated in two games with the Preds last season.
Farrance started the night off with a goal just 1:38 into the 4-on-4 scrimmage and scored again later in the period with an assist from Tyler Moy. Mismash quickly responded for Team White carrying the puck coast to coast before putting it past goaltender Karel Vejmelka.

Tim McGraw continued to play as Team Gold took a 5-2 lead after the first half. In the first shootout, Moy scored on a one-handed goal and Farrance added to his night with another marker.
Each team tallied twice in the second half, with Pitlick and Nathan Sucese scoring for Team White and Anthony Richard and Tyler Kelleher scoring for Team Gold. Kelleher recorded two goals and an assist on the night.

Predators General Manager David Poile was impressed with the organization's five 2017 draft picks who played Friday night.
"I like all of them," Poile said. "I thought they all played really well. I really felt today's game and the class of players we had out there had to be the most skillful and the fastest that we've ever had."
Watson experienced what it was like to stand behind the bench and offered as much advice to the young prospects as he could, while advancing his career coaching record to 1-0-0.

"It's a good opportunity to come and see the prospects; it's an exciting thing for them to come out here to Bridgestone [Arena] and play a game like that," Watson said. "There's a lot of exciting things going on within the organization and those kids are going to be the future of it at some point."
"We had three pretty good coaches on the bench," Moy said of the win. "[Watson] was giving us some tips on the 3-on-3 since many of us haven't played that before and the guys came together and put together a good [win]."
The Future Stars Game concluded the week-long development camp in Nashville and many of the prospects will now return home to prepare for next season. Some will be offered a spot on the Predators' AHL affiliate in Milwaukee, while others will return to their previous teams to continue their development.
"I realized just how much work you have put in to be a pro," Fabbro said. "Day-in and day-out, it's a job. Just being able to do the small things right and pushing yourself, whether it's on the ice or off the ice - that's all the things that I realized here. I've known a bit before and it really shows here for sure."