Top Preds Prospects, 2023 Draft Picks Turn Heads at Development Camp

The Nashville Predators 2023 Development Camp came to a close on Thursday, wrapping up a weeklong training itinerary featuring a variety of on-and off-ice testing, fundamentals work, team building activities and more for the next generation of Preds stars.

"It's been a really good week," Assistant General Manager Scott Nichol said. "We've had a lot of prospects this week, and they've all kind of shown in their own way why we drafted them."

A handful of this year's development camp attendees were selected by the Predators last week in the 2023 NHL Draft at Bridgestone Arena. Matthew Wood, Nashville's top pick at No. 15 overall, impressed coaches and staff at his first development camp and was one of three goal scorers in the Future Stars Game on Thursday.

"I think you gravitate toward Wood, just the size and the power that he has," Nichol said. "He protects pucks and skates really well for a big man. He's still a young player, so his upside is through the roof. We are really excited about him and just going to try and develop him the right way and have patience with him. [He's] going to go to college and just kind of keep climbing the ladder and keep getting more confidence."

Rounding out the Preds 2023 first-rounders is Tanner Molendyk, a defenseman selected at No. 24 overall. Molendyk established WHL career highs in games played (67), goals (9), assists (28) and points (37) with Saskatoon in 2022-23, helping lead his team to the Eastern Conference Final. At the start of Thursday's Future Stars Game, General Manager Barry Trotz announced that the Predators had signed him to a three-year, entry-level contract.

"The way he skates, he's like your new age defenseman where he can surf up and his edges are fantastic," Nichol said. "He's got tons of confidence in his feet and the way he competes. He's not an overly big guy, but he competes real hard and defends real hard because of his skating and his skill set."

The Preds traded up in the second round of the 2023 draft to select Felix Nilsson at No. 43 overall. A 6-foot, 187-pound center, Nilsson spent the 2022-23 campaign in Sweden with the Rögle BK organization and made his professional debut, going on to skate in 18 SHL contests. At development camp, the hockey operations and player development staff were excited for the opportunity to see Nilsson for the first time in person.

"Nilsson is a slick player with the way he thinks of the game out there," Nichol said. "When he got called up, I think he played 17 or maybe 20 games with the [Swedish] men's league. When the older players are like, 'Hey, I want to play with this guy,' that's a really good bar that he set. That's the respect of an older player and knowing that this guy thinks the game and sees the ice very well, so I'm really excited about him."

Even seventh-round pick Aiden Fink, Nashville's last selection in the 2023 draft and the final pick of former GM David Poile's illustrious career, impressed at development camp as he prepares for his freshman season at Penn State in 2023-24.

"He's going to a good program at Penn State," Nichol said. "He's a little bit of a burner. He's got great energy and hunts pucks."

This iteration of development camp allowed Nichol and the rest of his staff a uniquely intimate look at their younger prospects, as none of the players from the 2022-23 Milwaukee Admirals were in attendance at camp this year. With Nashville's AHL affiliate making a deep run in the Calder Cup Playoffs last month, many of the Preds' more experienced prospects were given the time off to rest and recuperate. This altered the team's approach to development camp this year, shifting the primary focus from conditioning to teaching.

"We've actually slowed a lot of things down," Nichol said. "It used to be a conditioning camp and now it's more about teaching, get to know us, trust us, we actually are here to help you guys grow and we want you to do well. We go through the skill work that we think is important to them and we just kind of slow things down on the ice. It's not overly taxing. We went to the track the last couple of days. It's not overly taxing, but it's good to get them out of their comfort zone and to run with their peers on the track because not a lot of them do a lot of training on the track. So it's been good. If we had our Milwaukee guys it'd be a lot of guys at camp, so it's a little bit more of an intimate camp."

Overall, Nichol and his staff were elated about the group of prospects they assembled at camp this year and encouraged by their behavior both on and off the ice.

"The kids, they're young men," Nichol said. "They're confident, they're not arrogant, they're super polite. I think our organization prides ourselves on that. We've had really good people, really good players throughout our whole organization for a lot of years. They're very dialed in, they're very mature, between their nutrition and how they go about themselves in the gym. They're always on time… They pick up after themselves in the dressing room, they put their laundry where it's supposed to be, they don't leave water bottles around, their stalls are how they should be. Those are little details, but those do add up."

With a successful development camp in the books, the Preds will now turn their attention to Rookie Camp, set to open on Sept. 13 in Nashville. The group will take part in a rookie tournament in Estero, Fla., from Sept. 15-18 before joining Nashville's main training camp.