Sharpen Up: June 28, 2018

One day of development camp presented by BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York is in the books and Day 2 begins with an early on-ice session. A lot happened yesterday, including a trade to bring wing Conor Sheary and defenseman Matt Hunwick into the fold.
Here's what you need to know.

Today's development camp schedule

Thursday: 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Harborcenter.
Full coverage of development camp will be coming up on Sabres.com.
Sessions today and tomorrow are free and open to the public. Admittance will be on a first-come, first-served basis and not guaranteed. Here are the groups scheduled to take the ice today (subject to change):

GROUP 1: 9:30-10:30 A.M.

Forwards
24 Vito Bavaro
42 Metaj Pekar
46 Eric Cornel
52 Andrew Oglevie
54 Brandon Biro
61 Victor Olofsson
75 Joe Snively
83 Vasily Glotov
Defensemen
26 Rasmus Dahlin
41 Miska Kukkonen
45 Brendan Guhle
65 Linus Cronholm
67 William Worge-Kreu
78 Andrew Peski
79 Connor Mackey
86 Philip Nyberg
Goaltenders
33 Hunter Shepard
34 Jonas Johansson

GROUP 2: 11 A.M. - NOON

Forwards
37 Casey Mittelstadt
38 Cole Coskey
51 Max Patterson
63 Linus Weissbach
74 Rasmus Asplund
76 Pascal Aquin
77 Christopher Brown
81 Brett Murray
Defensemen
10 Lawrence Pilut
43 Will Borgen
44 Brandon Hickey
48 Ivan Chukarov
58 Griffin Luce
70 Tobie Bisson
73 Jacob Bryson
85 Mattias Samuelsson
Goaltenders
1 Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
50 Jake Kielly
From the Day 1 Notebook: Alexander Nylander was held off the ice as a precautionary measure, assistant general manager Steve Greeley said. The same goes for centers Cliff Pu and Marcus Davidsson, neither of whom skated on Wednesday.
"It's June, not everyone's not 100 percent," Greeley said. "Certainly nothing with any of these guys that we're terribly concerned with. At this time of year, you want them healthy for September, you want them healthy for training camp.
"Everything at this point's just precautionary. All these guys are here, working out and doing everything off the ice."
Greeley said that while he doesn't expect Nylander to take the ice this week, it does remain in the realm of possibility.

Remaining on-ice sessions at Harborcenter

Friday, June 29: 9:15 to 10:15 a.m. and 10:45 to 11:45 a.m. (Free and open to the public)
Saturday, June 30: French Connection Tournament: 10:45 a.m. to 1 p.m.\
Click here for the full camp roster.
\The French Connection Tournament, an intra-squad 3-on-3 tournament, will be a ticketed event. Tickets will be made available exclusively for 2018-19 season ticket holders. Tickets will be free and limited to two per account. Tickets are limited and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
The French Connection tournament will be streamed live on Sabres.com and on the team's official Facebook page. The stream will feature play-by-play by Rick Jeanneret and commentary from Rob Ray and Brian Duff.

Dahlin impressing

Check out the full story here.
Victor Olofsson still remembers the precise moment he became aware of Rasmus Dahlin. The latter had just joined Frölunda of the Swedish Hockey League, a 16-year-old practicing amongst men. Olofsson was in the midst of his third full SHL season.
In his initial practice with the team, Dahlin carried the puck near the blue line and Olofsson went to defend him. Dahlin pulled the puck between Olofsson's legs, then drove to the net and scored.
"That was probably the first time I really noticed him," Olofsson said. "I thought it was a fluke at first. When he did it again and again, it's not just a fluke."

Rochester Americans coach Chris Taylor, who is leading the on-ice sessions at camp, joked that each time he heard the ping that accompanies a shot off the crossbar and a subsequent cheer from the crowd, he knew who it was that shot the puck.
"He's one of those guys that, you can tell," Taylor said. "And just his shot. Like, every time he went down, I don't know if he missed one. His composure, his willingness, his love for the game. Just everything on the ice, he's a special person."

Dahlin joked that it had been years since he scored as much as he did on Wednesday, perhaps the product of the atmosphere around him. If Harborcenter wasn't packed to its 1,800-seat capacity, it was close, and he was the main attraction.
"Yeah, I was surprised," he said. "There hasn't been a crowd that cheered for me when I scored a goal in training, so that was pretty special too."

Making strides

Check out yesterday's camp notebook, which includes great tidbits like this:

Taylor remembers having to halt practice on the opening day of development camp last summer, his first year at the helm of on-ice sessions. The prospects were nervous to the point where they were trying too hard, which he felt led to mistakes. He estimated five such stoppages between two sessions that day.
Taylor was happy to report that there were no such problems when this year's camp opened at Harborcenter on Wednesday.
"I didn't have to stop it this time around," Taylor said. "That shows you the leadership, because we always practice what we're going to do drill-wise. The attention to detail that they watched and how much they wanted to learn, that they're ready in the corners, ready to go.
"Just that right there, that maturity level and the leadership qualities means a lot to me, that they weren't just putting their head down and just going through another meeting."

Wheelin' and dealin'

Jason Botterill made his first significant trade of the offseason, acquiring Conor Sheary and Matt Hunwick from Pittsburgh for a conditional fourth-round pick in next year's draft.
Sheary is a two-time Stanley Cup champion who has a history of lighting the lamp at even strength. Botterill has liked what he's seen from Sheary over the years, dating back to when he was in the Penguins front office and they brought Sheary in.
"We were looking to improve our even-strength scoring and we had to try to get a little bit in scoring from our wingers," Botterill said. "…Especially at even strength, he creates a lot of chances out there. We're very excited about bringing him into the organization.

"…He knows how to play in pressure situations against other teams' top defenders, top players.
"We've talked a lot about here, bringing in players who have playoff experience. It's why we were interested in bringing in Marco] Scandella and [Jason] Pominville last year. Bringing in both Hunwick and Conor, who have played in playoff games, is very key for our group."
**[We have more on the trade here.**