Dallas Stars Development Camp Kicks Off This Week

[Update: According to the Stars, there are no official on-ice sessions today. I misread the schedule; my apologies for the mixup.]

Starting tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. on the ice at the Dr Pepper Arena in Frisco, fans will get the chance to get their first look at the nine draft picks from this summer’s draft — as well as a closeup look at many of the promising prospects that have the future of this franchise looking bright.

You can find the full schedule for the camp here.

Defending Big D will be in attendance at camp this year and we’re aiming to bring you as many interviews with the Stars prospects as possible, as well as our thoughts on all of the on-ice activities. It’s tough to get much from the drills they’ll be working through for most of this week, yet the scrimmage on the final day of camp should provide us a good idea of just where some of these players stand.

We’ll also do our best to provide video over the course of the week, although it’s really tough to get a good feel for these players if all we’re seeing is drills.

After the jump, the full roster for camp and some personal thoughts on what is always an exciting time for us prospect geeks.

Some of the notable names missing from this group include prospects John Klingberg, who is hurt, and Alex Guptill — who plays for the NCAA and would have had to pay his own way to camp. It’s likely there could have been other scheduling conflicts as well, but it’s important to note that not all NCAA prospects are able to make it to camp each season.

Klingberg is recovering from major hip surgery and is looking to bounce back from an extremely disappointing season that saw him bounce from Finland back to Sweden. The offensively-skilled defenseman is promising and has loads of potential, but has yet to really show that on the ice since being drafted in 2010.

Guptill is one of the lesser-known prospects for the Stars, although I have a feeling this won’t be the case much longer. A 3rd round pick in 2010, Guptill was one heck of an impressive freshman with the University of Michigan last year and is showing the potential to grow into a true power forward with scoring ability — something every NHL team would love to have.

For the players that will be in camp, here is who I am looking forward to watching and talking to the most (although I’m honestly excited about seeing all of them.)

Radek Faksa — The Stars first-round pick from this draft is supposedly as close to the NHL as they come, but has just one year of hockey in North America under his belt. I’ve watched a lot of Faksa over the past few months leading up to the draft but it’s going to be great to finally talk to the young man, someone everyone claims is one of the most mature and respectable players to come out of the draft.

Matej Stransky – The other promising Czech player in the Stars system, Stransky was the best player on his team in the WHL last season and is looking to possibly be the next late-round gem for the Dallas Stars. A playmaking winger who gets comparisons to Jaromir Jagr (!!) with his puck-protection abilities, Stransky has been nothing short of impressive since being drafted by Dallas in the 6th round last summer.

Mike Winther — Many felt this was a steal for the Stars in the second round this summer, a center with pure goal-scoring ability who has learned to use his teammates better as his career has progressed. Winther is a bit undersized, but is the sort of pure goal-scoring center that the Stars have been needing for quite some time. Faksa is this team’s second-line center of the future, so it will be interesting to see if Winther will eventually be able to take his playmaking ways to wing — if his development continues as planned.

Patrik Nemeth — Lots of focus will be on Jamie Oleksiak this camp, but my eyes will be on Patrik Nemeth. The colossal defenseman comes to North America with a reputation as a physical defenseman with a mean streak and personality that oozes out of his ears, a trait that more Stars players could certainly use. Nemeth and Oleksiak represent the future of the Stars at defenseman and it’s likely they could get paired together in Austin this summer.

Like I said, there are many, many other players and storylines I’ll be paying attention to — what are you excited about, and more importantly…will you be headed to Frisco for the camp?

Full roster below:2012 DALLAS STARS DEVELOPMENT CAMP ROSTER (43)

* Alphabetical Roster

FORWARDS (17)

NO. PLAYER

11 Taylor Burke

12 Alex Chiasson

20 Radek Faksa

NA Austin Farley

15 Scott Glennie

61 Cason Hohmann

13 Justin Kirsch

49 Curtis McKenzie