MAIR: SABRES DEVELOPMENT CAMP BEGINS WITH RELATIONSHIP BUILDING
Jul 14, 2022By Suzie Cool
It’s hard to believe that Day Two of Buffalo Sabres Development Camp has come and gone so quickly. A week that many have been waiting for almost three years and it’s more than halfway over in the blink of an eye.
While this week’s focus is to see where some of the top prospects are at in terms of their development, it’s fun for the staff to see all the pieces come into place that they’ve been waiting to put together over the last few years.
“It's so fun to get all these guys together,” said Sabres director of player development and former Amerks assistant coach Adam Mair when asked about how fun this week is. “From Europe, our college kids, or our prospects, as you guys can see, there is a ton of skill. There's a ton of talent out there, so it's exciting.”
Along with the highly touted talent that help bring this camp to life, Mair is one of the many coaches putting in work on and off the ice. And as Mair would say, this camp is nice for everyone to get well-acquainted with one another and the organization.
“The nice part about this camp is that they can come in and get comfortable with the facilities. Figuring out little things even like how to get to the gym, how to get to the locker room, all that stuff can be a little overwhelming at times for the junior players, so it's good to have them all here at once and go through the process together.”
Development Camp is just a glimpse of what else is in store for the Sabres in the offseason. There’s still Prospect Challenge and Training Camp to get through prior to the start of the 2022-23 campaign, so as much as this week is to focus on development, it’s also to help the prospects feel as comfortable as possible for when they’re ready to take that next step.
“Our job is to initially build relationships with our players,” stated Mair when discussing the next steps in building relationships with top prospects and draft picks once Development Camp is over. “Our development staff, they do a great job, we stay in contact with them regularly. We go out to visit them, whether they're in Europe or at college and in juniors and really try to formulate a relationship quickly so that we can help them become the best players they can be.”
After today, there’s just one more day of practice sessions before the French Connection Tournament on Saturday morning. The rest of the week’s schedule looks like this:
Friday, July 15
Session One: 9:15-10:15 a.m.
Sessions Two: 10:45-11:45 a.m.
Saturday, July 16
French Connection Tournament: 9:15 a.m. (Ticketed event)
Tomorrow’s final two practice sessions are free and open to the public. Saturday's French Connection Tournament is a ticketed event for Sabres Season-Ticket Members available on a first-come, first-served basis.