Hey! Look what the Ducks are doing. I wonder where they got that idea? Actually, they openly admitted they got it from us, but they're having trouble getting fans to send in pictures from places other than Ducks games. Our fans, on the other hand, have been to all seven continents (including Antarctica) and have sent in pictures from the Great Wall of China to the Great Pyramid to Mach Picchu. At close to 300 pictures and counting our Fans on the Road photo collection is pretty impressive, but we're still looking for more. Going to Australia? We don't have any pictures from the Great Barrier Reef or Ayers Rock. We're short on Amazon pictures (the river and the rainforest), as well as shots from Greek ruins. Your pictures don't have to be exotic though- just send in a photo of you with your Thrashers gear that shows you on the road somewhere. Anywhere. Just try not to take it in a generic looking restaurant or store in some generic town. We like original. And does anyone know someone at NASA? I already think we have the most well-traveled fans in the league, but I'd be blown away if we got a legit picture of someone with Thrashers gear in space. Surely there's an astronaut or cosmonaut that's a Thrashers fan. Right?

Keep the pictures coming and if you sent one in and you haven't seen it on the site yet try again with a different subject line. Our spam filters get carried away sometimes.

It feels like prospect camp just wrapped but some of our top young players are about to hit the ice again. USA Hockey is hosting a camp and tournament in advance preparation for the World Junior Championships in December and January and it kicks off this Friday in Lake Placid. There will be two American squads (blue and white) as well as teams from Sweden and Finland. Nicklas Lasu will represent Sweden, Niclas Lucenius will be there with the Finnish squad, and Zach Bogosian, Vinny Saponari, and John Albert will all suit up for one of the two American teams. Roughly a month after that camp wraps up some of these guys (Bogosian at least) will likely be n the ice again in Traverse City.

There really is no such thing as an off-season for these guys.

Chris Thorburn was over at Philips Arena this morning for the Children's Healthcare Of Atlanta Rehab Summer Games (more on that later this week) and while he was there I asked him about Randy Cunneyworth, our new assistant coach who just so happened to coach Thorburn for three years in Rochester. You can count Thorburn among his fans and just one of many people who thought Cunneyworth had a good shot at making the jump to the NHL this year. Here's what Thorburn had to say about his former coach:

"He taught me a lot. I was coming into pro hockey and I was pretty much blinded by the game. I needed to learn a lot about myself and the game and he was there for me giving me guidance. I think he's going to be great for our team. He knows the game, he's intense, and I think players are going to be able to relate to him. He's really easy to talk to. I'm excited about having him down here and I'm sure he'll bring the kind of success that he in had with the Rochester Americans with him. He just has a way of getting through to the players and getting them to perform for him. He'll probably do the same thing here. Guys will respect him. He's played at this level and he knows what it takes to win."

Eric Boulton actually played with and for Cunneyworth back in 1999-2000 in Rochester. Boulton was a young player and Cunneyworth was a player/assistant coach winding up his playing career. Boulton piled up 276 PIM that season- his second highest season total.

On a side note, I've come to acquire a small collection of Score hockey cards from the 1990 season (way back when there were 21 teams in the NHL- and 16 of them made the playoffs!). Every week or so I'm given a new pack by someone here in the office, and lo and behold, last Friday I got a Randy Cunneyworth Hartford Whalers card. Is it just me or did the Whalers have one of the best NHL uniforms of all time? Great colors, and the logo had everything- a 'W' for the team, an 'H' for the city, and a whale's tail. Awesome

In other news, I'm glad to see we signed Matt Siddall. Not many ninth round draft picks pan out but Siddall is in good company. Mark Streit went eight spots ahead of him in 2004 and if Siddall ends up suiting up for the Thrashers he'll be the fifth player from the ninth round of the 2004 draft to make it to the NHL. You may or may not recall that Siddall was one of my two workout partners (along with Myles Stoesz) went I went into the gym during prospect camp. He has decent size, loves to hit, and he's not a stranger to picking up some points. He's probably best suited to being an energy/checking line player and it's hard to project where those guys end up. When you're looking at an offensive player you can gauge whether he has the speed, vision and skill to do what he does at a higher level. Checkers, on the other hand, can go awfully far based on hard work and the ability to be coached. Siddall will likely be competing for a spot in Chicago this fall where his personality and work ethic should endear him to Wolves fans.

I know Scott Burnside and I like Scott Burnside as a person. That will make it even easier for me to save a copy of this article and wave it in his face at the end of this season when the Thrashers steal a page from the Hawks and shock the world.

I can't promise you that the Thrashers are going to be n the playoffs, but I can promise you that this year's team will be more competitive night in and night out than the one you saw last year. They'll be better at both ends of the ice and they'll play for pride and with pride every game. No disrespect to Don Waddell who has never tried to argue that he's a great bench boss, but this team will be better coached and more cohesive than what you saw last season.

This team will have under John Anderson and his staff and they'll be fun to watch, even in losses. The goaltending will be better as Kari Lehtonen is reunited with the coach who has gotten the most out of him. The defense will be better as Enstrom gains experience, Hainsey runs the PP and Bogosian shows everyone why he is the most NHL-ready player from this year's draft. The forwards will be better as Christensen gets quality minutes, Kozlov proves the doubters that last season was an aberration, Williams works the PP, Reasoner works and PK, and Kovalchuk has yet another great season.

Right now, without the roster being set, this team is going to have at least seven players 25 or younger compared to four who are 35 or older. You're going to see a young team that's growing together and I'll take that over an aging squad any day.

If you haven't been to the homepage in the last little while you may not have seen that we have hired two assistant coaches. Assistant coach Steve Weeks and Video coach Tony Borgford will remain in their current positions while former Rochester Americans Head Coach Randy Cunneyworth and former Chicago Wolves Assistant Coach Todd Nelson will join John Anderson's coaching staff.

I have never met Randy Cunneyworth but he is widely credited with developing Buffalo's top-notch group of young players that came up through their system over the last few seasons. While working as the head coach of the Sabres' AHL affiliate he coached (to name a few) Jason Pominville, Paul Gaustad, Derek Roy, Brian Campbell, Ales Kotalik, Ryan Miller and our own Chris Thorburn. There was speculation during the season that Cunneyworth would get some serious consideration for a head coaching job in the NHL this year so to land him as an assistant is a big deal.

I actually ran into Todd Nelson on my way back from Chicago yesterday. As I got to my gate at O'Hare there he was in a Thrashers polo, waiting to fly down here and sign the paperwork to make everything official. He was also coming down from Chicago to look for a house, but one of his biggest priorities as he makes the move is to find a local hockey program for his son. That tells you how much the guy loves the game. Here he is about to sign an NHL coaching contract and he's worried about where his boy is going to play. You have to love that kind of passion. In chatting with Nelson it was obvious that he has a great relationship with John Anderson and that he really wants to help change the culture in Atlanta. Chicago has been a prime destination for AHL free agents for years because it's such a fun place to play and both John Anderson and Todd Nelson want Atlanta to be viewed the same way.

While our coaching staff may not have a wealth of NHL coaching experience (Steve Weeks has 10 seasons under his belt and Tony Borgford has two) but they've combined for 1973 games on the ice at the NHL level and the new additions have a proven track record of developing young players.

That was fun. I'm back from Chicago and ready to get back into the swing of things after some good times in the windy city (although oddly enough is only the 42nd windiest city in the country).

Our web meetings were actually referred to as the NHL Digital Summer Camp and oddly enough it actually reminded me a little bit of camp. We were away from home, we had some fun sessions and some that were somewhat less interesting depending on your areas of expertise, and we met a lot of interesting people. There were cliques, snack breaks, and even someone to fill the role of completely over the top camp counselor. Perhaps most importantly, some really good friends were made, and those friendships are going to make it easier for all of us to do our jobs. Knowing the face and personality behind an email address makes all the difference in the world. There are a lot of talented people working for various teams and it was good to get a chance to finally get to meet many of them.

Do you know what summer camp doesn't have though? Buzz words like super-serve, engagement, mansion (did you know our website is a mansion? We want you to look in all the rooms), tent poles, web-ify. We had buzz words galore.

What actually came out of the meetings? Lots of plans for teams to use more and more video (it's going to take some time for us to put that one into action so be patient), strategies for sharing content, a sneak peek at the new NHL.com that's coming in September (it looks awesome) news that NHL Connect is going to be drastically improved and word that the league is very close to announcing a major new fantasy partner. I'm a fantasy hockey junkie so I'm excited about that one. I have no clue what the format is going to be, but would you folks be interested in going head-to-head with me in a fantasy hockey league? It's not unusual for people to leave comments telling me that I don't know what I'm talking about- this would be a chance for them to prove they know more than me.

In Thrashers news, you've probably heard by now that Brad McCrimmon is reportedly on his way to Detroit where he'll be an assistant coach. Beast (just Beast, not "the Beast") is a great guy and as much as I'll miss him being around I think the change will be good for everyone. I fully expect him to land a head coaching job in the NHL in the next few years, but I think John Anderson was the right hire here. He's the perfect combination of a fresh approach and a familiar face (as someone who has coached our prospects and players in Chicago).

Speaking of assistant coaches, I'm fairly confident you'll be hearing something about who ours are going to be very soon. That's all I can say about that for now.

I'm going to give you one last bit of news and then (barring any more signings or trades) I'm taking it easy for a little while.

The Thrashers have agreed to terms with Angelo Esposito on a multi-year entry level contract. From my understanding the clock won't start ticking on the contract until he plays more than 10 games in an NHL season, so he could theoretically play few games here in Atlanta and then go to Montreal in the QMJHL without it counting as a year played. Esposito has tremendous potential but he' going to have his work cut out for him making the team this year. We might not have any All-Star centers but with Christensen, Little, Reasoner, Slater and White it's pretty crowded down the middle which is where Esposito prefers to play. The real battle is going to be at right wing. Jason Williams will likely earn one of the top two spots while Eric Perrin, Colby Armstrong and Chris Thorburn (who played well on Kovalchuk's line at the end of the year) fight over the other.

And now I'm taking a break. the blog has been busy lately and I've loved reading everyone's take on the action in the comments. But after a week of prospect camp and a week of player signings (seven players have been signed or re-signed in the last five days) I'm going to kick back and relax for the first half of the weekend before I head to Chicago on Sunday for some NHL meetings that will keep me out of the office until next Thursday. I'll check in in the evenings if anything important happens though.

If you missed prospect camp here is my recap, and NHL.com has a Kari story for those of you who want to know what his reasoning was for signing a one-year deal. finally, here is a gallery from the Blue Crew skating classes. Auditions start Sunday and go through Wednesday. We'll have pictures and a blog on the main site. Sadly I'll be out of town and won't be able to be a judge like my counterpart in Anaheim was.

It's been a busy week for Don Waddell, re-signing Joey Crabb, Nathan Oystrick and Kari Lehtonen while also attending the Dan Snyder Memorial Golf Tournament in Elmira, Ontario. It turns out he had another signing up his sleeve too.

The Thrashers have agreed to terms with former Edmonton Oiler center Marty Reasoner. Reasoner isn't a top-flight scorer (his career high is 34 points) but he's a solid complimentary player and a strong penalty-killer. He led Edmonton forwards in short-handed time-on-ice (TOI) and that says something considering Edmonton had the fifth best PK in the NHL last year. He also had a 52.8% faceoff percentage while taking almost 20% of his team's draws. That would be good for second on the Thrashers among centers who took more than 500 faceoffs last season (Reasoner took 906).

Reasoner is 31, 6-2 and 201 lbs. He's a native of Honeoye Falls, NY, just south of Rochester, and played for Boston College before turning pro.  He was drafted 14th overall in 1996 by the Blues and split time between them and their AHL affiliate in Worcester for four seasons before being traded to Edmonton with Jochen Hecht and Jan Horacek for Doug Weight and Michel Riesen in 2001. He was traded form Edmonton to the Bruins in 2006 but rejoined the Oilers the following season.

James Mirtle referred to Reasoner as a "decent option" last week, and that sounds about right. He won't blow anyone away with his numbers but he should be able to put up 10-15 goals and 25-35 points on an offensively-minded Eastern Conference team. At 31 his best days aren't necessarily behind him and he has decent size and should be a welcome addition to roster. He'll likely see third or fourth line duty with plenty of time on the penalty kill.

With five natural centers now under contract (Christensen, Little, Reasoner, Slater and White) John Anderson and Don Waddell will have some options when it comes to the lineup and/or possible trades.

The Thrashers will open the 2008-09 season with an October 10 home game against the Southeast Division Champion Washington Capitals. Friends will become rivals as World Championship gold medalists Ilya Kovalchuk and Alex Ovechkin go toe-to-toe and Thrashers rookie head coach John Anderson makes his NHL coaching debut against his close personal friend and Jack Adams Award winner Bruce Boudreau. The game will also mark the regular season debuts of Ron Hainsey and Jason Williams in Thrashers uniforms and could very well serve as a launching point for the career of third overall pick Zack Bogosian on Atlanta's blueline.

Under the new schedule format the Thrashers will play each Western conference team once and will play three of the 15 Western conference teams twice. Those teams are Detroit, Nashville and Colorado, each of which will play one regular season game at Philips Arena.

The full 2008-09 Thrashers schedule will be unveiled tomorrow.

The Thrashers have been taking plenty of heat form the media so far this summer, but Craig Custance isn't ready to pile on yet. He put us in the middle of the Southeast Division today when he ranked the off-season moves in the Eastern Conference.

Speaking of Craig, I promised him that I'd plug his new blog at the Sporting News. today is as good a day as any to do it, especially since he gave me a shout out for working out with the prospects. Yes, I'm still sore.

In other news, Ted Nolan is out in New York and a lot of journalists seem to think Bob Hartley is (or should be) in the mix to fill the coaching vacancy. Am I the only person that think it would be strange for Hartley to be re-united with Mike Dunham (the Islanders goaltending coach), Andy Sutton, and Jon Sim?

Some other links to share:

Oh- in case you haven't heard, or have heard inaccurate information, the NHL schedule will be released on Thursday (not Wednesday) but we'll be announcing the first and last games of the season tomorrow as well as our three "at large" games against Western conference teams. I'm fairly sure you'll like them.

Finally, I was asked what the penalty is if a team enters the season below the cap minimum. Contrary to what Eklund says (I know- shocking he was wrong on this one), teams don't forfeit games. They pay the difference between their cap hit and the cap minimum. It won't be a concern for us anyway. The Thrashers shouldn't have any trouble hitting the cap floor once Kari re-signs and the roster gets fleshed out.

During a summer in which players signed mammoth contracts for exorbitant sums of money you have to give Don Waddell credit for keeping a cool head while still managing to upgrade his roster with quality pieces. Yes, he swung for the fences with Brian Campbell, and when that didn't work he had a good back-up plan in the form of Ron Hainsey. Then he went shopping for a forward and signed Jason Williams, who James Mirtle referred to on Saturday as one of the best forwards left on the market.

Neither player has ever been an All-Star, but both are young (27) and both are power play experts. Neither one is past his prime playing years and both of them were signed to very reasonable contracts. To mix sports metaphors, home runs are flashy but it's tough to build a team based on them. You need singles, doubles and triples as well. Hainsey and Williams should turn out to be solid extra-base hits for the Thrashers.

So what do you need to know about Jason Williams? He's 27, he's from London, Ontario and he can play center and right wing. He played almost exclusively on the wing in Chicago and that's where he'll probably fit here since we have Christensen, Little, Slater and White down the middle already (note that I listed them in alphabetical order, not in order of where I expect them to play).

Williams was a member of the 2001-02 Red Wings Cup team, though he only played 25 games in the regular season and nine in the playoffs. He was undrafted and signed with the Red Wings as a free agent in 2000. He played his junior hockey in Peterborough (as did Zach Bogosian). He was traded to the Blackhawks in 2006 and 13 goals, 23 assists and 36 points in 43 for Chicago last season. He missed all of December and most of January and February with a sports hernia but came back with a vengeance, scoring 17 points in the last 23 games of the season, including a six-game nine-point scoring streak. Four of his 13 goals were game-winners and he led the Blackhawks in PP time-on-ice per game when he played. He's 5-10 and 194 lbs, so he's an averaged sized NHL forward. He has a nose for the net and doesn't mind going into the corners. He had a 12.9 shooting percentage last season, better than all Thrashers except Kovalchuk.

As for where he'll fit, pencil him in on one of the top two lines as a right wing. It's way too early to play the line combination game but Williams could replace Recchi on Kovy's line. Recchi had 40 points in 53 games as a Thrasher. Williams had four fewer in 10 fewer games. Recchi had five goals and 14 assists on the PP with Atlanta. Williams had six goals and 13 assists with the man advantage (again in 10 fewer games). So while you shouldn't compare Williams to Recchi in terms of experience and presence, his numbers match up favorably and he's 12 years younger. Williams could turn out to be a great, affordable piece for the Thrashers, and if not he's only on a one-year deal (according to TSN) so there's really no downside.

Last summer the average age of the Thrashers went up through free agent signings. This year it has gone down considerably, and that's something for fans to be excited about. I still don't think Don Waddell is finished upgrading the roster, but so far I'm very pleased with what he has done upgrading the defense with Hainsey (and Bogosian) and the forwards with Williams.

Our 2008 Prospect Development Camp wrapped up this morning with a dryland workout at a local track this morning and you expect to see a more detailed wrap-up sometime tomorrow.

On-ice sessions finished up yesterday afternoon as the players did final drills with skating coach Kenny McCudden who could spend significant time in Atlanta this season working with the Thrashers (as a consultant- probably not as a full member of the coaching staff). Due to my aversion for watching hours on hours of drills I opted to follow the players into the gym again to give you a better idea of what goes into their off-ice workouts.

In the picture above are the eight different stations with the number of sets and repetitions to be performed at each. Once again the players were split into two groups (the white team and the blue team) and one group worked out while the other was on the ice. The players paired up for the exercises.

I took pictures during the first session with the white team and then put on my shorts and t-shirt and worked out with the second group, keeping my promise with Ray Bear. Myles Stoesz gave me a hard time on Friday when I was just watching them work out so when Ray Bear told me to join whatever group I wanted I jumped in with Myles and Matt Siddall- two of the BC Western Canadian boys.

The first station was the front squats. Zach Bogosian demonstrates above. Place the weight (somewhere in the 130-150 lb range if I recall correctly. Ray can correct me if I'm wrong) on your shoulders and squat as if you were about to sit on a toilet. That's how Myles described it. It's about as hard as it looks, though it was one of the ones  had the least trouble with- probably because we did it first. You feel it through the arms and shoulders but much, much more so through your thighs, hamstrings and butt. Keep in mind when reading these descriptions that what I felt doing these might not have been what was intended to be felt. All of these players are younger than me, are clearly in better shape, and have much better technique.

Next up- Romanian Deal Lifts. I couldn't do them. In the 3-4 minutes that Ray worked with me I couldn't master the technique to do them properly, and with stuff like this it's better to not do it at all than it is to do it wrong. As Jonas Enlund demonstrates above, the objective was to lift the weight up to waist level and then lower it closer to the floor, bending at the hips (not the waist).

The one-leg box squats are a lot harder than they look but they're something you can do at home if you really want to work your legs. As the name implies, you lower yourself into a squat while balancing on one leg until your leg is bent at least 90 degrees. The Europeans (particularly Enlund and Lasu) were freakishly good at this one. Lasu got so low that his butt almost touched the back of his shoe. It take an unbelievable amount of leg strength, balance and flexibility to pull that off. I did the full sets of these and got close to 90 degrees on most of them in the first set. The second set? Probably not.

The weighted pushups are a lot of fun. Or maybe not. The partner steadied a 30 lb weight on the upper back/shoulders as the player did four sets of 12 pushups. The first set wasn't too bad for me. the second was tough. The third was all I could handle. I skipped the fourth in the interest of not breaking my arms. Above are Spencer Anderson (on the floor) and Paul Postma. It's been pointed out a few times over the last week that Postma is skinny, and he is. But he's also deceptively strong. He definitely put me to shame and I don't recall seeing him struggle more than anyone else at any of the stations.

Mike Forney demonstrates the pull-ups. I'm not embarrassed to admit that I had trouble doing one. With help I did a set, but by this point my arms were rubber.

The shoulder raises were the last station I did and I can honestly say that I finished my three sets of eight in each of the three positions. In the first position you raised each arms up to shoulder height in front of your body (John Albert demonstrates above). In the second you raised your arms to shoulder height to the sides as Mark Thorburn does below. I the third you bend slightly forward and raise the weights from your chest outward to your shoulders as if you were trying to pinch something with your shoulder blades (as Myles put it).

Next up was the slideboard groin exercise. The players on the outside demonstrate below (Riley Holzapfel on the right, Scott Bartlett on the left). With the outside foot planted the objective was to slide the inside foot along the board with abs tight, keeping your center of gravity halfway between each foot. You most definitely feel it, and I'll leave it at that. This is one exercise that anyone could go in there and do because it doesn't take physical strength, but you sure feel it later if it's not a muscle group you regularly work.

Finally was the medicine ball sit-up station. As one person held the 15 lb ball at waist level the other sat up with arms extended until they could hold the ball. They then lowered themselves back down, keeping their arms extended, and then went back up, placing the ball back in the person's hands. That counted as one. Three sets of 20 were required. Listen- I do crunches on my own on a fairly regular basis, so I didn't expect this exercise to be too bad. It was a breeze for the first five reps. The next five got a bit tougher. 11-15 were hard and 16-20 were absolutely brutal. That was the first set. On the second set 1-3 were okay, 4-7 were hard, 8-11 were painful and 12-16 were almost impossible. That's where I stopped. Time mercifully ran out so I didn't have to try a third set, or even finish the second.

I still had a couple interviews to do before everyone headed to dinner so I grabbed a protein bar and some water and headed to the locker room. A couple players told me I'd earned a sports drink so I grabbed one of those form the locker room cooler too. To get the full effect I should have taken a post workout ice bath, but time was against me. I'm probably paying for that now since I ache from my thighs to my shoulders and everywhere in between. I want to thank Myles and Matt for being great sports and showing me the ropes and Ray Bear for letting me come in and be a guinea pig in his gym. It was an eye-opening experience to say the least.

Needless to say, I have an even deeper appreciation for what these guys go through now, and when you consider that every one of them absolutely blew me out of the water AFTER a one-hour on-ice session with Kenny, it's just amazing how well conditioned they are. Various degrees of fitness were on display, starting with Zach Bogosian who was in a class all his own, but even the lowest level was still very good. Long gone are the days when players stopped exercising at the end of season and came into camp to get into shape. Now players never get out of it. It's a 365 day-a-year lifestyle for them, and those who really get it will find that it could be the difference between being in the minors or being in the NHL when it comes time for them to go pro.

 This is me exhibiting the beginnings of bad technique while attempting a Romanian Dead Lift. Details to come after a night of sleep, along with pictures from each of Sunday's workout stations, as well as overall thoughts about prospect camp. Oh, there might be some player news too. It's already being discussed in the comments here, so please go there to talk about it for the time being. The comments that have nothing to do with the actual blog posts are getting kind of annoying (though I love the participation overall).

If you read Thrashers blogs you probably heard by now that we invited some of the more active bloggers out to Duluth to meet head coach John Anderson yesterday. All six sites represented have chimed in with their thoughts on the man that has been tasked with getting this team back into the playoffs.

• Blueland Chronicle (here and here)
• Blueland Roar
• The AJC's Iceman/Rawhide/Bill Tiller
• Thrash Practice
• Thrashers 411
• Do The Thrashers Have Large Talons?

As you'll see when you read about the event. John Anderson is very much a people person. I was talking about him with Kenny McCudden (skating coach extraordinaire) today and Kenny's comment was "It has to be a really, really bad day for John to not be in a good mood." I can't wait to see his enthusiasm rub off on the players.

If you have any questions for the players post them below and I'll see if I can ask them.

In other news, we invited the most active Thrashers bloggers to the practice facility today to meet John Anderson and we had roughly six sites represented. I'll post links to what they wrote as they send them in.

 The John Anderson hiring has been the highlight of this off-season for the Thrashers- even ahead of drafting Bogosian. I really think that you could take the most cynical, jaded Thrashers fan or journalist in a room with Anderson for 15 minutes and have them come out feeling optimistic about the team. his enthusiasm and his optimism are contagious and if he can infect the players we're in for an exciting season. I think the players are going to love playing for him and as a result you're going to see some guys have great rebound years.

For all the criticism there has been of roster moves or lack thereof to this point (I still expect a few moves between now and training camp) I don't think a single person that has ever met Anderson has criticized his hiring, and that says a lot about the man.

There's a chart on the wall of the Thrashers' training room in Duluth where each player at prospect camp writes their morning weigh-in weight and then writes their end-of-day weight. Some guys fluctuate by as much as 4-5 pounds from one day to the next others are so consistent within a single decimal point. I'm not sure what it all means, but I can tell you we're going to have to update some of the weights in the player bios. Riley Holzapfel is listed at 170, which I believe was his draft weight. He's been hitting the gym since then and has put on a good 15 pounds of muscle. Spencer Machacek is another guy that has bulked up, as has Arturs Kulda.

I spent a good chunk of Friday afternoon in the training room watching strength and conditioning coach Ray Bear put the players through a battery of exercises at nine different stations. Players paired up and spent three minutes at each station. In those three minutes there was a set number of exercises for them to do. They aren't easy to explain via print and my camera batteries were dead, so I'll do what I can to make it make sense.

Station #1:
Physioball squats. The player put the giant physio ball behind their lower back and leaned against the wall, supporting themselves with the ball. They then did three sets of eight squats with a dumbbell in each hand with their arms at their sides.

Station #2:
Phyioball hamstring curls. Three sets of 12 curls. The player laid on a mat on his back with his legs on the ball and lifted his hips off the ground using the ball which was under his feet for leverage.

Station #3
Dumbbell bench. Three sets of eight standard dumbbell lifts while laying on the weight bench.

Station #4
Arm Row. Three sets of eight with each arm using a dumbbell.

Station #5
Bosu ball lunges. The ball is a dome that lies flat on the ground. The player stood with one foot on the center of the ball and did a lunge with the other leg, then lowered that leg down into a kneeling stance. two sets of ten with each leg. This was the trickiest of the exercises. two sets of ten for each leg.

Station #6
Core board pushup with twist. The core board is a board stacked on a base that pivots. It has handles about shoulder-width apart. For this exercise players g