Wild development camp: Day 1 sights and sounds

On-ice practices began on Tuesday at the WIld prospects camp. The first one for the White team began at 3 p.m. and ended an hour later. Kinda short.

The Green team went on the ice at 4:30 p.m. and practiced for about an hour, too.

Here are some observations:

* What a great place to study wildlife, crossing the skyway from the X parking ramp to the arena. There are pigeons nesting at every girder and they don't seem to be scared of people -- at least not me.

One girder even had two baby pigeons. They were two grown-up pigeons at one girder, one grooming the other. Not sure if they were different sexes or the same. I have gone to a lot of events at the X, the Final Five, the Frozen Four lately but never noticed all the pigeons. Duh, it was much too cold then for them then on steel girders.

They are neat to watch, but they leave a mess. ... But I got sidetracked.

On to the prospects/development camp ...

* One player really stood out to me as he walked to the ice from the locker room: Kyle Medvec. He is listed at 6-6 and on skates he looks like a giant. Medvec is a 6-6, 225-pound defenseman who played for Vermont of Hockey East. He played high school hockey for Apple Valley.

* Tuesday night was the first of two select a seat nights for season ticket holders. Available seats had brightly colored signs on them. People wandered in, usually in pairs and were able to catch the end of the second prospects' on-ice practice. A Wild employee said he thought those early arrivals got a break. They could check sightlines more accurately than if nobody was playing.

* Heard that 1,000 Devin Setoguchi T-shirts would be distributed at one of the weekend scrimmages and 1,000 Dany Heatley T-shirts at the other. The free scrimmages are 11 a.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. Sunday.

PR person didn't know which T-shirt would be given out which day. Hey, that's important. Will get that information and blog it ASAP. Setoguchi and Heatley T-shirts in Wild store were selling for more than $20. Not sure if those are the same as the ones being distributed. But if they are, what a deal.

* Saw Chay Genoway, the former North Dakota defenseman, battle two other WCHA stars, forwards Jason Zucker of Denver and Justin Fontaine of UMD. Genoway did a good job of smothering rushes by both in a drill. Yeah, for the little guy.

* Tried to keep an eye on Mikael Granlund, the Wild's hot prospect from the 2010 draft. Watched him battle Nick Seeler, a defenseman from Eden Prairie High School, twice in a drill with a lot of body contact. The Wild drafted Seeler this year in the late rounds. Nick, don't hurt Mikael, if you want to stay in the WIld's good graces.

Seeler is 6-2, 185; Granlund is 5-10, 180. I'd call their two scuffles for the puck along the boards a draw.

* Aeros head coach John Torchetti led both on-ice practices. The Wild's coaching staff also met and worked with players off the ice. Daily strength and conditiong education sessions are part of camp, too, as well as nutritional instruction. Wonder if there is homework or a test at the end of the week? ... The Wild are calling this a development camp. Wonder if they mind me calling it a prospects' camp?

* Guess who the last player off the ice after the second practice was? Granlund. Not by much, but he was the last skater off. Wonder if that is a superstition of his? After the coaches left the ice, he was practicing shots from the right and left circles on his own while a small group of prospects practiced together on the other end. Then Granlund followed that group off the ice.

So ended Day 1 of on-ice workouts. The Green team with Mario Lucia, Charlie Coyle, Jason Zucker, Jonas Brodin, etc., will be back on the ice at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning. The Green team with Granlund, Medvec, and UMD forwards J.T. Brown and Jack Connolly will be on the ice at 10:30 a.m.