The Red Wings invited Charlottetown Islanders center/winger Thomas Casey to their summer development camp this past June, and the 5’8″ forward spoke with the Charlottetown Islanders’ website’s Aidan Northcott regarding some of the lessons he learned at Detroit’s camp:
“The amount of quality hockey players at camp was impressive, and Detroit’s staff are all high-quality people,” said Casey on the camp. “I haven’t learned that much at any point in my life with regards to hockey. The tools and resources they supply us make it so much fun. It’s an experience I really cherish and was happy to have.”
Thomas was one of a number of QMJHL players at Detroit’s camp, including top drafted prospects Joe Veleno, Jared McIsaac, and Filip Zadina (though McIsaac and Zadina didn’t participate due to injuries). Casey said one of the main takeaways from development camp were the finer techniques that they taught.
“It was everything from how to change the angles of our shots to skills on the odd-man rush,” he said “It was amazing, all the little tips and tricks they had from guys who were in the NHL that I had never heard of.”
With no prior experience at the NHL level, Casey leaned on a former Islander and one of his training partners: Colorado Avalanche defenseman Ryan Graves told him to remain calm, play his game, and everything would be fine.
“I was kind of anxious getting ready for it, but when I got there the nerves went away,” Casey said. “You have to soak it all in; thankfully I did that, it was a lot of fun.”
