Ducks Training Camp: Saturday Session One

To start off here is a list of all the players at the first session:

Forwards: No. 39 Matt Beleskey, No. 16 Emerson Etem, No. 43 Max Friberg, No. 18 Tim Jackman, No. 38 William Karlsson, No. 17 Ryan Kesler, No. 49 Antoine Laganiere, No. 65 Louis Leblanc, No. 46 Nick Ritchie, No. 78 Charlie Sarault, No. 33 Jakob Silfverberg, No. 44 Nate Thompson and No. 48 Brandon Yip.

Defensemen: No. 5 Bryan Allen, No. 23 Francois Beauchemin, No. 52 Brendan Bell, No. 77 Jesse Blacker, No. 28 Mark Fistric, No. 60 Kevin Gagne and No. 47 Hampus Lindholm.

Goaltenders: No. 72 Igor Bobkov and No. 36 John Gibson.

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The training camp started off with a warmup period where most of the players stretched out. Francois Beauchemin and John Gibson were some of the first players on the ice. The goaltenders stretched and started drills at either end of the ice. If you haven't seen Igor Bobkov in person, he is gigantic. He's listed as 6-feet-6-inches and towers over the net. It was pretty clear that Gibson was getting the most attention between the two during the drills. Bobkov spent a lot of time dealing with one-on-one breakaway type drills and stopping tip attempts with a player screening in front.

The forward combinations were interesting, since about half of the regular team was not in attendance. The projected second line of Patrick Maroon, Ryan Kesler and Jakob Silfverberg looked great. Kesler was able to move through defenders with ease and laid a few hits when going for the puck below the goal line. The fans in attendance applauded a goal scored by the trio during a zone entry drill. The possible combination for the Ducks' fourth line included Matt Beleskey, Nate Thompson and Tim Jackman. Thompson showed his speed and puck handling skills down low. He looked best on the breakaway chance that he scored on. Beleskey and Jackman haven't changed much since last season.

All the other forwards were kind of thrown into makeshift lines that were switched around throughout the training camp. I noticed that beyond the first couple drills, Nick Ritchie was sitting on the bench a lot while Emerson Etem, William Karlsson and Louis Leblanc skated together. Karlsson stood out the most among the rookies. He won a draw against Kessler and helped lead a rush that resulted in a goal scored by Etem. Aside from this line, Max Friberg was the only other rookie that really stood out.

On defense Beauchemin and Hampus Lindholm were often together. Beauchemin was clearly skating better than last season. It seems that his leg if back to full health. He was able to break up a rush by Kesler and Maroon while skating backward with ease. Lindholm was working with assistant coach Scott Niedermayer and took some shifts with Bryan Allen and Mark Fistric. There isn't much to say about Allen or Fistric, except that Fistric was hit in the leg with a puck and took a while to get up as nobody came out to help him out. The drills were mostly focused on the breakout and the defensive positioning when the puck is dumped into your own zone.

Check back later for more training camp coverage.