Busy Week Ahead for the Blueshirts

AP Photo

The heart of the NHL off-season is upon us with the Entry Draft being completed this past weekend in Los Angeles, free agency only three days away and many transactions now being made throughout the league. Something that has seemed to fly under the radar, though, has been the fact that the New York Rangers will be holding their annual Prospect Development Camp this week at their training center in Westchester County starting today.

I get a handful of questions from readers about where the Blueshirts' prospects are at and which of them will have a chance at making the lineup for the next season. Well, that is why the development camp is held each and every year. The five-day camp, ran by head coach John Tortorella, is a great way for the coaching staff and management to get a grip on their system and who's knocking on their door - I think after this year's camp there will be quite a few.

Tortorella takes an awful lot of criticism from the fanbase and the media, but one thing I must admit he does well is run organized camps. He knows how to get the most out of the players by making them go through very involved drills and ones that test them in all areas, especially physically. This will eventually separate the 'maybes', the 'no ways', and the 'definitelys'. Whoever impresses Torts and the rest of the staff will be invited to  regular training camp in September where they will try to crack the NHL lineup.

A list players who will be attending prospects camp can be found HERE. Among those you may recognize Derek Stepan, Chris Kreider, Ryan Bourque, Ethan Werek, Evgeny Grachev, Ryan McDonagh, Dylan McIlrath and Roman Horak.

In addition to this, general manager Glen Sather, Mark Messier and the rest of the Rangers brass also have free agency opening up on Thursday at noon, yet do not have a single one of their free agents signed. I doubt Slats is in panic mode just yet, but he is running out of time and needs to get his priorities in order because he is in a hairy situation. First off, Marc Staal remains unsigned as I talked about yesterday. Secondly, Jody Shelley and Alex Auld have barely been mentioned since the season's end. Dan Giradi is en route to becoming a restricted free agent, as is forward Brandan Prust. These are all guys the Blueshirts were supposedly interested in bringing back but none have been inked yet..... Not a good sign in my eyes.

Due to the mess within the team, I do not expect Glen Sather to make a huge splash in free agency on July 1st. He may go on a signing rampage later in the month when other problems are dealt with, but for now he cannot be sure on how much cap room he has to work with. It is not the position he wants to be in at this point in time, but it is his job to get it all done and put a decent product onto the ice in 2010-11 (Don't get your hopes up).

As always, full coverage of all this week's events can be found right here on the Rangers Tribune. We have been reaching record numbers on the site recently with several thousands of readers visiting everyday, and we thank you for that. As far as Thursday goes (July 1), frequent blogs will be posted periodically as the day goes on and then that will be followed by a live chat at 8 p.m. that night. Check back later for updates on day one of prospect camp.