DENVER – NHL training camps are just weeks away and the professional players are ramping up their conditioning and on-ice work in preparation for the 2023-24 campaign.
For the alums of the University of Denver hockey team, the program's annual pro camp in August served as an unofficial benchmark of the summer where the players increase their training load.
While most of the "Pro Pios" have been skating in the weeks leading up to the five-day camp that began on Aug. 14, the sessions at Magness Arena are where they start focusing more on their on-ice conditioning and compete level.
"It's always nice to kind of get the guys back together and back on the ice in more of a competitive setting, more intense practice—more like a training camp.," said former DU captain
Ian Mitchell, who suited up in crimson and gold from 2017-2020 and played the past three seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks before being traded to the Boston Bruins over the summer.
"It's good to start to ramp up a bit. So it's kind of perfect timing to have a week like this."
The Pioneers did four days of on-ice work, which was sandwiched around a "recovery day" on the golf course at The Ridge at Castle Pines North. The pros began each "work" day in the weight room with Denver director of sports performance
Matt Shaw before an hour of on-ice practice with the Pioneer coaches, led by bench boss
David Carle. The morning would finish with a scrimmage.
Overall, 23 players took part in at least one of the days of the 2023 pro camp, including members of the 2022 national championship team in
Justin Lee, Kyle Mayhew, Carter Mazur, Brett Stapley and
Cameron Wright and the 2017 NCAA title squad in
Will Butcher, Dylan Gambrell, Blake Hillman, Jarid Lukosevicius, Logan O'Connor and
Troy Terry. Other Denver alums at the camp were
Josiah Didier, Nick Shore and
Scott Mayfield.
Several other NHL players attended this year's camp in
J.T. Compher, Seth Jones, Caleb Jones, Jacob MacDonald and
Robert Bortuzzo, the latter of whom has become a fixture around DU in the summers as he lives and trains in Denver during the offseason.
While Terry grew up in Highlands Ranch and lives in Denver in the offseason as well, DU's pro camp is a week that he looks forward to due to the heightened competition and seeing some familiar faces.
"I'm lucky, I think the class I came into DU with, I don't think there are many other classes that have so many guys coming back to Denver every summer," said Terry, who wore the arched Denver logo from 2015-2017. "I think there are five or six of us from my class that come back here every summer. We push each other, we hang out when we're not at the rink."
Like Mitchell, Terry uses the Pioneers' Pro Camp to flip the switch in his offseason training, so to speak.
"At least the first half of the summer is probably more, at least for me, off ice and getting stronger and that side of things, and then you start getting on ice more and it's kind of more skill work. Just little part of the game and feeling the puck," Terry said. "You get to pro camp week, and it's kind of the week to flip your mindset and just make it seem like training camps are coming soon and getting into game-like situations against other pro hockey players. It's good to get into in-game shape, game-like situations.
Terry himself is a bit of a Pro Camp expert as 2023 marked his fifth as a professional player with the Anaheim Ducks. As a young player, getting the chance to play with veterans was one of the aspects of the week he looked forward to.
Now he is one of those vets and the younger players taking part in the most recent iteration of the camp are looking forward to playing with him
"Those were always some of the more fun parts of the summer because you would get to go against, I remember going against Paul Stastny and Tyler Bozak and all of the other pros," Terry said. "This is the best week of the summer for us."
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