Girard native Jen Schoullis and Mercyhurst alumnus Kelley Steadman will join 39 other players attending the United States Women’s National Team camp June 16-23 at the Olympic Center in Lake Placid, N.Y. The camp will determine the players that will train together and play in various events in preparation for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, which will be held Feb. 7-23 in Sochi, Russia. That roster will be announced June 24.
The final 21-player Olympic team will be unveiled in late December. Schoullis, 24, and Steadman, 22, led the Boston Blades to the Canadian Women’s Hockey League championship this past March before winning gold with the U.S. at the IIHF Women’s World Championship in Ottawa, Ontario, last month.

Veteran D Spencer Abraham figures Dane Fox and Jimmy McDowell are locks for two of the Erie Otters’ three overager spots for the 2013-14 OHL season. The departure of D Jack Kuzmyk, who recently informed club officials he has chosen to enroll in school instead of trying to play his final season in major juniors, leaves as Abraham as the only other OA on the current roster.
Yet Abraham doesn’t think he’s a sure thing right now. “I’m going to have to earn my spot,” he said. OAs need to be among the best players on the team. So where doe Abraham feel he fits in?
“I can be a depth guy,” he said, who can serve as a mentor to younger Ds like returnees Justin Felker and Darren Raddysh, soon-to-be signed 2013 second-round pick Jesse Saban and highly-touted 2012 pick Travis Dermott.
“They’re young guys coming into the league,” said Abraham, who heads into his fourth year in the OHL. “It’s a tough league. I can show them the way they need to work and the way they need to act.”
* Taking the next step: Defense prospect Patrick Murphy needed to get thinner, faster and stronger to have a chance to play for the Otters next season. He’s spending the offseason doing just that.
A more streamlined version of the Otters’ fifth-round pick in the 2011 OHL Priority Selection looked impressive during the club’s rookie development camp this weekend at Mercyhurst Ice Center.
“I wasn’t fast enough and too soft in the corners. That’s where I needed to step up to stick around,” said Murphy, who spent brief stints with the club the past two seasons.
* Hitting his mark: First-round pick Dylan Strome tossed a strike Friday night at Jerry Uht Park, when he threw the ceremonial first pitch before the Erie SeaWolves game. Strome wishes he was more accurate with his shots in Saturday’s scrimmages at MIC. He scored in the first scrimmage featuring mainly players with 1996 and 1997 birth years.
Yet he was stopped on a few quality chances in the second scrimmage.
Yet on the plus side, he quickly learned how much of a jump he will face from minor midgets to the OHL. Besides being a faster game, he said, “you’ve got to brace yourself for every hit.”
* A weekend off: C Connor McDavid enjoyed a leisurely weekend at MIC. He didn’t skate because he’s only a week removed from winning a gold medal at the IIHF U18 World Championship in Sochi, Russia. Besides, he’s still savoring the memorable experience, and not because he led all players in the tournament with eight goals and 14 points.
He enjoyed playing some of the best players in the world in that age group. McDavid also appreciated what he saw on the ice at MIC this weekend.
“It looks good out there,” he said. “I’m looking forward to training camp.”
* Getting offensive: C Kyle Pettit developed into a reliable defensive forward for the Otters last season as a 16-year-old rookie. Yet he focused on his offensive game this offseason. He has worked strictly on offense four days a week.
“It’s nice to get an offensive approach to my game,” he said.

Trent Fox has played hockey with his older brother, Dane, countless times in his life. But those times were in their driveway back home in Thamesville, Ontario. This weekend is different. This time, they’re both members of the Erie Otters organization.
“It’s exciting,” said Trent Fox, 16, the club’s fifth-round pick in the 2013 OHL Priority Selection who had 15 goals and 28 points in 27 minor midget games with London Knights Gold this season. “It will be a dream come true (if he earns a roster spot with the Otters. “I just have to do the hard work and do the little things to make it. That’s what I’ll do.”
Dane Fox, 19, who enters his overage season with the Otters, has served as his younger brother’s mentor heading into his first experience at the OHL level. “He’s been asking questions. I’ve just been calming him down and telling him what to expect and what to do and what not to do. He’s listening and asking questions. So I know that he’s ready to come out here and play.
Trent Fox didn’t last long in his first on-ice practice Friday during rookie development camp at Mercyhurst Ice Center. He left the ice early because of an ongoing battle with strep throat.
* News and notes: First-round pick Dylan Strome has officially signed with the Otters. … Strome will wear No. 19 as a rookie next season. Defenseman Artem Kuleshov wore that number as a rookie this season. But he isn’t expected to rejoin the club next season. Goaltender Oscar Dansk occupies one of two spots designated for European-born players. The Otters also hold the No. 5 overall pick in the CHL Import Draft this summer. … Defenseman Justin Felker was cleared to resume skating last week after being off the ice for four months because of a compression fracture in his neck that was originally feared to be career-threatening. … Center Jake Evans (knee) should be cleared to skate in the next two weeks.

- Victor Fernandes

The Erie Otters have hired Chris Hartsburg and Vince Laise as the new assistant coaches on coach Kris Knoblauch‘s staff. They were introduced, along with first-round pick Dylan Strome, to the media and a group of season-ticket holders and fans during a welcome reception Thursday at Erie Insurance Arena.
Hartsburg, 33, whose father, Craig Hartsburg, was a defenseman in the NHL and now is associate coach with the Columbus Blue Jackets, spent the past four seasons as an assistant with the WHL’s Everett Silvertips. Hartsburg, a native of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, will focus on the defense and penalty kill.
Laise, 30, a native of Bramalea, Ontario, will handle off-ice training, video breakdown and assist Knoblauch with the power-play units. He has worked with many professional athletes at the Athletic Training Center, a hockey training facility in Mississauga, Ontario. He also has worked with Strome.
He was an assistant coach this season with the Brampton Bombers, a Junior B club in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League. He spent the 2011-12 season, his first in coaching, with the Oakville Blades of the Ontario Junior A Hockey League.
Knoblauch said he has someone in mind for the club’s part-time goaltending coach. But he planned to wait until the OHL releases the schedule for the 2013-14 season before making a decision. Knoblauch said the team’s schedule would need to fit into that undisclosed candidate’s plans.

- Victor Fernandes

Rookie development camp rosters
Team Red (Coach – Chris Hartsburg)
Goaltenders
30 – Cosimo Lazzarino (2013, 9th round)
31 – Devin Williams (Veteran)
Defensemen
2 – T.J. Fergus (2013, 8th round)
4 – Nathan Kohler (2012, 14th round)
6 – Owen Headrick (2013, 14th round)
7 – Teilen Celentano (Free agent, 1996)
14 – Jesse Saban (2013, 2nd round)
15 Nathan Kwiecinski (2013, 9th round)
OR – Spencer Abraham (Veteran)
OR – Kyle Allan (2011, 15th round)
OR – Troy Donnay (Veteran)
BL – Justin Felker (Veteran – not expected to skate)
Left wings
18 – Patrick Fellows (2013, 7th round)
20 – Nolan Dunn (Free agent, 1996)
9R – Stephen Harper (Veteran)
24R – Dane Fox (Veteran)
Centers
10 – Matthew Baker (2013, 11th round)
11 – Connor McDavid (Veteran – not expected to skate)
17 – Trent Fox (2013, 5th round)
19 – Trayvon Henry (2013, 15th round)
23R – Connor Crisp (Veteran)
12R – Jordan Dunin (2011, 7th round)
Right wings
5 – Cameron Etherington (Free agent, 1996)
8 – Alexander Row (Free agent, 1996)
16 – Hayden Hodgson (Veteran)
21 – Jeff St. Pierre (Free agent, 1996)
22R – Nick Betz (Veteran)

Key: OR – Orange, BL – Blue, R – Red

Team Gold (Coach – Vince Laise)
Goaltenders
32 – Daniel Dekoning (2012, 8th round)
33 – Jason Rhynold (Free agent, 1996)
Defense
2 – Darren Raddysh (Veteran)
3 – Gregory Allan (2011, 6th round)
4 – Travis Dermott (2012, 9th round)
9 – Matthew Bell (Free agent, 1996)
10 – Anton Bura (1996, free agent)
14 – Cole Mayo (2013, 3rd round)
W – Jimmy McDowell (Veteran)
W – Patrick Murphy (2011, 5th round)
W – Adam Pelech (Veteran – not skating, wrist surgery)
W – Travis Wood (Veteran – also listed at left wing)
Left wings
6 – Brady Allen (Free agent, 1996)
12 – Sean Kohler (2013, 6th round)
15 – Kyle Pettit (Veteran)
Centers
7 – Bryan Sienerth (2012, 13th round – Millcreek Township native)
8 – Frank Pucci (2013, 12th round)
11 – Quentin Maksimovich (2012, 11th round)
17 – Dylan Strome (2013, 1st round)
19 – Blake Jones (2011, 14th round)
22 – Joel Wigle (Veteran – not expected to skate)
23 – Luke Cairns (Veteran)
Right wings
5 – Jack Scanlan (2013, 13th round)
16 – Thomas Lattavo (2012, 6th round)
18 – Brett Dykstra (Free agent, 1996)
20 – Tommy Horn (Free agent, 1996)
21 – Connor Brown (Veteran)
24 – Justin Maiolino (2011, 13th round)
Key: W – White

Here’s the latest speculation surrounding at least one of the newest members of Erie Otters coach Kris Knoblauch‘s staff … Chris Hartsburg, son of former NHL defenseman and current Columbus Blue Jackets associate coach Craig Hartsburg. The younger Hartsburg spent this season as an assistant coach with the WHL’s Everett Silvertips.
No official confirmation from the Otters. The staff will be announced at tonight’s welcome reception for first-round pick Dylan Strome at Erie Insurance Arena.

- Victor Fernandes

Erie Otters D Adam Pelech underwent surgery Tuesday to remove pins from his surgically repaired wrist, managing partner/GM Sherry Bassin confirmed today.
Bassin said Pelech will be ready for training camp in late August. He also will be able to train at some point this summer. “It’s just a question of healing,” Bassin said.
Pelech has undergone three surgeries on that wrist since fracturing it early in the 2011-12 OHL season – the first to repair the break in the fall of 2011, the second in May 2012 to remove a screw inserted during the first procedure.
In other news, Bassin said the roster for this weekend’s rookie development camp at Mercyhurst Ice Center will be finalized today. He expects 25-28 players with 1996 and 1997 birth years to participate in the camp. Yet Bassin remained tight-lipped on who he has hired to join coach Kris Knoblauch‘s staff. The staff will be unveiled Thursday night during a welcome reception for first-round pick Dylan Strome at Erie Insurance Arena.
Bassin previously has said he could hire two full-time assistants and a part-time goaltending coach.

- Victor Fernandes

The Erie Otters will hold a “Welcome to Erie” reception for 2013 1st-round pick Dylan Strome Thursday night at Erie Insurance Arena. Sherry Bassin, managing partner and general manager, said he has agreed to terms with Strome and 2nd-round pick Jesse Saban. Bassin said Strome should sign in time for this weekend’s rookie development camp at Mercyhurst Ice Center.
Yet Strome won’t be the only guests of honor. Apparently, new members of Kris Knoblauch‘s coaching staff will be introduced at the gathering. No word yet on who they are …
In other news, Bassin continues to rave about D Travis Dermott, a 9th-round pick in 2012, who was the the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s rookie of the year with Newmarket.
Meanwhile, veteran forwards Jake Evans (knee) and Connor Crisp (muscle pull in side) are close to 100 percent healthy, while Joel Wigle continues to recover from sore shoulders that bothered him late in the season.
Defense prospect Riley Robertson (3rd round in 2012) will attend the camp but won’t skate because he’s recovering from a shoulder injury that nagged him all season.
“He’s pretty well 100 percent healthy,” Bassin said of Robertson. “We’re just being cautious. This isn’t a time to get somebody reinjured.”

- Victor Fernandes

Erie Otters center Connor McDavid captured the gold medal Sunday, as Canada defeated the four-time defending champion United States 3-2 in the title game of the IIHF U18 World Championship in Sochi, Russia. McDavid didn’t record a point for the second straight game, but he still led all players with eight goals and 14 points in seven games and tied for the lead with six assists. He was named the most valuable player and best forward.
McDavid set Canadian records for goals and points in the tournament. Meanwhile, Canada won gold for the first time since 2008.

The Erie Otters will hold a rookie development camp May 3-5 at Mercyhurst Ice Center. The sessions are free and open to the public. The camp roster hasn’t been finalized yet.

Friday, May 3
10-11:20am – Practice (Team Red)
11:30am-1pm – Practice (Team Gold)

Saturday, May 4
11:30am-1pm – Scrimmage (Red vs. Gold; 1996 & 1997-born players only)
1:10-2:30pm – Practice (1993, 1994 and 1995-born players only)
3:30-5pm – Scrimmage (Red vs. Gold; 1996 and 1997-born players only)
5:10-6:30pm – Practice (1993, 1994 and 1995-born players only)
Note: The team will hold dry-land testing May 3 from 2:30-4:30pm at Mercyhurst Athletic Center and Sunday, May 5 from 9-10:30am at Presque Isle Park (if there’s good weather) and MAC (if there’s inclement weather).