Traverse City Rookie Tourney

The four day tournament in Traverse City, MI concluded on Thursday and there were a few names among the eight teams that really stood out and some of which we might see in the very near future. Sure, it's rookies playing against other rookies, but if you're going to stand out in a situation like this, you'll likely earn a lot more of a look in the main training camp and I can assure you that the following players are getting those looks.

Showing off some of his exceptional talents, fourth overall pick, Evander Kane has earned a lot of praise from this tournament. His name appeared in a couple of the post-game recaps from the tournament, thanks to his goal-scoring prowess. With the Thrashers' lack of depth in the forward position, there is a definite possibility that Kane will be suiting up for the team in October.

After a surprising quasi-end to his career, Stefan Legein seems to have regained the fire for hockey again and his play at the Prospects Tournament was proof of that. Legein's speed and energy were noted a couple times in the recaps over the past four days and that is the kind of play the Blue Jackets would enjoy having and would find most beneficial.

The four days in Michigan were well spent by the Hurricanes, as they showed off a lot of their top talent. Zach Boychuk and Brandon Sutter both dressed for the team and dazzled the tournament. Sutter should be a lock for the Hurricanes, while depth down the middle may hold Boychuk up for another year. He should get every opportunity to take someone's job though.

The Blues offered up more young talent to this tournament, showing that their youth system is not drying up any time soon. The team's top offensive talent, Aaron Palushaj, showed off some great talent, most which will be put on display in Blues camp next week. The Blues have a fairly full roster of veterans, but if Palushaj is going to wow everyone like this, the Blues should be able to make some room quite quickly.

The Red Wings continued to show off that they are far from done drafting great European talent. Their new prized player, taken in the second round this summer, Tomas Tatar, was quite the hit at the tournament, impressing everyone with his vision and skating ability. Tatar is still a bit undersized at 18-years old, but the development process of the Red Wings should get him to blossom rather quickly.

The Stars top prospect, Jamie Benn, suffered through a leg injury in the tournament, which hindered his production. This shouldn't hurt Benn's chances of cracking the Stars' line-up this Fall, since his natural talent is so great. Both Sergei Korostin and Ivan Vishnevskiy also put in solid efforts at this tournament and both will get some long looks at camp.

The Wild's prospect team may have been a bit of short on blue chip talent, but the team did play enough to be in the tournament finals, where they lost to the Hurricanes. The stand-out was a former Red Wings draft pick, Zach Torquato. Torquato, a 2007 pick of the Wings, played on the top line for the Wild prospects, scoring a late goal to send a game against St. Louis to extra time.

The most popular name from the four Rangers games at the tournament was top prospect, Evgeni Grachev. Grachev, 19, has the size to excel in camp, but he didn't quite excel at this tournament. A couple of his mentions were somewhat negative, but you know that everyone is looking at him to do some good things. The Rangers are not very deep with veteran talent in the forward ranks, so there is a shot for him this year.