Blue-Liners of Tomorrow Shining in Wilmington

With 25 of the Bruins newest prospects taking the ice in Wilmington, the eyes of many Bruins fans have been focusing on the Bruins 2009 first round draft pick Jordan Caron among the other forwards, looking for the next Blake Wheeler. However, the guys on the back-end, the rugged and notably strong defensemen are getting some well deserved coverage at this year's rookie and development camp at Ristuccia Rink.

Among the crop of defensemen, Russian prospect Yuri Alexandrov is living up to the hype Bruins fans have heard so much of. This has been the first year where the Bruins have been able to lure their 2006 2nd round pick over to join and participate in the annual summer camp. Alexandrov is coming off a solid year with Cherepovets Severstal of the KHL where he put up 8 points in 26 games.

Yuri, at 6'1 has been working on becoming a stronger skater and is showing the promise of fulfilling that, as in all the drills Alexandrov has become a player who has been able to use his stick and size to his advantage and knock skaters off the puck. Along with using his body, the lefty has good acceleration skills and is a smooth skater considering his rather lanky frame.

Despite his fluency in English being in need of some work, Alexandrov's skill set appear to be up the snuff with the rest of the prospects, which is all that really matters when the camp draws to a close.

Another prospect who is showing great promise is the Bruins 3rd round selection in the 2009 draft, Ryan Button. Appearing to be excited to be a Bruin, coming from a family of Boston fans, Button's skating abilities are supreme and he can keep up with any of the forwards out on the ice and able to defend against them with ease. Throughout the camp, he's also shown signs of being a capable puck-moving defensemen who could only get better with time.

Tomorrow is the 2009 Development Camp's finale, as the prospects will take one final skate in Wilmington before returning in September for rookie camp.