Sutter, Zharkov in the house; Fedorov, Young drop the gloves (updated with quotes)

Devils head coach Brent Sutter arrived from Red Deer for this morning’s sessions of the team’s development camp at Prudential Center and was on the ice for both. I’ll have some comments from him shortly.

Right wing Vladimir Zharkov (third round pick in 2006) also made his first appearance of the camp after missing the first three days. Defenseman Anssi Salmela did not skate again today because of a sore left knee.

"It's a little better," he said. "It's still kind of sore."

Salmela said he tried to skate on his own on Wednesday and will probably try again Friday. "I'm going to at least try to skate by myself," he said . "We'll see."

Again, there was no scrimmage this morning, just two sessions of drills. The highlight of the morning was a fight between defenseman Harry Young and Fedor Fedorov during the second session. Young and Fedorov exchanged shoves during one down-low drill and after Fedorov turned away to rejoin the play, Young gave him an extra jab with his stick in the back of he leg.

Fedorov turned back and shoved Young again and the two dropped the gloves. It was a pretty even fight, no big blows landed by either guy, but this was two pretty big guys going at it. Young, the Devils' eighth choice, 202nd overall in June's draft, is 6-foot-4, 205 pounds and Fedorov is 6-3, 230.

Sutter definitely appeared to enjoy it.

"It's good to see that in practice every now and then," Sutter said.

"Everyone is battling out there and things happen like that," said Young, who put up 155 penalty minutes in 68 games last year with Windsor in the OHL. "No hard feelings. It's just how you play."

When asked what happened, Fedorov replied, "Nothing. Just practice, I guess." Fedorov did have 119 penalty minutes in 49 games last season with Dynamo Moscow, but said he doesn't go looking for fights.

"If it happens, it happens," he said. "If it doesn't, it doesn't. I think I can do better things than that."

Defenseman Brandon Burlon, who left Wednesday’s second session after only about five minutes because of a sore left foot, was back on the ice for today’s first session. Burlon said he took a shot off his foot earlier in the week and the bruise was still bothering him Wednesday, but felt better today after getting treatment.

Also in the first group were G Jeff Frazee, Ds Andy Greene, Tyler Miller, Mark Fayne and Corbin McPherson and Fs Rod Pelley, Nathan Perkovich, Matt Halischuk, Patrice Cormier, Brad Snetsinger, Jean-Sebatien Berube, David Wohlberg and Zharkov.

In the second group, which is still on the ice right now, are G Dave Caruso, Ds Matt Corrente, Sheldon Brookbank, Mark Fraser, Matt Delahey and Young and Fs Tyler Burton, Fedorov, Tony Romano, Mike Swift, Nick Palmieri, Adam Henrique and Kory Nagy.

Comments

[Shtikl]

THANKS for the updates! How are Fraser and Caruso playing?

[Mike]

How is Fedorov looking?

[Brick]

Never mind Fraser and Fedor...at any point did you catch Sutter smiling, or even looking mildly pleased?

[Jim]

Hey Tom, thanks for the updates. How is Romano looking out there?

[Mike in NYC]

Thanks TG - updates are really appreciated.

Which forwards are standing out? How does Halischuk look?

[RNCDevil]

You sir, are the single greatest human being ever. Thanks for the updates.

[Jersey Mike]

TG - if there is any footage or pics of the scrap please find a way to post/release them

[CJ]

I live and die by this blog...keep this going all off season.

[Jennings]

Who breaks up a fight during a development/training camp scrimmage? Or do the players just agree it's time to stop?

[njChris]

I live for this blog...keep up the incredibly awesome job TG. Fedor dropping the gloves...I like it. Imagine Federov, Holik, and Clarkson on the same line. Scrappy yet pretty skilled. That would be fun to watch.

[sk84fun_dc]

TG: Any info/confirmation from Lamoriello about a Matt Spiller signing for Lowell/defensive depth?

see the NJD info that has been added to his nhl.com profile

http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?page=PlayerDetail&playerId=8469484&service=page

[bobo]

Any word why Sutter missed the first few days. Also any word on the severity of Salmela's knee? Or you being told "it's a lower body injury"

[Adam]

Lmao, I just noticed that on the NHL website, they have Scott Clemmensen assigned with the number 30.

Biggest joke I've ever seen.

Anyway, back on topic... nice to see Federov is living up to a bit of his confidence. Seems like a very interesting guy.

[Mike from Elmwood Park]

Great to see Zharkov in town along with other promising prospects.
I am liking Fedor already.

[Ratgenius]

At a practice I attended in 1995 pre-season, just after the lockout, Mike Peluso and Reid Simpson dropped the gloves on 3 successive shifts. The players broke it up the same way the linesman usually would. They let them tire themselves out and then jumped in. It was a pretty surreal scene.

[TG]

Everybody basically let Fedorov and Young go and they eventually just stopped. Young is a big kid. He's still very young, but he might turn out to be a project. From the little I've seen, he looks like he needs to work on his skating. His size and physical edge get your attention, though.

[Oshawa Fan]

How has Kory Nagy looked?

[ds]

Was there any significance as to how the the players were broken up between the 2 skating sessions?

[TG]

I think they're just the two teams they've been using for the scrimmages.

[jersey jeff]

Devils need to keep on eye on Montvale NJ native Kyle Palmieri. He started last season on the Team USA under 17 team, was a leading scorer and then finished the season with the Under 18 team and had among the highest PPG averages. Will be back with the under 18 team next season and as full ride to Notre Dame.