(Ottawa native Cody Ceci was the Senators' first-round pick in the 2012 NHL Draft held in Pittsburgh. The Ottawa 67's defenceman will provide readers with some thoughts about his first Senators development camp in a series of blog posts for ottawasenators.com).

As an Ottawa native, Senators defence prospect Cody Ceci has gained lots of extra attention during his first development camp with the team.

Today was definitely a long one for us at development camp. There was quite a lot of stuff to do and we've still got a scrimmage to play tonight. But it's been good. It's been a little easier than the previous days, but that'll allow us to be able to give it our all tonight.

We spent a lot of time on stickhandling drills today. I've never done a full hour of stickhandling. The guys who were instructing us were pretty crazy with their skill. They had great hands and it was pretty tough to keep up with them. They put together some tough drills and we were just trying to battle through them.

Personally, I'd say my stickhandling ability is all right, but it's not the best. I'm always trying to work on it, whether it's playing road hockey or doing stuff like this. I try to work on it as much as I can.

We also worked on power skating and that's something I've done lots of before. It's what I usually do in the summer and I try to do it as much as I can, just to keep me feet up to speed. I've actually worked with (Senators skating coach) Marc Power before, during my last couple of years with the 67's. I've done all that stuff before and I'm pretty lucky to have had him work with me on those drills.

You definitely spend a lot of time working on power skating these days, because the game is getting faster and faster and you've got to be able to keep up with everyone. It's something that I try to focus on and hopefully, it helps me out.

Being with the Senators has definitely been good for my family. My dad came out to the first camp practice on Tuesday and my sister and brother came out yesterday, so they're definitely around. They're pretty happy with it and I'm sure they'll all be at the scrimmage tonight. It's been great for them so far. They just have to drive down the highway to get to watch me, so it's pretty easy on them.