Senators director of player personnel Anders Hedberg and Pierre-Luc Lessard.

by Todd Anderson

Starting tomorrow, 24 Senators prospects will participate in the 2006 Ottawa Senators development camp at Scotiabank Place and Bell Sensplex. Nick Foligno and Brian Lee, the Senators' first-round draft picks from 2006 and 2005, respectively, join a cast that includes current Sens Patrick Eaves and Andrej Meszaros.

Senators strength and conditioning coach Randy Lee, as well as video coach Tim Pattyson, have put together an itinerary that they feel will be very beneficial to all those who participate.

"The focus is to get these prospects up to speed on training techniques and put them through separate training that is specific to their needs," Lee says. "These guys are all at different stages. All we're trying to do is accelerate the process. We want to give these guys the best chance to help our organization."

With the camp running from June 29 to July 5, camp organizers have filled the schedule with activities, including on-ice and off-ice workouts, yoga, massage therapy, media training, sport psychology sessions, power skating and on-ice speed and agility stations, as well as two 3-on-3 tournaments. Non-hockey related activities have been put on the agenda as well.

"A lot of activities focus on team-building.. and also introducing the players the city of Ottawa," Pattyson says. "We have quite a few (activities) built around Canada Day. We also want to expose the players to people within the organization. On Canada Day, we're having barbecue at (Ottawa Senators president and CEO) Roy Mlakar's house."

Other activities include paintball, signing autographs at the GM Sens Street Tour at the Kanata Recreation Centre on Canada Day from 12:45 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. and visits to the Museum of Civilization and the Canada Day fireworks show in Ottawa.

Helping Pattyson and Lee instruct the camp are Binghamton Senators head coach Dave Cameron, Senators goaltending coach Ron Lowe, Senators director of player personnel Anders Hedberg, former Sarnia Sting head coach Shawn Camp and power skating specialist Mike Power.

On July 1 and July 5 the group splits into four teams for 3-on-3 tournaments at the Bell Sensplex. The tournaments will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.

For more information on the camp, or to see the full roster, click here.