Nashville, Tenn. (June 24, 2011) – The Nashville Predators will have many of their top prospects on hand (click here for full roster of scheduled attendees) when they officially open their 2011 Development Camp this Tuesday, June 28 with fitness testing beginning at 7 a.m. at Centennial Sportsplex. Players will be available to the media on Tuesday between 9 a.m.-11 a.m. at the Sportsplex as they work through testing stations. The camp continues through Sunday, July 3 with the first of four on-ice sessions coming at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, June 29.

The purpose of the camp is to educate and direct players in their pro development and conditioning programs, and the week’s events will be presided over by the Predators coaching and hockey operations staff. Nashville Predators and Milwaukee Admirals (AHL Affiliate) coaching staffs, along with Director of Player Development Martin Gelinas, will lead the scheduled training regimen, which includes a variety of dry-land activities and workouts, on-ice fundamentals work, off-ice testing and team-building activities. The players will also receive instruction on training principles such as sport-specific power and strength enhancement, flexibility and off-ice conditioning.

It will also be new Predators assistant coach Lane Lambert’s first time working on-ice as a member of head coach Barry Trotz’s staff.

Each of the club’s first, second or third-round selections that didn’t end the 2010-11 season at the NHL level (Colin Wilson, Nick Spaling, Jonathon Blum) from the past four drafts will be in attendance, with many from this weekend’s 2011 Entry Draft also expected to attend. Click here for a roster of scheduled attendees

All on-ice workouts at Centennial Sportsplex are open to the public. On-ice sessions are currently scheduled for:

WEDNESDAY, June 29 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
THURSDAY, June 30 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
SATURDAY, July 2 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
SUNDAY, July 3 2:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m.

Prospect Notes
- All but four of the camp attendees were drafted by Nashville. Victor Bartley was a free-agent signee of Nashville last month, and Joel Champagne is under contract with Milwaukee (AHL). Jack MacLellan and Scott Valentine are camp invites.

- Of the 30 draftees, three were first-rounders (Watson, Ellis, Pickard), six came from the second round (Budish, Hellberg, Josi, Salomaki, Jeremy Smith, Roussel), four were third-rounders (Aronson, Beck, Latta, Thang), five were fourth-rounders (Ekholm, Noonan, Oliver, Ryan, Shalla, Craig Smith), three were fifth-rounders (Bourque, Cehlin, Karlsson), three were sixth-rounders (Bitetto, Flynn, Foss), and five were seventh-rounders (Andrews, Balisy, Elsner, Lajunen, Rask).

- Ryan Thang is this year’s oldest attendee (24 years, 1 month) while Simon Karlsson (17 years, 11 months) is the youngest.

- Predators Connections: Magnus Hellberg played the 2010-11 season with Almtuna in the Allsvenskan (Sweden). Anders Lindback played his draft-eliglble season with the same team. Hellberg is built the same as Lindback and Pekka Rinne, and plays a style similar to the Nashville duo.

Miikka Salmomaki was drafted from Karpat Oulu, the team that produced Rinne.

Chase Balisy is the third Californian to be drafted by the Predators in the last five years, joining Jonathon Blum and Taylor Aronson. Blum and Balisy live on the same street in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.

Craig Smith, a teammate of Blake Geoffrion’s while at Wisconsin, is just two months removed from being named one of the United States’ three best players at the 2011 World Championships.

Jani Lajunen posted a point in each of Finland’s three medal-round games en route to a gold medal at the 2011 World Championships. He and Joonas Rask were also teammates on Finland’s 2009 World Junior Championships entry.

- Average height/weight: 6-1/195 pounds

- Breakdown by birthplace:
United States: 14 (Minnesota – 4; Michigan – 3; California – 2; Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, North Dakota and Wisconsin – 1)
Canada: 13 (Ontario – 6; Quebec – 3; Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island – 1)
Sweden: 4
Finland: 3
Germany & Switzerland: 1

- Breakdown by 2010-11 league:
NCAA: 8 (WCHA, CCHA, ECAC and Hockey East – 2)
Ontario Hockey League: 6
American Hockey League: 5
Swedish Leagues (Elitserien, Allvenskan and Junior League): 5
Finnish Leagues (SM-Liiga): 3
Quebec Major Junior Hockey League: 3
ECHL, Germany Second League, United States Hockey League, Western Hockey League: 1