Gone camping

Florida hounds camp a bit different than typical folks. Instead of the deep woods, we venture into the concrete jungle. Instead of birdwatching, we keep an eye out for hockey players. Most importantly, instead of a musky old tent, we rough it at the Marriott Waterside in Tampa.

All in all, it was still a good time spent with my little girls and our pals, Ron and Colin.

I used last week's Tampa Bay Lightning Young Guns development camp to hone my skills for finding non-NHL photos for players to sign. In my opinion, I did pretty good.

That will be the theme for the upcoming season when I hound. I will make an effort in my 8x10s to only use college, juniors and international photos.

Andrew Agozzino: Camp invitee

Carter Ashton: 2009 first-round pick

Mark Barberio: 2008 sixth-round pick

Brock Beukeboom: 2010 third-round pick

Brett Connolly: 2010 first-round pick

Mitch Fadden: 2007 fourth-round pick on game-used jersey

Scott Jackson: 2005 second-round pick by the St. Louis Blues (Photo also signed by Fadden)

Radko Gudas: 2010 third-round pick

Joe Hartman: Camp invitee

Alex Hutchings: 2009 fourth-round pick

Brandon Hynes: Camp invitee

Adam Janosik: 2010 third-round pick

Jaroslav Janus: 2009 sixth-round pick

Jim Johnson: Norfolk Admirals coach

Zane Kalemba: Camp invitee

Alex Killorn: 2007 third-round pick

Tom Kurvers: assistant general manager, at the time of this camp

Jonathan Lessard: Camp invitee

Tim Marks: Camp invitee

Matt Marshall: 2007 fifth-round pick

Brendan O'Donnell: 2010 sixth-round pick

Richard Panik: 2009 second-round pick

Kevin Quick: 2006 third-round pick (Go Blue!!)

Geoffrey Schemitsch: 2010 fourth-round pick

Dustin Sylvester: Camp invitee

Dustin Tokarski: 2008 fifth-round pick on a game-used stick

Dana Tyrell: 2007 second-round pick

Pat Verbeek: Lightning head pro scout

Luke Witkowski: 2008 sixth-round pick

Ty Wishart: 2006 first-round pick by the San Jose Sharks

Michael Zador: 2009 fifth-round pick

Teigan Zahn: 2010 seventh-round pick in the greatest fight photo ever!

Look familiar?

A week ago, I knew the 2010 Tampa Bay Lightning Young Guns camp would get the hockey-hounding juices flowing. Baseball's been fun. So have Colin's summer hockey scrimmages. But I've started to look forward to these development camps.

Think of it as the Midsummer Lure of the NHL (or close to it) Rink.

More than anything else, the camp was a fun break, a time to hang out with Colin, watch some hockey, learn some more skating drills and, whenever possible, add to the autograph collection.

Because the wish list wasn't too long, it was pretty easy to knock out:

Brett Connolly, the Lightning's No. 1 draft pick last month, inked the obligatory Tampa Bay Lightning and 2010 NHL Draft pucks. Though this isn't a knock on the kid, there's far less buzz this season that in the past two prospect camps with Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman.

Goalie prospect Dustin Tokarski signed this pair of pucks. He must have thought I wanted more than one signature on each puck. That can be the only explanation for signing off to the side, though his signature, as you can see below, isn't all that big.

Cards signed by Carter Ashton, Connolly and Alex Hutchings (on an Ontario Hockey League All Star set card) and a trio of cards, including one for the Threads collection, from Tokarski.

Of course, these weren't the only items signed over our two visits to the St. Pete Times Forum.

Perfect sense

As hard as I try, I can't think of any reason for Colin not to use a team sheet any time we go out hounding. C'mon, just look at this one. In less than 45 minutes, Colin scored autographs from 28 of the 32 Tampa Bay Lightning prospects (plus one coach), including top 2010 picks Brett Connolly, Brett Beukeboom and Adam Janosik.

Team sheets are perfect for these kinds of opportunities.

Other notable signers, per Lightning fan standards, were former 2009 draft picks Carter Ashton and James Wright. The Norfolk Admirals, the Lightning's AHL affiliate, are represented by Mitch Fadden, Jaroslav Janus, Richard Panik, Kevin Quick, Dustin Tokarski, Dana Tyrell, Ty Wishart and former Admirals coach Jim Johnson.

Swell-ter time

So, how hot did it get outside the St. Pete Times Forum on Wednesday at the Tampa Bay Lightning's Young Guns prospect development camp? How about 102 degrees? Is that hot enough? It was for us.

Rather than brave the heat, though, we took refuge in an air-conditioned vehicle, set at a comfortable 78 degrees, emerging only as opportunities for autographs approached. As you can imagine, the heat, humidity and an approaching thunderstorm were topics of conversation:

"No, this happens every afternoon, about this time, from June to who knows when," I told goalie prospect Dustin Tokarski. "That's why you're called the Lightning."

"Yes," I told Lightning scout Pat Verbeek as he signed this puck, "it's always this hot during the summer."

Beyond the weather, and specific Young Gun projects, Colin and I gathered a nice array of souvenirs, including four pucks from the Lightning's new GM Steve Yzerman and a team sheet, during camp.

For as many of these that were available during the camp, I didn't see too many people getting them signed by Brett Connolly, Tampa Bay's top pick, at sixth overall, at the NHL Entry Draft last month. It's my guess, too, this is one of the first Lightning pieces showing Connolly.

A few months ago, I stumbled upon a sale at the American Hockey League's website and picked up a handful of Norfolk Admirals pucks, the Lightning's AHL affiliate. Goalie prospect Jaroslav Janus, left, and defenseman Ty Wishart signed this pair.

After the scrimmage, Colin had some prospects, including Carter Ashton (above "Tampa"), 2010 third-pound pick Adam Janosik (in silver at bottom of logo), Richard Panik (below the "28"), and Dustin Tokarski (left of logo) sign this team card.

The camp was also a time to plug a few gaps in specialty card sets, like this 2009-10 AHL Top Prospects card for Ty Wishart, who played last season for Norfolk.

One and done

It's funny how much can change in a year. Last August, I could barely wait for the Lightning's hockey season to begin, even using vacation time to take in a couple full days of training camp. This season, it was different.

Rather than hounding three days worth of camp, we limited it to a single morning, traipsing between the twin rinks at the Ice Sports Forum in Brandon. And, as usual, it was Colin who snagged a young lion's share of autographs, finding room for 29 players, including Victor Hedman and Ryan Malone, on his training camp team sheet.

Not satisfied with loading up a team sheet, Colin also got four pucks signed, including ones from former NHLer Adam Oates and St. Louis, as well as the 1,900th of the collection.

I'm thinking, too, that the numerous trips we made for the Bolts rookie camp and informal workouts facilitated the single hounding trip. No matter what Marty St. Louis says, we have all season long.

Other rewards for our efforts:

Tampa Bay's Blair Jones and Paul Szczechura knocked out a couple cards from the 2008-09 Norfolk Admirals team set. Coach Rick Tocchet signed the card for Colin.

Oh, yeah, I nearly forgot. I also added these cards from Tampa Bay's David Hale and Zenon Konopka, who also signed a Portland Pirates practice jersey, as they headed to Friday's morning skate.

Moving on up

Two of my favorite aspects to minor league team sets? That they often include cards for coaches and team staff. On Tuesday, the first of two trips to Tampa Bay Lightning's rookie camp, Darren Rumble, named head coach of the Bolt's AHL Norfolk Admirals in July, added to a couple of work-in-progress projects.

Earlier tonight, sorting through cards, I found one from his first bench gig, as an assistant with the Springfield Falcons.