BOSTON -- Now that off-ice conditioning tests and physicals are complete, the Boston Bruins will begin the first on-ice session of training camp Friday at TD Garden.
General manager Don Sweeney and captain Zdeno Chara were both impressed with everyone’s physical conditioning on the first day of camp.
“They came into this camp in really, really great shape,” Chara said. “This is the most fit team and group of guys that I’ve been a part of since I’ve been here and that’s great to see. You want to see every year guys pushing and improving themselves to better our results. That just shows the commitment of the group we have right now, so yes, very impressive.”
Every year there’s been an internal competition in the pull-up category. Even with a 6-foot-9, 255-pound frame, Chara normally wins, but this year defensive prospect Zach Trotman took home the crown with 41 pull-ups. Chara finished with 37.
Defenseman Kevan Miller, who has also won the competition in the past, had to limit himself to 25 this year due to offseason shoulder surgery. Fellow blueliner Torey Krug finished with 40.
While Chara made it a point to credit Trotman with the victory, the young defenseman was a bit taken aback by the captain’s congratulatory remarks.
“[Krug] set the pace and it’s one of those things where you don’t really know how far you can push yourself until someone else goes another step, so it was a little bit of a battle there,” Trotman said with a smile.
After the testing, Sweeney announced that defenseman Dennis Seidenberg would miss the first few days of skating due to an upper-body injury he suffered during offseason training. Sweeney said the team doctors decided to take a conservative approach with Seidenberg, so he’s listed as day-to-day.
This season’s training camp roster consists of 33 forwards, 20 defensemen and 7 goaltenders. Here is the roster in alphabetical order:
Forwards: Noel Acciari, Matt Beleskey, Patrice Bergeron, Anton Blidh, Anthony Camara, Colby Cave, Andrew Cherniwchan, Brett Connolly, Austin Czarnik, Jake DeBrusk, Brandon DeFazio, Loui Eriksson, Brian Ferlin, Jesse Gabrielle, Seth Griffith, Colton Hargrove, Jimmy Hayes, Justin Hickman, Chris Kelly, Joonas Kemppainen, Alex Khokhlachev, David Krejci, Brad Marchand, Eric Neiley, David Pastrnak, Zack Phillips, Tyler Randell, Zac Rinaldo, Zach Senyshyn, Ben Sexton, Ryan Spooner, Max Talbot, Frank Vatrano.
Defensemen: Linus Arnesson, Chris Breen, Brandon Carlo, Chris Casto, Zdeno Chara, Tommy Cross, Max Everson, Max Iafrate, Matt Irwin, Torey Krug, Jeremy Lauzon, Adam McQuaid, Colin Miller, Kevan Miller, Joe Morrow, Dennis Seidenberg, Frankie Simonelli, Zach Trotman, Ben Youds, Jakub Zbroil.
Goaltenders: Matthew Ginn, Jonas Gustavsson (attending on professional tryout), Zane McIntyre, Tuukka Rask, Jeremy Smith, Malcolm Subban, Dan Vladar.