Flames Sign Bryan Cameron
By Kent Wilson
13 years ago
According to Inside the Flames, Calgary has signed 21 year old Bryan Cameron of the OHL’s Barrie Colts. Although he’s scored 41, 37 and 53 goals in the last three seasons respectively, the 5’10" center wasn’t signed by the Los Angeles Kings, who originally drafted him in the 3rd round in 2007. His 53 goals for the Colts this year not only led the team, but the entire league, which is good news for a Flames organization generally lacking in offensive forwards.
The excellent OHL Prospects blog describes Cameron in favorable terms:
I know he’s undersized at 5’10. And I realize that the type of game he plays will be hard to translate to the NHL due to his size. But how many players have scored three straight 30 goal seasons, and have been to two straight OHL all star games? He brings a lot of things to the table. I’m sure he gets an invite to an NHL training camp and he needs to show that team he’s worth a contract.
In another post, Brock Otten designated Cameron the #1 OHL overager worth signing:
Cameron just flat out knows how to score goals. He has elite on ice instincts and despite being undersized, wins battles for loose pucks in front of the net.
This is a no risk, high reward move for the Flames. Cameron won’t be taking valuable development time away from a "more valuable" draft pick given the Flames dearth of scoring youngsters and will only the cost the org a few dollars if he doesn’t amount to much. Calgary has had some luck in identifying overagers in the past, including Mark Giordano, Ryan Wilson, Ritchie Regehr and Dennis Wideman (although he walked away and was signed by St. Louis). No doubt, the fact that Cameron plays with Flames draft pick T.J. Brodie has allowed the team to scout him extensively over the last few months.
Put me down as "pleased".
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