Over the years, I have been lucky enough to have access to interview certain hockey people from whom I always feel like I get an education about the game simply by listening to them talk. They offer a depth of knowledge and experience that comes not only from having played and/or coached the game at a high level from also their love of the game and innate hockey smarts.

Ian Laperriere is one of those people.

Yesterday, after the first day of the Flyers summer development camp, Lappy held court with a few reporters. Apart from answering questions about specific players, the newly appointed Director of Player Development talked at length about the mindset he would like to see from the young men at the camp.

"This camp is for them, not for us," said the veteran of 1,083 NHL regular season games. "We are here to help them but it's up to them to ask questions and listen to what we have to say..... I said to them that they are not going to win a contract here. We don't want to see someone to peak in July. It doesn't matter if they impress me. What matters, what would really impress [Paul Holmgren] is that they show they have the right attitude and the right commitment to improving.

"There are a lot of tools at this camp that I didn't have as a young player, and I wish I had back then. There are so many things you can do to work on your game. Things like the puckhandling course. OK, so maybe you aren't the best puckhandler or maybe you're good at it. But you can approach it as something that helps you to challenge yourself to improve. That has to come from inside the player. We can't teach that."

Laperriere also talked about the mentality it takes for players who are used to being scorers in juniors or collegiate hockey to adapt to more of a checking role in the NHL. He knows it well from a personal experience after making the transition from being a player who once racked up 140 points in the QMJHL and averaged nearly a point-per-game in minor league hockey to being an NHL role player.

"If you are going to make it as a scorer in the NHL, you had better score a lot of points to play on one of those top lines, because the guys who do that play at an incredible skill level," Laperriere said. "I realized early on that I wasn't going to be a scorer in the NHL and I had to change my game. It's physical work but it's also mental work, too. The goal is to put on the uniform in the NHL and to do the things it takes to win. It's about paying attention to detail and putting in extra time every day not because you think that's what [the coaches and management] want you to do but because that's what's in your heart."

The young players in attendance at the camp would do well to listen to what Lapperiere, Derian Hatcher and Riley Cote have to say. They know what they're talking about.

Throughout this week, I will be profiling players at the camp on the Flyers' official Web Site. Today's feature looks at first-round draft pick Scott Laughton. Laperriere said of Laughton that it was immediately obvious why the Flyers made him a first-round pick this June.

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Tom Sestito accepted the Flyers' qualifying offer. The restricted free agent signed a one-year, $605,000 contract.

The Flyers still have to re-sign RFAs Jakub Voracek and Marc-Andre Bourdon.

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I am looking forward to the start of the Flyers' prospect camp today. Most of my blogs the remainder of this week will look at various players and goings-on at the camp.

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