Rookie camp not a breeze

Spending a week in Florida during the summer often means time spent by the pool, kicking up sand at the beach or a visit to Disney World.

But for a group of hockey prospects who spent time in Tampa, the past week was anything but a vacation. With two-a-day on-ice workouts five out of seven days and off-ice training and classroom sessions nearly every day, fun in the sun hardly describes the Lightning's recently completed Young Guns camp.

"This was not a holiday for these guys," said Lightning assistant coach Wes Walz, who ran the camp. "Lightning general manager Brian Lawton made it very clear at the beginning of the week that this was going to be a serious week. It's only one week out of the season where the kids have to dig in mentally. Hopefully these kids can take some of the information and use it to the best of their ability and speed up the process to become a better player."

Other than taking a bus to Tropicana Field as a group Sunday to see the Rays play baseball, there was not a lot of leisure time built into the schedule.

"It's definitely been a hard camp, and I did expect a lot coming to a pro camp," first-round pick Carter Ashton said. "We've been busy and tired. I've been spending a lot of time resting."

Things went so well, both from the organization getting the chance to know some of its prospects better and bringing them down for the fans to get an up-close look at top picks Victor Hedman and Ashton, that Lawton said it will likely become an annual event in town during the summer. Saturday's scrimmage drew nearly 5,000 fans.

"I think it was tremendous. We are really pleased with how it all went and about the development of some of our kids," Lawton said. "And as far as the fans we got to come to the building, I think it was just awesome, the staff did a tremendous job in helping put this thing together."

As a bit of a reward, the players were allowed to dress in the main locker room before the final scrimmage. They had spent the rest of camp in the visitors' room.

SIGNINGS: The Lightning announced Thursday restricted free agents center Blair Jones and right winger Lauri Tukonen signed one-year deals.

Jones was a fourth-round pick in 2005 and has appeared in 24 games with the Lightning in three seasons. Tukonen, the 11th overall pick in 2005 by Los Angeles, was acquired from Dallas in November in exchange for defenseman Andrew Hutchinson. Tukonen has spent the past two seasons playing in the Finnish Elite League.

Tampa Bay has six remaining restricted free agents, including goalie Karri Ramo and forward Radek Smolenak, who have both signed to play in Russia. Lawton said he will meet next week with the agent for Matt Smaby, who is scheduled to have an arbitration hearing July 28 in Toronto.

COACH SEARCH: Lawton said he interviewed one candidate for the vacant assistant coaching position, which is believed to be former Dallas assistant Rick Wilson. Lawton said he expects to speak to at least one of the three remaining candidates on the team's list.