Former Portage Terriers Dean Stewart's on his way home from the Arizona Coyotes Development Camp.

Stewart was drafted 188th overall in the 2016 NHL Draft by the Coyotes, and made his way down for the camp last Sunday. Stewart says it was an eye-opening experience when he arrived to Arizona.

"I was pretty nervous coming in. It's my first pro hockey camp, and you don't really know what to expect, but everyone's been super friendly here."

Stewart says the workouts haven't been too intense, as the camp's more about building skills and growing as a player.

"It's been some pretty hard on ice stuff, nothing too gruelling, you know just trying to get back into the swing of things. But off the ice, it's a lot of good team building stuff, and things like that. Getting to know a lot of the guys. (Monday) we skated and worked out, and did some fitness testing. (Tuesday) we did some skill development stuff on the ice, which is kind of what the camp is about. They say when

Shane Doan with Dean Stewart when he was younger on a trip to Arizonayou get here it's not an evaluation camp, this is for developing as a player and a person."

The Coyotes camp ended with a NHL game simulation for the players, starting with an early morning skate, a team lunch, and a scrimmage to finish off the weekend. Stewart talks about the entire experience.

"It's so cool, it's just surreal. I don't even think it's even really hit me yet. You're on the ice with guys like Dylan Strome and Christian Dvorak, who are going to have a pretty realistic shot at cracking the team next year, which is pretty cool. For me I get to see where I stack up against those guys, and you kind of know where you need to get to if you want to get to that next level. I think it's a good stepping stone for me, trying to figure out where I'm at, and obviously just playing with and against better players. Everyone here is extremely talented, so for me it's a lot of fun. It's good quality competition, and (Friday's) game should be a game I remember for a while."

He says they even got to have some fun while in Glendale.

"We did actually. (Wednesday) night we went to an Arizona Diamondbacks game, and that was a neat experience. Then kind of every day we get a little time off to kind of do what we want, and I met a few buddies here and we kind of wandered around. We're in a cool little part of Glendale here, there's some stores and a couple malls. So we've been able to go exploring a bit on our own. It's just been crazy hot, the first day we got here was 41 degrees, second day was 41, I think it hit 43 once. It's just nuts."

He adds moving forward he expects they'll discuss his growth as a player, and what he needs to improve, but this camp was strictly focused on development.