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Sidney Crosby, left, and Ville Koivunen, right, talk during Pittsburgh Penguins training camp. (COURTESY OF PITTSBURGH PENGUINS).
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Sidney Crosby, left, and Ville Koivunen, right, talk during Pittsburgh Penguins training camp. (COURTESY OF PITTSBURGH PENGUINS).
CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP — As the Pittsburgh Penguins opened training camp Sept. 17, several key members of last season’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins roster enter the NHL’s preseason with an opportunity to earn a spot on the NHL club’s opening night roster.
The combination of a long playoff run for the organization’s top prospects and a few offseason additions in free agency has created quite a logjam of competition to fill out the final roster spots in Pittsburgh, particularly at the forward position where guys like Tristan Broz, Avery Hayes, Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty are aiming to make enough of an impression to stick in the NHL full-time this season.
“I think it’s their job to make noise,” Penguins assistant general manager Jason Spezza, who also serves as the general manager of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, said of the prospects in contention to open the season on the NHL roster. “I think the transition from the American Hockey League to the NHL is probably the hardest step, and then becoming an everyday NHL’er is even harder than that. So, for those guys they’re at that kind of inflection point of their careers where they’re trying to push and get (NHL) games.”
With the NHL’s training camp schedule shortened and the number of preseason games cut down this fall, there isn’t a lot of time for players on the outside looking in to make an impact and make the team.
After three days of practice, the Penguins went right into their preseason slate — with a 4-1 win over Buffalo on Monday, a 7-4 setback Tuesday night against Detroit and a 4-0 loss to Columbus on Thursday. The Penguins were scheduled to wrap up their preseason schedule Saturday afternoon in Buffalo before opening the regular season Wednesday in Philadelphia.
“I feel like we’re all in very similar positions, and we can kind of bounce everything, (like) how we’re feeling, off of each other and learn and grow together as well as compete against each other,” Hayes, who had a goal in Monday’s win vs Buffalo, said. “I feel like we do a great job of pushing each other as well as being friends, so it’s a great group to have, and it’s a special feeling.”
Defensemen Owen Pickering and Harrison Brunicke have been paired together throughout training camp, and both are looking to take the next step in their respective careers this fall. Both fared well with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton down the stretch and into the postseason.
“I feel like some things kind of came together (at the end of the season),” Pickering said of continuing to learn the pro game and the experience that comes from a long playoff run like the one the AHL Penguins’ had into June last season. “It’s just about pushing every day, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
While he doesn’t know exactly who he will have on his roster, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins head coach Kirk MacDonald has been working with some players he will see this fall both during the summer at development camp and during the Penguins’ appearance in the Prospects Tournament held in Detroit earlier this month at rookie camp prior to main training camp.
“I think you can see some of the confidence in the guys that have shown up versus how they’ve looked in previous years, just you know the assertiveness and willingness to make a play,” MacDonald said. “We’ll see. Like, you know, I’m pulling for all our guys that we had in Wilkes-Barre last year to come in and make an impact here and push for a spot.
“You take pride in working with those guys. You care about them. You want them to have success, but then also, I think organizationally, we need those guys to push and force their way onto the team for the organization to continue to build and get better.”
Both of the goaltenders in Wilkes-Barre last season — Joel Blomqvist and Sergei Murashov — find themselves in camp seemingly battling for one roster spot on the NHL club alongside returning starter Arturs Silovs.
While it’s purely a numbers game at the start of the season for some, not making the NHL roster and beginning the year in the AHL with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton isn’t the end of the world for those that are hopeful to see NHL ice this season.
“I would imagine they’re all going to earn games at some point. It’s just a matter of when that is,” Spezza said, explaining, “Strong training camps can put them on the radar.
Strong training camps can have them make the team. If not, there’s lots of injuries throughout the year. When you get opportunities, you have to grab it and show that you can contribute.”
