The Pittsburgh Penguins will hold their annual Development Camp from July 15-19 at Consol Energy Center. This year’s camp will mark a transition for the Penguins. Gone from this year’s development camp will be bluechip prospects like Simon Despres, Beau Bennett, and Olli Maatta, who have all graduated via different means, Despres has come to the end of his entry level contract (ELC), while both Bennett and Maatta have exceeded the threshold for NHL experience (and they’re both still rehabbing from offseason surgeries). Additionally, new head coach, Mike Johnston has elected to take a back seat at this camp, allowing Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins coaches, John Hynes and Alain Nasreddine, to run the on-ice activities. With changes in personnel, both in the players ranks and on the coaching side of things, this year’s camp is shaping up to be an important one in the new age of the Penguins.
What follows is a “starting lineup” of players to watch at camp: two defensemen, three forwards, and a goaltender, I don’t mean to suggest that these are the “best” players attending development camp, nor that they are inherently NHL ready players. Indeed, these are just 6 of the more dynamic and influential players in the Penguins system who could bear closer examination over the coming season.
Defensemen
Brian Dumoulin: Okay, I said these players may not be the most talented or the most NHL ready. The single biggest exception at camp will be Dumoulin. He is coming off a great season in the AHL, and perhaps even more than Despres, Dumoulin left a favorable impression in the NHL last season, appearing in 6 games, registering an assist, and playing 19 minutes a game. Dumoulin is a big (6’4”, 219 lbs.), strong, two-way defenseman who IS ready for the NHL. Dumoulin has outgrown the AHL, and for all intents and purposes, he should look like a man amongst boys at this year’s development camp. If there is something that could limit Dumoulin’s development, it would be his skating. Dumoulin has acquitted himself at the AHL, and he did fine in sheltered time in the NHL. If he wants to make it in the NHL though, he will need to get stronger in his strides, and development camp would be a great time to see how Dumoulin stacks up.
Scott Harrington: Before the Penguins surprised and impressed with the signing of Christian Ehrhoff, Harrington also seemed to be a near lock to make the NHL squad for the start of this season. Now, barring a surprising trade of a current starter, Harrington will have a good opportunity to be the top guy in Wilkes Barre. Harrington actually produced more points than Dumoulin during the regular season in Wilkes Barre (5 G, 19 A, for 24 points compared to Dumoulin’s 5G, 16 A, 21 P, although Harrington did appear in 23 more games), yet Harrington is perhaps best noted for his strong defensive zone play. Harrington, like Dumoulin, has great NHL size (6’2”, 210 lbs.) and eventually seems destined to play with his former London Knights partner, Olli Maatta, and hopefully evolve into a shutdown caliber pairing for the Penguins. With players like Despres, Dumoulin, and Phillip Samuelsson eating up the heaviest minutes in Wilkes Barre during the 2013-14 season, additional seasoning will be the best course of action for Harrington moving forward. Nonetheless, if the Penguins need another defenseman, Harrington will be ready.
Forwards
Kasperi Kapanen: The Penguins’ 2014 first round pick has already signed off on his ELC, and since he previously played in a professional league in Europe, Kapanen will be playing somewhere in the Penguins’ system this season. I’ve already written pretty exhaustively about Kapanen, but his willingness to sign on with the Penguins right away demonstrates an eagerness to learn and advance on his way to the NHL. As discussed previously, Kapanen has NHL-ready speed, smarts, and scoring touch, but he will need to work on his conditioning and strength. Getting Kapanen under contract so early should help to enable the team to control his strength development (especially given that Kapanen is still only 17 years old, at least until after camp). If you’re looking for things to watch at development camp, keep an eye on Kasperi’s performance on the strength tests, that could tell you a lot about where he is in his development.
Anton Zlobin: Don’t quote me on this, but I believe that this is the first development camp that Zlobin will actually attend, as he was sidelined with injuries for both of the two previous camps since being drafted in 2012. Since recovering from a shoulder injury that sidelined him through last summer and the first several months of the 2013-14 season, Zlobin has shown great promise as a potential scoring threat with both the ECHL Wheeling Nailers and the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins. Zlobin really came into his own with 10 points in 15 playoff games with the WBS Penguins, including 3 game-winning goals.
This will sound like a ruthlessly negative personification, but for Zlobin, it’s still going to be a long road to find NHL success: he will need to improve his skating, his strength, and his hockey sense in order to really make it in the league, nonetheless, Zlobin has the pure creativity and finishing prowess to be successful. As much as anything it will be exciting to get to see Zlobin in action during the camp ending scrimmage on Saturday.
Josh Archibald: Archibald is coming off a phenomenal senior season at the University of Nebraska-Omaha in which he scored 29 goals and 43 points in 37 games. Archibald’s prolific scoring pace earned him a Hobey Baker nomination. Although fairly sleight in build (5’10”, 180 lbs.), and not renowned for great foot speed, Archibald definitely channels another successful, undersized, and not particularly fast goal scorer with the Penguins, Chris Kunitz. Like Kunitz, Archibald is a pest in front of the net and possessed of a surprising amount of finishing ability. I would like to promise that Archibald will become the next Kunitz, but of course I can’t. Not that I need to sell you on this, but again, much could be revealed over the coming days.
Goaltender
Matt Murray: He’s definitely not the hot commodity that Memorial Cup winner Tristan Jarry is, but Murray may still be the most intriguing netminder at development camp. After a rocky start to his junior career, Murray finished his final campaign with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds with a 32-11-6 record and a 2.57 GAA, and a .921 SV%. After turning pro, he appeared in two games with the team’s AHL affiliate and acquitted himself quite well there as well. With uncertainty surrounding the Penguins’ organizational depth beyond Marc-Andre Fleury, and with Jarry able to return for a final season of junior hockey, Murray may be able to establish himself with a fairly prominent role in the AHL (possibly ahead of highly regarded college prospect, Eric Hartzell). The Penguins brought in Thomas Greiss to challenge incumbent backup, Jeff Zatkoff, and while, in a perfect world, the loser will be sent to Wilkes Barre, the fact of the matter is that the loser of said battle may very well end up being claimed by a new franchise via the waiver wire. With that in mind, Murray has the opportunity to, if not become a clear cut starter in Wilkes Barre, at least command a heavy timeshare, if he continues to develop as he has over the past year.
Other Notable Names
In addition to the players mentioned above, the following players could command your interest as we get underway at camp.
- Derrick Pouliot: The top prospect in the Penguins system will be at camp, but he will be seriously limited in his activities while he continues to recover from the very same shoulder surgery that Olli Maatta is recovering from, nonetheless, when you’re rated the top prospect for a franchise, people want to know more about you.
- Oskar Sundqvist: A formidably sized center (6’3”, 180 lbs.), Sundqvist has played a big role in the Swedish U-20 program over the past two years, and most recently played the entire 2013-14 campaign with Swedish Elite League champions Skelleftea. The Penguins were able to work out a contract with Sundqvist mere days before he would have been eligible to reenter the NHL draft. It will be interesting to see how Sundqvist will stack up against North American trained players, but hopefully well.
- Adam Payerl: Payerl was expected to be part of the Penguins “taxi squad” of players who shuttle between the AHL and NHL last year (along with players like Brian Gibbons, Jayson Megna, and Harry Zolnierczyk), but an early season injury saw Payerl limited to just 43 games in the AHL, and saw his NHL debut pushed back until April. Nonetheless, with the new regime unlikely to share in the same kind of infatuation with Craig Adams as the last regime, there may be an opportunity for a hulking grinder like Payerl (who stands 6’3”, 218 lbs.) to grab an NHL roster spot this season.
- Jean-Sebastien Dea: Still significantly undersized (6’, 155 lbs.), Dea may be the best pure goal scorer in the Penguins system. Although his overall production dropped slightly for his final season with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies of the QMJHL (from 85 points in 2012-13 to 79 points in 2013-14), Dea actually improved his goal total (from 45 to 49). He has good speed, and obviously great finishing ability, but unless he starts filling in his frame though, Dea will remain a very rough prospect.
