Well good Penguins’ fans the interminably long off season is about to come to a close. Next weekend the Penguins’ prospects will don the team’s sweater and travel to Buffalo for this year’s Prospects Challenge.
Schedule
| Day | Date | Time | Opponent |
| Friday | September 6 | 3:30 | Boston Bruins |
| Saturday | September 7 | 3:30 | New Jersey Devils |
| Monday | September 9 | 12:30 | Buffalo Sabres |
With the Penguins’ Cap restraints, no matter how bright any of these kids may shine, don’t get your hopes up too high, for seeing any of them in the big clubs’ sweater this coming season. However, looking down this year’s roster, it may not rival some other teams who haven’t been at the top as long as the Penguins, but it does look a bit stronger than last year’s lineup.
Roster
| Name | Po | S/C | Age | Hgt | Wgt |
| Addison, Calen | D | R | 19 | 70 | 181 |
| Almari, Niclas | D | L | 21 | 71 | 168 |
| Angello, Anthony | RW/C | R | 23 | 75 | 209 |
| Bellerive, Jordy | C | L | 20 | 71 | 194 |
| Berger, Chase | C | L | 24 | 72 | 194 |
| Brown, Chris | C | R | 23 | 72 | 179 |
| D’Orio, Alex | G | R | 20 | 74 | 209 |
| Drozg, Jan | LW | R | 20 | 74 | 174 |
| Hawkins, Brandon | RW | R | 25 | 70 | 198 |
| Joseph, Pierre-Olivier | D | L | 20 | 74 | 161 |
| Kim, Michael | D | L | 24 | 71 | 201 |
| Krastenbergs, Renars | LW | L | 20 | 72 | 185 |
| Lafferty, Sam | C/LW | R | 24 | 73 | 195 |
| Larmi, Emil | G | L | 22 | 72 | 185 |
| Lauzon, Zach | D | L | 20 | 73 | 187 |
| Legare, Nathan | RW | R | 18 | 72 | 205 |
| Lizotte, Jon | D | L | 24 | 72 | 209 |
| Lucchini, Jake | C/LW | L | 24 | 71 | 183 |
| Marino, John | D | R | 22 | 73 | 181 |
| Miletic, Sam | LW | L | 22 | 72 | 196 |
| Moskal, Billy | C | R | 19 | 72 | 190 |
| Poulin, Samuel | RW/LW | L | 18 | 73 | 207 |
| Ross, Liam | D | L | 18 | 74 | 198 |
| Williams, Josh | RW | R | 18 | 73 | 185 |
If you haven’t noticed, there are a couple of bigger names not on this list; Justin Almeida and Kasper Björkqvist. I guess we will have to wait a little longer to see Björkqvist skating in a Penguins’ uniform. It will be interesting to see if or how missing the Challenge will affect them.
Also with Nikita Pavlychev returning for one more year to Penn State, we will also have to wait a little longer to see what he can do.
We may have to wait a little longer to see a puck dropped in anger, but in 6 days Penguins hockey will sort of start back up. Stay tuned as we take a deeper look at the players participating in next weekend’s tilts.
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