The Penguins announced their training camp roster today. Fifty-eight players have been invited to camp, including five players on PTOs.
Personally, I’m most interested in how the battle for bottom-six forward slots will shake out. At first blush, it would appear holdovers Drew O’Connor and Jeff Carter and newcomers Lars Eller, Noel Acciari, Matt Nieto and perhaps PTO invitee Colin White have the inside track.
However, former first-round pick Sam Poulin (pictured) sounds very much like a player on the verge, and he’d provide a much-needed power element. Valtteri Puustinen is coming off back-to-back productive seasons at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, as is former sixth overall pick Alex Nylander. Versatile and speedy, sparkplug Vinnie Hinostroza could thrive in an energy role.
I’m also curious to see who’ll man the third defense pairing. Will hopefuls Ty Smith and Mark Pysyk wrestle spots away from incumbents Pierre-Olivier Joseph and Chad Ruhwedel?
Without further ado, here’s the roster.
Centers (10)
Peter Abbandonato*, Noel Acciari, Sidney Crosby, Lars Eller, Jonathan Gruden, Joona Koppanen, Evgeni Malkin, Sam Poulin, Colin White*, Brayden Yager
Left Wings (13)
Matt Filipe, Dilon Hamaliuk, Sam Houde, Andreas Johnsson, Jagger Joshua, Matt Nieto, Drew O’Connor, Rem Pitlick, Austin Rueschhoff, Reilly Smith, Evan Vierling, Austin Wagner*, Radim Zohorna
Right Wings (10)
Corey Andonovski, Jeff Carter, Avery Hayes, Vinnie Hinostroza, Marc Johnstone, Alex Nylander, Valtteri Puustinen, Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust, Matthew Soto
Left Defense (11)
Andre Anania, Isaac Belliveau, Ryan Graves, Libor Hajek*, P.O Joseph, Justin Lee, Xavier Ouellet, Marcus Pettersson, Dmitri Samorukov, Ryan Shea, Ty Smith
Right Defense (7)
Taylor Fedun, Mark Friedman, Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang, Mark Pysyk*, Chad Ruhwedel, Jack St. Ivany
Goaltenders (7)
Joel Blomqvist, Taylor Gauthier, Magnus Hellberg, Tristan Jarry, Alex Nedeljkovic, Michael Simpson, Garret Sparks
Injured (5)
Raivis Ansons (rw), Will Butcher (ld), Nolan Collins (rd), Jake Guentzel (lw), Owen Pickering (ld)
* Indicates a professional tryout
Casey to the Canucks
On the eve of training camp, former black-and-gold goalie Casey DeSmith was dealt by Montreal to Vancouver for another ex-Pen, forward Tanner Pearson, and a third-round pick in the 2025 Entry Draft.
The 32-year-old netminder will be reunited with several old friends in the Pacific Northwest, including Teddy Blueger, Ian Cole, coach Rick Tocchet, GM Patrik Allvin and president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford.
He’ll likely serve as backup to Thatcher Demko.
Pearson, a 31-year-old left wing, missed all but 14 games last season with a hand injury that required several corrective surgeries. He played in 44 games for the Pens in 2018-19.
Hey Rick,
Thanks for putting this up. Unfortunately, they high I started feeling when I started hearing the rumor that Dubas was going to take Sullivan in hand when it came to personnel choices dissolved as I read this roster. Looking at your opening call outs of holdovers O’Connor (25), Carter (39), Eller (34), Acciari (32), and Nieto (31), all the wind that started to fill that sails of optimism were stilled. The only one of those players still in his prime is O’Connor.
But then when I looked down the rest of the roster and saw Jordan Frasca’s name nowhere to be found yet found Houde’s Vierling’s, Adonovski’s, Hayes’s, and Soto’s names penned in, when they almost invisible by comparison in the Senators tilt of which I watched, I was set a drift in the Doldrums, that peculiar patch of ocean that has been the bane of mariners for centuries where the sun’s raise cause the air flow to be straight up rather than horizontal, stranding those ancient barks in a windless sea.
And that is why I get so frustrated, this team cannot string 2 good decisions in a row, they have to alternate good decision- bad decision at best, often more like Bad – Bad – Bad – Good – Bad.
Sorry for the vent, but I calls ’em as I sees ’em.
But in case I don’t get a chance to write a full article to explain the why s, my first thoughts going into training camp are these,
1. With Jake out at the start of the seaon try Rakell on LW with Sid and Rust.
2. Second Line try Smith, Zohorna, or Hamaliuk with Geno and Puustinen
3. Third Line LW 2nd line losers compete with O’Connor, Poulin, and maybe Acciara, Nieto, and Hinostroza.
4. With 4th line being Joshua with the Third line losers.
5. When Jake gets back, if Rust hasn’t picked his game up but Puustinen scores like I am already sure he will, Rust drops down to 3rd line.
6. Beliveau may not be ready yet for the NHL, but he should be given a legitimate chance in camp for that 3rd paring. The only way to really have competition is to really have competition and not limit anyone from that competition with preconceived notions based on experience.
7. Start looking for a trade partner for Jarry during the first 22 games when Jarry plays well, then dump him when he is about to hit his usual post game 22 slump.
8. The best thing I see with both Letang and Karlsson is that Ruhwedel should only see about 10 minutes a game, which should keep him from being totally exposed.
Hey Other Rick,
I can understand your frustration. Re: bad-bad-bad-good-bad…kind of sounds like the hockey moves version of the Cha Cha.
I didn’t realize Frasca wasn’t on the list until you pointed it out. I wonder if it’s an omission…I picked up my list from the one published on the Pens’ website. Hard to imagine he wouldn’t have been invited to camp.
Rick
Sorry for the apparent typos, auto fill was on and I didn’t look back to proof read before posting