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We have some actual Penguins hockey to discuss. The Penguins prospects will be entering battle with the Ottawa Senators prospects tomorrow at 2PM in London, Ontario.
For me a lot of the wind was taken out of the sails for this tournament when it was announced Kasperi Kapanen would miss out because of a broken finger. Kapanen has an outside shot of making the NHL roster this training camp and the prospect tournament would have been step one in proving his merit.
Also missing the tournament will be forward Jaden Lindo.
Kapanen may be out but there are still others to watch. Here is the official roster for the tournament courtesy of the
Pittsburgh Penguins:
So what kinds of things should we be on the lookout for in a tournament like this?
For me I want to focus on forwards who have the potential of playing top 6 NHL hockey. The Adam Payerl's of the world don't interest me as much. Every offseason shows that you can get quality bottom six forward help and not break the bank to do so. The area that is incredibly difficult to get help with is a top six caliber player.
With that said one of the more intriguing players to me will be Jean-Sebastien Dea. Dea has incredible offensive numbers the past two years in junior hockey. in 133 games he has 94 goals and 66 assists for 160 points. Keep in mind it is the QMJHL and offensive production can be inflated (Max Talbot had 202 points his last two years in junior). This is why Dea is intriguing to me this year. It will be his first full professional season and I can't wait to find out how he performs in it. Dea has decent speed and good hands. A dominant prospect tournament would be a great start to the year for him. Considering Dea was undrafted it would be a really pleasant surprise if he were to ever climb his way into an NHL role. His biggest hurdle to making this a reality is his frame. He is about six feet tall, but rather slim. He was 155 pounds a couple years back, recently he has been listed at 172 pounds. Can his game translate to the professional ranks? Let's start to find out.
Anton Zlobin had his first professional season last year and he did OK. The potential sniper had 19 points in 46 regular season games for WB/S. During the playoff run he added six goals and ten points in 15 games. Zlobin is a "project player" according to
Hockey's Future where he has to improve his skating and play away from the puck. He has a natural knack for scoring goals, it is now on him to put himself in situations to do so more often. With one professional season under his belt this next year should give a clear indication on how far away (or how close) he is to making a dent on the NHL Penguins radar.
As far as the defense is concerned there are only two that matter. Brian Dumoulin and Scott Harrington. Both of these players need to dominate during this tournament. They are both knocking on the door as NHL regulars from a talent perspective. Unfortunately for them, there is a bit of a log jam at the position. Rob Scuderi is currently taking up a spot as is Robert Bortuzzo. If Dumoulin and/or Harrington have a great tournament and camp, Bortuzzo might become expendable.
As for the goaltenders Tristan Jarry is the most high profile prospect. Jarry led the WHL in goals against average and wins last year. That is nice, but more of a team stat. He was tied for 8th overall in the WHL with a save percentage of .914%. Jarry helped lead his team to a Memorial Cup Championship last year and that is most certainly a quality learning experience.
The tough thing with prospect goalies is that it is a crap shoot. This is only the beginning of the analysis portion of Jarry's career. If there is one thing I would like to see from Jarry in his last junior season coming up it is for his save percentage to bump up from .914%. Jarry did not have a spectacular prospect camp in July, putting in a solid performance in the next week would be nice to see.
I'll try to have some gifs of some interesting plays from the game tomorrow if I am afforded the opportunity of watching it.
What things are you looking for in the prospect tournament?
Thanks for reading!
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