12 Man Exodus: Penguins Make First Training Camp Cuts

The Penguins made their first cuts of this year's traning camp yesterday, dispatching 10 players to their main AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre Scranton, sending one back to his junior team, and giving another his outright release.

Forwards Joey Haddad, Zack Sill, Kevin Veilleux, Nick Peterson, Aaron Boogard, and Casey Pierro Zabotel, along with defensemen Brian Strait, Lane Caffaro, and Alex Grant, as well as goaltender Jordan Parise were assigned to WBS.

Forward Nathan Moon was sent back to his Ontario Hockey League Club in Kingston.

Defenseman Jamie Hunt was released.

Not too many surprises in this group, really. The Penguins have high hopes for a few of these players in particular -- Pierro Zabotel and Strait, to name two -- but neither of those guys distinguished himself overwhelmingly during the rookie camp, rookie tournament, or the regular part of training camp to-date.

Strait still has some work to do on his game, which isn't uncommon for a defenseman his age. He will probably benefit from 2 years or so in Wilkes-Barre. Guys like Brooks Orpik and Rob Scuderi honed their games there over a period of time and became good NHL'ers as a result.

Zabotel has a load of offensive potential and even led the Western Hockey League in scoring last season, but he hasn't been able to translate that to productivity with the big boys yet. I can't recall hearing his name mentioned hardly at all over the last 2+ weeks, and that's probably why he was one of the first people sent down.

Let's hope he dominates in his first season of professional hockey this year at the AHL level.

Tonight, the Penguins will have an intersquad, full-organization scrimmage in Wilkes-Barre. More this weekend on that contest and on the Penguins' next exhibition game tomorrow night back in Pittsburgh. Evgeni Malkin is expected to suit up for that one.

Let's Go Pens.