Penguins' Prospect Development Camp Begins Today

This year's Pittsburgh Penguins' prospect development camp -- the organization's annual week-long look at a group of nearly 30 or so of the team's top young players -- begins today at Southpointe and Mellon Arena.

The future Penguins will participate in a multitude of activities all week long, including medical testing, meetings, practices and scrimmages. On-ice sessions are 3 PM today, tomorrow, Friday and Saturday and all are open to the public.

While Pittsburgh head coach Dan Bylsma won't be on the ice, you can be sure he'll be watching off of it -- likely joined by GM Ray Shero -- while Wilkes Barre-Scranteon head and assistant coaches Todd Reirden and John Hynes, together with Pens' Assistant GM Tom Fitzgerald lead the kids through their work in the camp.

At this camp, most eyes will be on 2009 first round draft pick Simon Despres, the Pens' best defenseman prospect and top prospect overall. Robert Bortozzo -- a player who has fast risen up the team's prospect rankings is another blueliner that a lot of people will be paying attention to.

Up front, everyone wants to see what LW Eric Tangradi is going to do. Certainly, Pittsburgh is looking at him as a potential candidate to play at the NHL level this year. We'll see if he's able to dominate this camp like the Penguins would prefer to see.

Other youngsters many will have their eyes on at this camp are this year's first round pick, Beau Bennett and last year's 3rd round choice, Ben Hanowski. They are the natural offensive players in the Penguins' system, so it will be interesting to see how both of them fare.

Meanwhile, there are a few other players expected to be contenders for a potential job in Pittsburgh this year who will be at the camp -- chief among them forward Dustin Jeffrey -- and other guys who have been at the camp the last year or two but still merit watching. Carl Sneep, Brian Strait and Nick Petersen come to mind there.

Later in the week I'll post an update on who has looked good -- and who hasn't -- at the camp.

Since we've now settled into the dog days of the hockey off-season, I'll also have several other interesting items up here for everyone over the next several weeks --- mainly bits and pieces I've been holding on to for a time just like this.

I'm also planning a more substantive team-by-team comparison of how the Penguins' new-look blueline stacks up against the rest of league.

More soon.