The Prospects For The Prospects

The Pittsburgh Penguins will begin their preparations for the upcoming season in earnest starting later this week when they hold their 2010 prospect camp in London, Ontario, Canada.

Wilkes-Barre Scranton coaches John Hynes and Alain Nasreddine will run the camp, which is not completely unlike the prospect development camp they ran earlier this summer; however, there is more involved.  Aside from gauging the development of their top young players in drills and practices, they will get to see how they compete against those from other organizations when they play a tournament against the prospects from the Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators and, this year, the Chicago Blackhawks.

One other thing Pens' brass typically does at this camp is evaluate whether or not anyone is suitable for a minor-league contract, or whether or not they are worthy of an invitation to participate in the Penguins' full big-league camp starting a week later, or both.

Now, some players participating in this prospect camp won't have to worry about that.  Dustin Jeffrey, Eric Tangradi and Simon Despres, among others, are certain to participate in Pittsburgh's full camp. 

All eyes will be on them, of course, but other players will be worth watching, too -- like center Alex Smigelski, for example, who was a surprise to the organization at the development camp and is one of those guys playing for a contract on a tryout basis.

Casey Pierro-Zabotel, the Penguins' 3rd round pick in 2007, is another player to keep an eye on.  Zabotel, an offensive forward who excelled in the Canadian Hockey League before being drafted, took a big step back in his development last year.  After failing to crack the Wilkes-Barre roster for most of the season, he played mostly with the Pens' East Coast Hockey League affiliate in Wheeling and may be running out of chances with the organization.

Carl Sneep and Brian Strait are also two blueliners who many with the team will be watching.  After 2009 #1 draft pick and top prospect Despres, Sneep and Strait are the guys who will be knocking on the NHL door next.  It's time for them to dominate this camp.

I'll attempt to post periodic updates from the tournament at the prospect camp so everyone has an idea of who's looking good, and who's looking like they're facing a one way ticket to Squaw Island.

Meanwhile, with last week's signing of Hilary Duff's husband (a.k.a. free-agent forward Mike Comrie), there have been mixed feelings in Penguins land about whether the move was a good one or a bad one.

Certainly, Comrie has some offensive skill, as this video undoubtedly demonstrates.  In that sense, he could be a good fit on one of the top two lines going into this season. 

Personally, I disagree with those who liken Comrie to Petr Sykora or Miroslav Satan and feel he won't fit into HC Dan Bylsma's system, or who call him washed up like those two players. 

Comrie is 29 -- not 39 -- and has a more recent history of producing better than either of those two players did.  In fact, Comrie has 2 seasons of more than 30 goals and 3 other seasons of more than 20 in his career.  He's been derailed by injuries the last few seasons, but can be a useful player for Pittsburgh if he produces.

Perhaps more importantly, even if he doesn't help the team a great deal, there was very low risk in signing him for a 1-year, league-minimum deal, as I pointed out last week.  While some don't feel this way, I believe there's more to gain than there is to lose from bringing in Hilary Duff's husband at that rate.

The only negative, in my opinion, is that it cuts into the possibility of one of the Penguins' young players taking on a more meaningful role with the club this year.

As I've said in this space previously, Pittsburgh needs a young player to step up and make an impact on the NHL club.  Not a 75-point season impact --- a 15-20 goal and 4o point impact, then improve on that the next season.   The Penguins have their big guns.  The team needs to develop good complementary players and it's been a whlie since they've done that internally.

The thinking was that with all their free-agent departures -- then the decision not to bring Guerin back -- there was a chance for one or maybe two young players to make the team.  Certainly, guys like Tangradi, Jeffrey, Nick Johnson and Chris Conner were excited about that opportunity.

That is, until Shero brought in Aaron Asham, and then Comrie.

Now, while there may still be a chance for one of the kids to make the roster coming out of training camp, it's a lot less likely. 

Still, competition is a good thing, and that should make those young players work, not sulk.

In fact, if I were Tyler Kennedy -- who didn't meet expectations last season and may have seen his own development plateau -- I'd still be looking over my shoulder a little bit.

More soon.