Jeffrey The First To Go; Things He Can Read On The Way To Wilkes-Barre

Just a quick hit this morning.

The Pittsburgh Penguins made their first 'final' cut yesterday, sending forward Dustin Jeffrey to Wilkes-Barre Scranton of the AHL.

Clearly, Jeffrey had a solid camp.  In fact, Head Coach Dan Bylsma said he was one of the surprise players of camp (along with Chris Kunitz, Zbynek Michalek and Mark Letestu).  Still, he was lacking that 'factor.  That, the fact that he didn't have to clear waivers, and the better play of his competition for a job up front all conspired to send him across the commonwealth.

Still, Jeffrey will surely be on the short list of call-ups this season should the need arise, so even though he's been in the organization for several years without sticking out of camp, lets hope he goes to the Baby Penguins and again plays with a purpose.

As far as any additional cuts are concerned, well ...... with Jeffrey's demotion, the air is starting to come out of the balloon a little bit. 

With Ryan Craig likely to start the season on injured reserve (and probably sent down to Wilkes-Barre after that) and Letestu sure to stick, the only real suspense left up front is whether Eric Tangradi will stay around.

If Aaron Asham starts the season on the shelf -- which is looking more and more likely since it's now 4+ days since he was injured and the team is said to still be evaluating him -- I think he'll probably stay.

Everything remains a crapshoot on the blueline at this point, although the consensus seems to be building that Ben Lovejoy is going to be the guy to nab the #6 spot.  We'll see. 

If Lovejoy stays, that would leave the team with an interesting decision on Simon Despres.  For as intriguing as it would be to keep him around, I can't imagine they would do it just to scratch him as the #7 defenseman.

While we wait to see how all of that plays out, I thought I'd throw a few links your way, like the outstanding piece here on how former Penguin Gary Roberts is getting into the business of training NHL players, including star Tampa Bay Lightning winger and 51-goal scorer Steven Stamkos.

And both here and here you can read great pieces about our Captain, including one about how Crosby's roommate at prep school Shattuck St. Mary's didn't see what the big deal was about #87.

Yeah.

More soon.