Pittsburgh Penguins: 2011 Prospect Development Camp Scrimmage Recap Notes

PITTSBURGH, PA, July 16, 2011 - The official Penguins Twitter account (@pghpenguins) estimated the a crowd of more than 5,000 for the final event of the 2011 Prospect Development Camp.

The prospects were grouped into two teams, one wearing white practice uniforms, the other black. There were two 25 minute halves and what seemed to be an impromptu shootout at the end.

Situational play varied, seemingly at random. There were 5 on 5, 4 on 4, and 3 on 3 segments of time throughout the scrimmage. During 5 on 5 play, defense seemingly ruled, but once a player less per side left the ice, it opened up pretty quick.

There were even two referees and two linesman, but they applied a pretty liberal interpretation to everything from offsides to penalties.

Tempo of play was pretty good, except for late in what would be the end few minutes of a regulation period. In the extra five minutes, play was downright sloppy.

Fatigue is the sure culprit of that, though one wonders if the coaching staff was looking to see which of these guys could dig down deep and gut it out despite the near—certain burning throughout their bodies and lungs.

NHL legend Bill Guerin was coaching one of the squads. He took time to sign autographs for kids near the entrance to the Penguins locker room. It also appeared that former Penguin Kevin Stevens was taking in some of the action from ice level.

In the slides that follow, I will provide some brief, note—style recaps on the players that stood out the most to me. It certainly should not be considered the definitive recap of the scrimmage by any means.

This thing moved pretty fast so it was tough to keep track of everything and look down at a roster to match numbers to players. There were also certain players that I wanted to spend some time focusing on, so there are guys like Brian Gibbons, Bryan Rust, Zach Sill, Reid McNeill, and Andrew Blazek (non—Penguin but Robert Morris University product), etc. that just did not get enough time of focus from me to adequately comment on their performance.

My intent for this recap is to give those of you that were unable to attend a bit of a glimpse at what was going through one fan's mind. Whether you are a Pens fan near or far away, take pride in the fact that the turnout was solid and the guys in our system look pretty good.

If you were at the camp, I'd love to hear what you thought on any of the players or just the experience in general in the comments section. Any discussion we can have on this should be great because we are still a few months away from the season. We have to kill the time somehow! 

photo courtesy of @pghpenguins Twitter account

Simon Despres

For many Pens fanatics, no player would be more closely watched at this camp than Simon Despres. He had a strong showing in the scrimmage in all facets of the game.

With the puck, Despres is confident both in the offensive and defensive zones. Without it, he seems to be improving his positioning and physicality.

My favorite moment of the day for Despres was a rush that Beau Bennett was bringing towards him. Despres was able to take Beau to the wall, gain control of the puck, and start it back out for a counter—attack.

There also were some moments where he was "mentoring" Joe Morrow on the bench it seemed in the second half. Good to see him share his knowledge with this year's first round pick.

For more on Simon Despres, check out my recent article detailing his chances of making the NHL Penguins out of camp.

Scott Harrington

I was pretty taken aback by the fact that the Penguins took a defenseman with the first round selection in this year's draft. Up that about 10 notches and you have my thoughts on the second round pick also being a blueliner.

Sometimes I am humbly reminded why the professionals are just that. The theory of drafting the best available player seems like it may serve the team well in Harrington.

He was by far the standout of the day's activity. Looked great at both ends of the ice, and displayed the quick puck moves that are necessary as the competition level rises and the organizational ladder is climbed.

In the post scrimmage shootout, he also had a pretty nice goal. All in all, a good day for Harrington. It would benefit all fans to follow his career over the next few seasons to see how he develops.

Joe Morrow

As mentioned in the last slide, there was a bit of disappointment on my part with the Penguins not selecting an available wing at the 2011 NHL Draft. All accounts are that Joe Morrow is a solid pick though, so it is not as if the team just threw away the selection.

The scrimmage seemed to be a tale of two halves for Morrow. In the first half, he looked strong and every bit worthy of a first round selection.

As the second half wore down, Morrow seemed to struggle. There was a bad giveaway to Keven Veilleux that was in the net as quickly as it was handed to Veilleux.

One possible reason for things going downhill could be conditioning. I thought that Morrow looked a bit winded in the later parts of the second half.

He also had a nice shootout goal after the game, so he did not seem to be taking any of the days activities to heart. Seems as if he will be going back to Junior's this season. There should be plenty of Morrow news out there if you choose to keep up with it.

Phillip Samuelsson

If Phillip Samuelsson's dad was not a Penguins legend, he might not be a guy that attracted much attention at the scrimmage. But based on family name, he obviously strikes a curiosity factor from even a casual hockey fan.

One thing you noticed about the guy is that, he is a stay—at—home type of defenseman. There were a few instances where he had chances offensively, but did not look aggressive or comfortable in that role.

In case there is any confusion, I do not mean that as a criticism of the young Samuelsson. He also seemed to draw a very important matchup every time that was possible.

Coach Guerin seemed to send him out against Eric Tangradi any time he could get him out there to play against the most experienced player in the scrimmage. Nothing like throwing the kid in to the deep end right away!

Phillip handled himself well though, and he appears to be in the fold for the Wilkes—Barre/Scranton Penguins this season. Fans of that team can probably expect him to be shutting down guys across the AHL very soon.

Josh Archibald

Archibald is another member of the Penguins 2011 Draft Class. He was selected directly out of high school, so seeing him against higher competition was interesting.

Josh definitely has skill and quickness. What may difficult for him in the future is finding room in the tough goal scoring spaces of the minor leagues and potentially the NHL.

There is nothing the kid can do about his lack of height, so he will need to become as strong as possible and learn the ways to slip and slither around similar to Martin St. Louis in order to become a success.

Photo courtesy of http://penguins.nhl.com

Jessey Astles

There is no need for me to lie. I did not enter the scrimmage looking to watch Jessey Astles and his performance.

What drew my attention was when he scored what I thought was the sweetest goal of the day. He made some unreal dekes on the Black Team and goalie Rob Madore before plunking the puck in the back of the net.

From what you can find about Astles on the Internet, he appears to be more of a pot stirrer than someone that will be expected to score a ton of goals like this.

Teams need guys like that though, so his pretty work around the net gave us someone to keep an eye for something other than highlight reel action.

photo courtesy of http://whl.simhl.net

Beau Bennett

Beau Bennett was the first round pick by the Penguins in the 2010 NHL Draft. He is a California kid and plays college hockey out in Denver, Colorado.

His most important attribute to the organization is that he is projected to be a scoring type winger. Size will be an issue for Bennett, but he is actively working on accumulating bulk/strength as part of his plan.

I was most surprised with his skating. The rap on him seems to be that his skating is not very strong, but I found him to be speedy and able to accelerate away from most of the other skaters with a few strides of the legs.

His speed alone makes me hope that he continues to work on adding strength because the puck followed him a lot, which is a good trait for someone that could potentially be Sidney Crosby's winger two or three seasons from now.

Tom Kuhnhackl

Coming in to the scrimmage, Tom Kuhnhackl was one of the guys I really wanted to watch. His numbers were great last season and there is a lot of talk of his father being one of the best German hockey players in history.

Unfortunately, Saturday was a disappointment for anyone that was looking for him to stand out. In fact, I felt that he just blended in with the exception of one mini—breakaway that he had and did not score on.

This certainly should not be taken as an indication that he should get on with a new line of work for the rest of his life. Just an observation that he has some work to do to raise himself towards the NHL.

Eric Tangradi

When many of us saw Eric Tangradi's name on the list of invitees to the camp, we thought to ourselves "why?" After all, Tangradi spent time in the NHL last season. He even earned a game of action in the playoffs.

But according to the Post-Gazette's Shelly Anderson, there was more to the plan then seeing Tangradi skate and score goals on lower level competition. The team wanted Tangradi to serve as a mentor to the players in camp.

He seemed to flourish in the role from what people are saying. It was visible at the end of the scrimmage shootout.

Tangradi was waiting by the locker room entrance giving words of encouragement and high fives to each and every player as he came off the ice.

Hopefully, this experience will help Eric take the confidence he needs in to training camp so he can claim a spot on a line with Evgeni Malkin to see if this season will be his time to spread his wings.

Dominik Uher

Dominik Uher is yet another member of the 2011 NHL Draft class of the Penguins. He is from the Czech Republic, but one of the most often indicated traits he possesses is that he does not play a European style.

For a span of about 10 minutes in the first half, something happened that seemed to rile Uher up. It almost looked like he was trying to get someone to fight him, but at the very least he was definitely angry about something because he went around taking swipes at guys.

Later on he calmed down and chipped in a goal for his team. It will be interesting to see if Uher ever makes the NHL. Based on that fiery personality, I would not bet against him.

Photo courtesy of http://penguins.nhl.com

Keven Veilleux

Keven Veilleux seemed to be too big for anyone to handle during the scrimmage. Most of his time in the offensive zone was spent doing as he pleased. If memory serves me correct, he ended with two goals for the day.

He has size and strength and at least some degree of talent and skill. Perhaps it is time that he enters the conversation for one of the few available NHL roster spots the Penguins have for training camp competition.

Veilleux also provided the most fun moment of the day during the post—scrimmage shootout. As he entered the zone, he flipped the puck up in to the air and started dribbling it up in the air on his stick over and over, then depositing it past goalie Patrick Killeen.

Rob Madore

Rob Madore is not a Penguins prospect. But, the Penguins thought it would be nice to extend an invitation to the local kid who plays college hockey for the Vermont Catamounts.

This was surely a great experience for him. He made some really nice saves, but did seem to struggle with angles and multiple dekes or passes at times.

This day was likely a great one for Madore, who got the chance to play and be around some potential high level competition. Hopefully, Rob Madore joins the growing list of Pittsburgh area players to get drafted by a team and eventually make it to the NHL.

Patrick Killeen

It seems pretty likely that Patrick Killeen could end up as the backup goalie in Wilkes—Barre/Scranton this season. Saturday, he played well in the scrimmage.

His team won for starters, so that is always the main target of any goalie. One of the goals given up came directly off of a Joe Morrow turnover, so hard to blame him for that.

Otherwise, he looked pretty active between the pipes and seemed reasonably comfortable with coming out to settle pucks down and get behind the net to try and corral pucks dumped in.

Personally, I will be keeping an eye on Killeen because there is a chance he is the starting goalie in WBS by 2012—13 if Brad Thiessen comes to the NHL next season.

Photo courtesy of http://penguins.nhl.com