Chirps from Center Ice

I waited all weekend for Coal Street to announce a training camp roster after announcing a schedule Friday but that never came to pass because Pittsburgh still had a lot of AHL guys on the roster through Sunday. But on Monday afternoon, we have a clearer picture of it all so here I am to break it all down for you.

First, here is the training camp schedule. If you want to head to Coal Street and sit in an ice box to watch the practice, you can, it is free and open to the public.

Update 1: Here is a look at the entire roster.

Pittsburgh made two sets of cuts so far, 5 last week and then 18 on Sunday. They are minus one since Freddie Tiffels wanted out of being a German North American yo-yo from AHL to ECHL, so Pittsburgh put him on unconditional waivers and terminated his contract. He has a deal already lined up in Germany.

Anyway, Forwards Troy Josephs, defensemen Dane Birks and Joe Masonius and goaltender Anthony Peters were sent down on Thursday and Tobias Lindberg, Jimmy Hayes, Adam Johnson, Joseph Cramarossa, Thomas Di Pauli, Teddy Blueger, Sam Miletic, Sam Lafferty, Anthony Angello, Linus Olund, Garrett Wilson and Ryan Haggerty; defensemen Chris Summers, Stefan Elliott, Will O’Neill, Jeff Taylor and Ethan Prow; and goaltender John Muse were sent down Sunday. Lindberg, Summers, Muse, Elliott, Hayes, Prow and Wilson needed waivers and were not on with this group that was on Monday morning:

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Of note, all of the guys that were put on waivers Sunday cleared Monday after noon.

Update 2: Ethan Prow was placed on waivers Monday, if he is not claimed he will be added to the WBS training camp roster after noon on Tuesday.

Anyway, you should be familiar with the bodies of work of Josephs, McGrath, Spinozzi and Peters, but of these other guys, here is what I got on them:

Forwards

Tyler Bird: Fifth round draft pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2014 has a Wheeling ECHL deal lined up for this season. 6’1 forward out of Brown University. Was a combined -47 in college.

Cam Brown: One of the summertime signings by the Penguins this offseason, was in on a loan and played one game last year. Appeared in 13 with Springfield. Put up 53 points in 55 games for the Nailers. If he could put that together at the AHL level, Penguins have themselves a diamond in the rough.

Yushiroh Hirano: Japan product who wants to ply his trade in North America. Researching him, found this article on him from last week on theScore worth checking out.

Ryan Horvat: Every AHL training camp has that one guy that went unsigned all summer that gets an invite to camp that makes you say, “I remember that guy.” Well, Horvat is that guy this go around. He has AHL and championship experience. Played last year with Springfield and won a Calder Cup with Manchester in 2014-15. I had him #71 on the Big Board and described him as a depth winger. He wore an A for the Thunderbirds last year and had 21 points in 57 games. He could push for a bottom six spot.

Renars Krastenbergs: Latvian kid who has international experience. 31 points in 61 games for OHL Oshawa last year. He’s only 19.

Cedric Lacroix: Wheeling signed him over the summer. Graduate of the University of Maine. He can throw, too, had more than a few fights playing for Sioux City of the USHL.

Defensemen

Matt Abt: Nailers signed him on a tryout last Spring and then signed him in August. RIT product. 6’4, put up decent numbers for RIT and judging off his PIMs, can fight too.

Johnny Austin: One of the offseason signings by the Penguins. He’s probably ticketed for Wheeling. Was a -10 on a really bad Laval team on a tryout out of UConn.

Craig Skudalksi: Local product who was in camp with the Pens last training camp. Bounced around in the lower levels of pro hockey last season.

Goaltender

Danny Tirone: Nailers signing. Good numbers for the University of New Hampshire, this will be his first year pro.

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So there you have it on some guys you may not be familiar with.

Out the door, the Penguins have a shiny new app for your phone. They were kind enough to let me get a first look at it this weekend and it’s a really well put together app that pushes any and all kind of information at you relative to the Penguins (news, goals, final scores, notes, etc.) developed by HockeyTech, the same company behind the new AHLTV, it’s worth downloading and using throughout the year.

More this week, as business starts to pick up with this Thursday’s preseason game against Lehigh Valley.