Chirps from Center Ice

Coal Street announced Saturday morning their roster for their training camp, which starts Tuesday morning.

Link here, but I’ll cut and paste the schedule and roster here for you.

Tuesday, Sept. 24
10:00 a.m.          Group A Practice                Toyota SportsPlex
11:15 a.m.               Group B Practice                Toyota SportsPlex

Wednesday, Sept. 25
7:05 p.m.            Game vs. Lehigh Valley     Mohegan Sun Arena

Thursday, Sept. 26
10:00 a.m.          Group A Practice                Toyota SportsPlex
11:15 a.m.               Group B Practice                Toyota SportsPlex

Friday, Sept. 27
7:05 p.m.             Game vs. Hershey             Mohegan Sun Arena

Saturday, Sept. 28
7:00 p.m.             Game at Hershey              Giant Center

Sunday, Sept. 29
3:05 p.m.             Game at Lehigh Valley     PPL Center

If you scroll to the bottom of that post I linked, you’ll also see the roster construction for players who will be at camp Tuesday morning. They are, and I’m cutting and pasting from the Coal Street release again, as follows:

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No surprises this season. Of the names listed above Chase Berger (AHL contract), Jordy Bellerive, Jan Drozg, Ben Sexton (AHL), Matt Abt (AHL), Michael Kim (AHL), Jon Lizotte (AHL), Alex D’Orio and Dustin Tokarski (AHL) were all cut from Pittsburgh’s camp Friday. The only names that may be foreign to you are Aaron Titcomb and Craig Skudalski are non-contracted (to Wilkes-Barre at least) invites. A welcome change from years past when you had names you never heard of on a line with one another in a preseason game.

The release mentions that players will be added as time wears, which is obvious because Pittsburgh still has 46 players on their roster at present, and only 23 can make the team at opening night. So essentially the Penguins need to cut half the roster as it stands today. There are players who will get assigned back to juniors (Calen Addison was yesterday) so you can expect an influx of two more goaltenders (or maybe just Emil Larmi if Tristan Jarry is traded or claimed on waivers) six or seven defensemen depending on how Pittsburgh wants to carry to start (Niclas Almari, Kevin Czuczman, P-O Joseph, John Marino, David Warsofsky are sure bets to either get cut or be placed on waivers, then a battle between guys like Juuso Riikola, Chad Ruhwedel and Zach Trotman for that seventh or eighth spot. Riikola wouldn’t require waivers, while the other two would.

Up front, Andrew Agozzino, Justin Almeida, Anthony Angello, Joseph Blandisi, Joseph Cramarossa, Thomas DiPauli, Ryan Haggerty, Adam Johnson, Sam Lafferty, Jake Lucchini, Sam Miletic and Oula Palve are sure bets to get cut and waived / re-assigned to the AHL. That’s twelve. Sixteen forwards left.

I have Kasper Bjorkqvist, Nathan Legare and Sam Poulin as the outliers. Forget about Poulin and Legare, as they are too young for the AHL. They would have to go back to juniors. Subtract those two, fourteen forwards left up top. Bjorkqvist I think you can make a case gets an extended look with Pittsburgh to start. That would mean that there would be a player like Ruhwedel or Trotman to hit waivers with Riikola as a straight reassignment to Wilkes-Barre while Pittsburgh carries seven defenseman and gives Bjorkqvist a longer look. Or, they may, for the sake of fear of losing Trotman or Ruhwedel to waivers, leave both on the NHL roster, carry eight defensemen and assign Bjorkqvist to Wilkes-Barre to tear the AHL to shreds. Who knows. I like that option better as a safer bet but like I’ve long said, I blog about the team, and don’t coach / run it.

Things get cute if they lose Jarry to waivers or a trade involving him or anyone else. Or, if they decide to give Poulin a longer look and let him start the season in Pittsburgh, like they did Daniel Sprong.

Like I said, easier to blog about the team than run it. We’ll see. More as it comes.