Friday Insider: The salvation that is Sprong

Daniel Sprong won't break camp with the Penguins.

That's not hot news as much as it is common sense. Terrific as the franchise's top pick in this past NHL Draft has been, from development camp to the rookie tournament in Ontario to the ongoing preseason, he's still 18 years old and still has tons to learn about playing a responsible, focused two-way game. And that can't -- and won't -- happen in Pittsburgh.


Still, no one should underestimate how much Sprong's showing this summer has meant.

"He's been a godsend, really," Jim Rutherford was telling me earlier this week in Cranberry. "More than anything, we look at Daniel as being very important to us because of our situation. Because with the low number of draft picks we've had, not having a first-rounder this year, we couldn't miss. We just couldn't. And when you watch him out here, you see his confidence, the hands ... we didn't miss."



No, and neither did Sprong on this goal Monday night:



What I've appreciated about Sprong most in this preseason is the finish. It's as effortless as it is deadly. The first time you see it, you're tempted to think, eh, he got lucky. But then it happens again and again and again, even in otherwise routine drills.

"I've worked on my release since I was a little kid," Sprong said after that game. "It's just a lot of shooting the puck, a lot of practice."

A lot, indeed. If not for the indefatigable Kris Letang and Olli Maatta, he'd have been the last player to leave a practice one day earlier this week, lingering on the ice an extra half-hour to do little more than bonus stickhandling and shooting.

Small wonder the Penguins love him.

But again, they love him almost as much for organizational purposes. What Rutherford would never say, on or off the record, but I will, is this: Ray Shero left the system sensationally bankrupt of prospects at forward. And as much as Rutherford had genuinely hoped to address that, the past year instead saw him send out his first-round pick to the Oilers for David Perron, then send his only forward prospect, Kasperi Kapanen, to the Maple Leafs as part of the Phil Kessel trade.

So to have Sprong rise up immediately after being selected in the second round, 46th overall, that counts for more than just the standard hope for the future.

"It means a lot to our scouts, to our developmental people, to our coaching staff, to know there's someone like this who's going to be a big part of our future," Rutherford said. "I honestly feel like this was a pick we just couldn't afford to miss on."

• Words cannot express how excited the Penguins' coaches are about Kessel's ability to step off the left wall and generate his own shot on the power play. Their feeling is that it could totally transform how teams will have to kill penalties against them, largely because of the spread effect in pulling opponents away from Sidney Crosby on the other side.

That's all I'm at liberty to share at the moment, though I'm guessing everyone will see it for themselves on the eighth of October in Dallas, right?

• My two minutes with newcomer Nick Bonino:



• Maybe no one had a healthier reaction to the Steelers' flattening of the 49ers than Cam Heyward, who's not the defensive leader for nothing at this stage.

"It was good at times," he told me earlier this week. "It wasn't good enough."

When I came back that San Francisco put up most of its points far too late, that was met with this: "Points are points. Yards are yards. That was still us out on the field. And that can't happen. We've got a lot to clean up."

He's a very large man. I didn't argue.

• I don't know if the Steelers will keep DeAngelo Williams involved, now that Le'Veon Bell will return Sunday in St. Louis. But I do know this: There was no small amount of finger-wagging that accompanied LeGarrette Blount's expulsion last season, and it only picked up once Blount looked like a runaway train for New England. I'll be very surprised if that sentiment isn't sensed by Mike Tomlin and staff and isn't at least somewhat influential in keeping Williams part of the offense.

• It's blossoming from a whisper to a roar, but the more you ask defensive players why they're more successful in pursuing the quarterback, they keep answering, in essence, that things are a lot simpler under Keith Butler.

• While the Pirates keep pushing higher, it shouldn't be forgotten that their foundation has been forged on the fantastic scouting of Rene Gayo in Latin America. It also shouldn't be forgotten that not all of his signings stayed with Pittsburgh, as some were traded away to procure major-league talent to fit with the current roster.

With the Brewers this week calling up reliever Yhonathan Barrios all the way from Class AA, that brought to Milwaukee their return in the Aramis Ramirez trade, while also adding a seventh current major-leaguer to Gayo's list, a phenomenal output that utterly blows away what the Pirates have done in the draft over the same period.

And get a load of the cost of signing those players: Starling Marte ($85,000), Gregory Polanco ($150,000), Elias Diaz ($20,000), Dilson Herrera ($220,000), Ramon Cabrera ($100,000), Diego Moreno ($10,000) and Barrios ($250,000).

Grand total: $835,000.

Draft spending in that same span: $55 million.

Yeah, ouch.

And I haven't even mentioned that two of the system's top three position-player prospects are outfielder Willy Garcia and second baseman Alen Hanson, also Gayo kids. They'll be in the majors soon.

• Oh, and let's not forget Miguel Sano. If Neal Huntington and Frank Coonelly had authorized Gayo to spend a mere $400,000 above what he was offering to Sano -- they were worried about bidding against themselves, not believing Sano's agent that the Twins were involved -- that would have been quite another. Minnesota wasn't bluffing, it turned out.

• One of the many under-appreciated aspects of Clint Hurdle's managerial tenure is the "leadership council," as he calls it, that he created two years ago to deal with anything and everything that could affect the clubhouse's mood and attitude. It came into play again this week in Denver, when he summoned those players -- Andrew McCutchen, A.J. Burnett, Francisco Liriano, Mark Melancon, Neil Walker -- to decide how they'd celebrate clinching a playoff spot.

The players are selected by their peers, not by Hurdle, and the manager retains the only vote that really matters. But it's a process that empowers all and, I might add, makes them a lot less likely to complain to people like me rather than taking it to his office.

• The Pirates will insist public pressure didn't influence their toning down that celebration. I don't buy that. They're not hermits. They heard their own fans criticizing them after Atlanta, they saw that the Cardinals didn't celebrate, and there's no way that didn't make a dent.

• I'd celebrate concluding the Insider this week, but I wouldn't want anyone to think less of me for reacting to my own achievement however I pleased.