After four years as an assistant coach in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, new Wilkes-Barre head coach J.D. Forrest is pretty familiar with the prospects currently in the Penguins' system.
He's seen some pretty strong talent come through Wilkes-Barre in his time there, too.
"You can go back to the first year I was here, you look at Jake Guentzel," Forrest recalled on a video call with myself and other Wilkes-Barre writers on Friday. "He was one of the better players to come through Wilkes-Barre, really. That's saying something. Even guys from that team that now play in other organizations -- Josh Archibald, Oskar Sundqvist, -- and now Teddy Blueger finally broke through last year, he was tremendous for Pittsburgh."
As Forrest takes the next step in his coaching career and becomes an AHL head coach, he's looking at the next wave of prospects in the Penguins' organization and who could take the next steps in their own careers and make an impact next season.
"This year we have some new guys coming in out of college, (Cam) Lee, (Josh) Maniscalco, to add to P.O. (Joseph), (Jon) Lizotte, and our core veteran guys," he said. "It's a long list, and I'm even leaving guys out. .. It'll fun to see who surprises us next year as well. There's always the guys that you kind of expect, then you get surprised every once and awhile with someone that really comes out of nowhere. (Sam) Lafferty might be an example of that, how well he played when he went up there and made the coaching staff in Pittsburgh have real tough decisions. That'll be exciting to see. Our roster's not full yet, there's still some spots there."
Since Forrest primarily dealt with the defensemen as an assistant coach, I asked him specifically about Joseph and how close he thinks Joseph is to earning an NHL roster spot.
"P.O., he's scratching at the door," Forrest told me. "He was fantastic with us. He had a rough start with the mono and everything, but he's such a hard worker. He's such a great kid, and you put on top of that the talent that he has. I really think he's right there. If it had not been for a shortened season and this whole different start that we're going to have (to next season), I feel like he'd be pushing right now. Maybe he will when we get going, whenever that is.
"I can't say enough about what he put into his own development," Forrest added. "I think it accelerated him faster than we had anticipated. We're really excited about what his potential is."
Toward the end of the regular season, another rookie defenseman Niclas Almari told me about the work Forrest did with him when it came to his own decision-making on the ice and helping to grow his confidence, and Forrest spoke highly about Almari's progression in a previous team interview.
"His confidence grew," Forrest said at the time of Almari's growth. "At the beginning of the year, if he made a mistake, it would really affect him. ... As the year went on and he started to understand that you need to let those things roll off your back, he started to understand that. If he did make a mistake, his ability to recover from a mental standpoint on the ice just kept improving. That was really good to see."
Wilkes-Barre had a really young group of forwards this season, with several NHL-contracted players playing in their first professional seasons. While Forrest's main focus as an assistant wasn't the forwards, I asked about his impressions of the young forward group, and which of those players he expects to make strides and have big years next season.
"We do have a hard-working group up front," Forrest said. "(Jordy) Bellerive had a great second half of the year, he came out strong and started finding his game in the American League. Sometimes it takes a little bit for those guys to make the jump. Jordy is a guy for sure."
"Janny Drozg, a full year of pro, I could see him making some jumps," Forrest continued. "He's a real talented kid. He's fast, he's going to have another year in North America under his belt. There's a lot of intrigue there from our younger guys to see how they can keep developing. We also have guys that might be up-and-down. Anthony Angello, maybe he stays in Pittsburgh or he's with us. If he's with us, I certainly expect him to take his game to another level."
"There's a long tradition of that pipeline from Wilkes-Barre to Pittsburgh. My job is to keep that going. I'm excited, I can't wait to get started. I know most of the players, and we have a fantastic team."
