Penguins re-sign Robert to AHL deal taken at PPG Paints Arena (Penguins)

LEHIGH VALLEY PHANTOMS

Felix Robert in a game against the Phantoms this season.

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins re-signed forward Felix Robert to an AHL contract for next season, the team announced on Tuesday.

Robert, who turns 22 next month, had a strong rookie season this year with Wilkes-Barre.

Robert began the year in Wheeling, where he scored five goals and one assist in 10 games before the AHL season got underway. He was recalled to Wilkes-Barre when AHL training camps began, and earned his spot at that level for the rest of the season.

Robert scored six goals and seven assists in 27 games with Wilkes-Barre and was versatile, slotting in at both center and wing over the course of the season.

At 5 foot 9 and 180 pounds, Robert is on the smaller size, but he still plays with a physical edge to his game.

I asked Robert about that element of his game earlier in the season, and he spoke about enjoying the added play along the boards like that that comes with playing winger.

"I like to play hard, that's for sure," he said.

"He's a little waterbug out there," Wilkes-Barre head coach J.D. Forrest said of Robert's game earlier in the season. "He doesn't give up. He's a guy that has a knack for stealing pucks. Sometimes he has to steal them once or twice. He's undersized, but he's pretty fearless. ... He just doesn't stop working."

Robert got in a fight in Wilkes-Barre's next-to-last game of the season, showing no hesitation in jumping in when the 6-foot-2 Wade Allison was going after P.O Joseph.

"The kid never ceases to amaze here with what he's willing to do to help the team, to get into the lineup, to stay in the lineup, to contribute any way possible," Forrest told me of Robert's effort after that game. "That's not something that's easy to do. But although he's a smaller guy, he just never ever stops. It was admirable for him to hop in there and fight that guy in regards to the situation. ... Felix on a night in, night out basis just never stops. We've talked about it before, and it's commendable. We use him as an example quite a bit in the way that we want to play and the effort we want to put out there, just doing whatever it takes. That was just another example there."

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