Development camps have been part of the Penguins' offseason routine for a lot of years.
Well, they were before the pandemic, anyway.
There wasn't one in 2020 and, while Ron Hextall said the team plans to conduct a camp this season, it won't be quite like those in the past.
For starters, it won't be held just days after the NHL draft, which is scheduled for July 23-24.
That's about a month later than in the pre-COVID-19 NHL, and Hextall said such a late draft makes it impractical to hold a development camp on the usual schedule.
Consequently, he said, the Penguins likely will conduct one for draft choices, select young players and perhaps some undrafted prospects shortly before the team's regular training camp in September.
"It will be a little of a combination of both (a rookie and development camp)," Hextall said.
The value of a conventional development camp, he said, would be diluted by being held so late in the summer, mostly because of how the impact of off-ice instruction would be affected.
"The biggest part of the development camp is bringing kids in in late June or early July, teaching them the proper way to work out and (about) nutrition, our expectations, physically, and being in shape," Hextall said. "There are so many lessons that they learn in development camp that they take for the next two or three months before they start playing.
"Now ... it just doesn't give them enough time (for the information) to be beneficial and we didn't feel like bringing them in twice. Right now, the tentative plan is to bring them in just before main camp and have a rookie/development camp."
MORE PENGUINS
• Something to consider about the expansion draft that will be conducted Wednesday to provide players for the new franchise in Seattle: It isn't a draft at all. It's a selection process, and the difference is much more than a matter of semantics. Kraken GM Ron Francis and his staff will be able to make every decision on each of the 30 players the club will claim without having their master plan scuttled by another team grabbing a guy the Kraken wanted. In most other expansions in recent decades, there were multiple teams entering the league, which meant the newcomers alternated selections. That means a club could lose out on someone it was hoping to add because the other one joining the league at the same time wanted him just a little more. The nice thing for Seattle, as was the case with Vegas in the 2017 expansion, can pick its personnel without having to develop a Plan B or C or D in the event a guy it wanted wasn't available when the Kraken was ready to take him. -- Molinari
• Remember how well teams playing back-to-back games in away venues was received last season? Players liked that there was less of a travel-related grind. Front offices appreciated the reduced costs. Fans responded to the increased intensity/animosity that often surfaced in the second of those games. Well, forget all of it. Hextall said that the league has sent out a first draft of the 2021-22 schedule, and those back-to-back games are not part of it. Which doesn't particularly please him. "I thought they were terrific," he said. "It cut down your travel. Hypothetically, we fly into Washington on Monday, we play in Washington on Tuesday, guys get to bed at a good time on Tuesday night. Wednesday is a practice day. Thursday, we play Washington again and either go somewhere else or come home and really only have one late night, versus playing in Washington and then you travel somewhere else and have a late night on Tuesday and then Thursday you have another late night, going home or to another city. I thought it was good for (reducing) wear-and-tear on the players and I, quite honestly, thought the second game was very competitive. It was almost like a little playoff series, where you don't like each other from Game 1 and now you're playing Game 2. I liked the concept." He was not alone in that. -- Molinari
PIRATES
• The Pirates took three high schoolers who ranked in Baseball America’s top 32 prospects in the second and third rounds of the draft Monday: Lefty pitcher Anthony Solometo (No. 28), outfielder Lonnie White Jr. (32) and right-hander Bubba Chandler (No. 20). Signing all three is going to be the challenge, but at least one is very close to putting pen to paper. Per sources, Chandler and the Pirates have a deal in place, pending a physical. An amount wasn’t given, and won’t be until the physical and final steps are completed, but it is very safe to assume it is for more than the $870,700 slot bonus the 72nd-pick carries. What’s interesting is that during the negotiations, Chandler was guaranteed a chance to hit as well. He had a .411 batting average with 12 doubles and eight home runs as a senior with North Oconee High School in Georgia, and I had a draft analyst from a National League club tell me that he has the potential for 65-grade power, based on the scouting 20-80 scale. That’s not too far off first overall draft pick Henry Davis’ grade – albeit Chandler is rawer than Davis -- and his arm playing his native shortstop would be off the charts. That said, the Pirates like him as a pitcher first, feeling he has more upside there. But if he can hit too, even in a designated hitter only type role like Shohei Ohtani, his ceiling will drastically increase. -- Alex Stumpf
• I asked that same draft analyst for some Major League comparisons for those early draft picks. Davis was compared to Willson Contreras of the Cubs – strong arm, power in the bat and some concerns with his receiving skills. Solometo is in position to add more velocity than the low-90s he sits at, but if that never comes, someone like Tyler Anderson or Mike Montgomery would be a good comp because of their funky mechanics. If he does add the velocity, obviously the perceived ceiling will improve. The most colorful metaphor, however, was White Jr. being called “ALDI’s Starling Marte.” Perhaps not the same or quite as good as name-brand Starling Marte, but a lot of similarities, especially at this early stage in his development cycle. -- Stumpf
• While in New York this past weekend, I had a conversation with a Mets executive who was very complimentary of the Pirates’ director of international scouting, Junior Vizcaino. It’s been a couple years since the Pirates produced a high-level prospect out of the Dominican Republic, but the team heavily invested into upgrading its baseball academy this past year. That, coupled with the changes in player development organizationally, could yield more players in the future. The exec was also very interested in manager Derek Shelton and how he was doing in his second season as a big-league manager. Shelton was brought in to interview multiple times during the Mets’ managerial search in 2019, but they ultimately went with Carlos Beltran, who resigned shortly after the Astros scandal broke later that offseason. The Mets went with their next best available choice after Beltran instead, Luis Rojas. Given the state of the major-league roster and where the Pirates are in their rebuild, it’s hard to evaluate Shelton too critically in terms of wins and losses, but the exec believes the Pirates have their guy. -- Stumpf
STEELERS
Beat writer Dale Lolley is on vacation this week.
