CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Development camp has ended.
Summer officially is over.
That means it's time for training camp to begin.
And after the Penguins dispense with the formality of physicals and photos at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex today, they will have a lengthy to-do list with which to deal before the regular season begins Oct. 12 in Tampa.
Here's a look at some of the most significant issues facing them:
1. Replace Crosby, Malkin
It's not clear how long the Penguins will be without their top two centers -- Sidney Crosby, who is recovering from wrist surgery, is expected to miss at least a handful of regular-season games and no timetable has been announced for the return of Evgeni Malkin, who had a knee operation -- but it's safe to assume their absence will be felt.
A lot.
Jeff Carter is the favorite to fill in for Crosby on the No. 1 line, mostly because he has the most offensive talent of any of the remaining centers, but there's no clear choice to move into Malkin's spot.
Evan Rodrigues, because he's versatile and has shown some offensive skill? Teddy Blueger, because he'd probably place second on the depth chart of the remaining healthy centers? Somebody Mike Sullivan and his staff will try there on a hunch? Will Ron Hextall decide he has no choice but to make a trade to take on that role?
Whoever gets the job figures to have a major impact on how the Penguins fare while Malkin heals.
2. Find partner for Matheson
Cody Ceci revived his career last season, and deserves at least a little credit for Mike Matheson getting his own back on track after it had gone off the rails as he tenure in Florida was winding down.
Ceci's solid, responsible defensive play made it possible for Matheson to get involved in the offense when he saw a good opportunity to do so, and Matheson's confidence grew, along with his points total.
With Ceci off to Edmonton via free agency, it will be imperative for the Penguins to find a right-side defenseman whose defensive game complements Matheson's flair for offense if they hope to have a No. 2 pairing that's capable of making consistent contributions at both ends of the ice.
Bumping John Marino, who will be looking to rebound from a surprisingly lackluster second season, up from the third pairing is one possibility, or Sullivan could experiment with guys like Chad Ruhwedel or Mark Friedman.
3. Room for rookies?
It's tough to project how a young player might fare in the NHL on the basis of his performance in a development camp -- the caliber of competition a prospect is facing obviously can have an impact on how well he does -- but guys like Sam Poulin, Cam Lee, Nathan Legare and Filip Hallander showed at times why they're likely to be cashing NHL paychecks someday.
The question is, when?
Performing well during training camp will be imperative for any of them to have a chance, but that alone won't necessarily be enough.
That's because the Penguins have 13 forwards and seven defensemen on one-way contracts, while most prospects are on entry-level deals that pay a significantly reduced salary when they are in the minors.
What's more, all of the development-camp participants who are under contract are waivers-exempt, which means there'd be no danger of losing any who would be assigned to Wilkes-Barre. Everyone who has a one-way deal would have go through waivers.
One other factor that could work against a prospect starting the season with the parent club: With Crosby and Malkin out, the coaches figure to put an extra emphasis on playing well defensively, and they might well be more comfortable relying on veterans to do that.
4. Believing in Jarry
Odds are that none of Tristan Jarry's teammates will say anything remotely critical of his performance during the first-round playoff series against the Islanders -- that sort of thing almost never happens in the NHL -- but it's hard to believe that their faith in his ability to lead them on a long postseason run wasn't shaken.
And while there's really nothing he can do during camp -- or the regular season, for that matter -- to fully allay concerns about how he'll fare in future high-sakes games, consistently strong play from early in camp could begin to lay a foundation for shoring up confidence in him.
Jarry has shown that he has the physical talent to play at a high level; his challenge in 2021-22 is to prove that he has the mental toughness to relegate that Islanders series to being a wretched, regrettable memory.
The sooner he starts to make that point, the better for all concerned.
5. Plugging special-teams holes
When they're healthy, the Penguins have the personnel to assemble a fearsome power play, and they proved it by scoring on 23.7 percent of their chances with the extra man last season.
Trouble is, Crosby is a fixture on the No. 1 unit and Malkin generally works there, too. Because the Penguins don't have a clone of either ready to step in, power-play architect Todd Reirden might have to make some tactical tweaks tailored to take advantage of the talents of whoever he opts to have fill in for Crosby and Malkin.
The penalty-killing unit lost a couple of regulars, too, and unlike Crosby and Malkin, there's no reason to believe Brandon Tanev or Ceci will be back on the roster this winter.
Ceci averaged 2:32 of shorthanded work per game -- Brian Dumoulin (2:45) is the only Penguins player to average more -- and Tanev placed third overall and first among forwards at 2:24.
That's a lot of physically demanding minutes that will have to be handled by other guys, and finding a right-handed defenseman to step in for Ceci could be particularly tricky. Because Marino averaged 1:52 of penalty-killing time in 2020-21, he probably couldn't be expected to take on significantly more and Kris Letang, who is 34, was on the ice for a team-high average of 24 minutes, 39 seconds last season.
Whether the defenseman who inherits Ceci's place in the lineup -- regardless of the pairing on which that guy is deployed -- can assume some of his penalty-killing duties effectively is something the coaching staff might want to assess during camp and the Penguins' six exhibition games.