CRANBERRY, Pa. -- The Penguins haven't had the greatest injury luck in recent years, to say the least.
Some of the newest members of the organization really took the initiative to become full-fledged Penguins and come into rookie camp dealing with an injury, something that has apparently turned into a rite of passage.
Three of the five members of the Penguins' 2022 draft class attended rookie camp, and all three were injured beforehand. First-round pick defenseman Owen Pickering and sixth-round pick defenseman Nolan Collins suffered upper-body injuries between July's development camp and the start of rookie camp, and fifth-round pick forward Zam Plante is recovering from a shoulder surgery that is expected to keep him sidelined until around mid-October.
Of the three, Collins was the only one who was able to participate in on-ice sessions, though he was limited to a non-contact capacity for the four days of practices, and was forced to miss Saturday's Prospects Challenge game in Buffalo.
Though Collins wasn't able to be a full participant throughout camp and was disappointed to sit out of the exhibition game, this week's rookie camp proved to still be a valuable learning experience for him.
Collins told me after Tuesday's final day of camp at the Lemieux Complex that his injury was a shoulder injury, suffered in the first intra-squad game of the training camp for his OHL club, the Sudbury Wolves.
"It was just a nothing play," he recalled. "But I feel way better now, it's been two and a half weeks. Hopefully I'll be back as soon as possible, as soon as the professionals say I can."
Collins said that he was "slowly but surely" making some progress in his recovery. A week ago he wasn't able to shoot the puck, but by the practices on Monday and Tuesday he was back to taking slapshots and one-timers and feeling fine.
Collins wasn't able to participate in all of the different drills during camp, and was kept on the sidelines for some of the more physical drills throughout the week. I noticed some coaches and members of the Penguins' development staff working individually with Collins at different points of camp, with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's J.D. Forrest working one-on-one with Collins extensively at the end of the last two practice sessions, mostly on edge work-focused drills.
Collins would have liked to be a full participant, but that kind of individualized work is incredibly valuable to him at this point of his career.
"(Forrest) has been awesome," Collins said. "I go to him with anything and he's right there. He'll spend as much time as I want going over whatever it is, giving me drills to work on. Just all the Penguins staff, all the Wilkes staff, all the development staff have been amazing. I've been trying to take advantage of them while I can because obviously they're professionals and I want to soak up as much information as I can. Anything that they see and they want a little tweak in my game, they'll call me over and I'll chat with them for a few minutes to talk about it and do some drills for it. So it's very helpful."
Collins' most obvious attribute is his size, at 6-foot-3 and 194 pounds at only 18 years old. He plays a defensive, shutdown role, and told me during development camp that his "bread and butter is clearing the front of the net and making strong defensive plays, physicality."
Players as big as Collins typically could stand to improve their mobility, and that's what a lot of the drills Collins has been given are focused on. If he can improve his edge work and get more mobile in his skating, he can be more effective at defending plays off the rush. That's been the message from the Penguins' development staff at this camp, and when Collins leaves he'll have a number of drills he can work on in order to get stronger in his skating. The development camp remains accessible to him throughout the year, and can provide him with tips and more drills throughout the year to continue to further Collins' development.
"It's going to really help me, to add that (skating) to my physical, big defenseman, shutdown game," Collins said. "I can text them anytime I want and and say, 'What do you want me to work on?' And they'll send me a whole bunch of videos of stuff to work on it. So just whatever they tell me, I'll be working on that every day. You can always improve in hockey, so everybody's looking to improve. It's helped me, I'm willing to put in the effort to improve."
Penguins director of player development Tom Kostopoulos pointed to Collins' drive to learn as one of his strengths. Kostopoulos likes what he's seen from Collins so far, but thinks that the best parts of Collins' game can only be seen in game action, making it that much more disappointing that we weren't able to see Collins play in the exhibition game.
"It's tough, he really wanted to play in that game and try and get an NHL exhibition game," Kostopoulos said. "We'll see what happens with him, but I really like the kid. He's got great size. He's plays a little physical, he's not afraid to get in the dirty areas and play a little bit of a nasty game, which I love. He's one of those guys. Some of his best skill sets might show up more in a game situation. We're looking forward to when he can get in a game."
Collins isn't sure yet what the immediate future will hold for him. He's slated to attend the Penguins' training camp, and he's hoping to be cleared for contact soon enough to be a full participant and potentially get into a preseason game. He hasn't been told yet whether he'll stay around in Pittsburgh until he's fully healed, or if he'll be sent back to Sudbury to recover at some point.
"I'm just doing everything I can do without the contact, and I'm enjoying it a lot," he said of his focus for now.
Whenever Collins does head back to Sudbury for the start of his season, he'll be carrying with him a wealth of knowledge gained from this camp that will help him come back to Pittsburgh even stronger next year.