Point Park University Friday Insider: Jarry's contract extension ... Pickens 'close to breaking out' ... The meaning behind Cruz's 'watch'

CRANBERRY, Pa. -- The Penguins have a handful of notable players who will be unrestricted free agents next summer.

That's a list that includes Jason Zucker, Teddy Blueger, Brian Dumoulin and Danton Heinen, among others.

The most notable pending unrestricted free agent is undoubtedly Tristan Jarry, who is entering the final year of his contract that carries a $3.5 million cap hit.

This past season the Penguins waited until the summer to re-sign their key free agents in Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell.

I spoke one-on-one with Jarry about his contract situation after Day 1 of training camp on Thursday, and he seems optimistic that an extension will get done before that point.

"I think we're in a pretty good place," he told me. "I think that I'd rather get playing and see what happens, but I'm pretty sure something will get done."

Jarry said that he wanted to keep the details of where things stand right now between him and the team, but he said that he "definitely" wants to get something done before the regular-season ends.

"I think if that's something that we could do and something that we could agree upon, I think that'd be awesome," he said.

MORE PENGUINS

2. I asked Teddy Blueger what he was doing fighting Vinni Lettieri in Da Beauty League, the Minnesota-based summer league:

"We were kind of like messing around and then got carried away," he said with a laugh. "One small slash turned into a harder one and just kind of back and forth, it spiraled from there."

Blueger said that he heard nothing from management or the coaching staff about it, and wasn't expecting it to blow up on social media as much as it did.

"I was surprised how much attention it got," he said. "Probably because there's not much else going on. If it was a fight like that during the year, no one would pay any attention to it, it's just like business as usual." -- Taylor Haase in Cranberry, Pa.

3. When I walked into the locker room at the Lemieux Complex on Thursday, Sidney Crosby and Malkin were hollering back and forth to each other in a spirited manner from across the room. It seemed like they had a slight difference of opinion on something that occurred during the scrimmage they had just completed. It was a bit amusing, if nothing else, to see their competitive spirit shining on the very first day of camp. The exchange didn’t last long after the media made their way to Malkin. Crosby and Malkin played on opposing teams during the scrimmage, but there was nothing that stood out from afar that might’ve sparked their insignificant debate. -- Danny Shirey in Cranberry, Pa.

4. The Penguins don't need to make a trade to get cap compliant before the start of the regular season. Brock McGinn seems to be someone the media and fans have suggested as a popular possibility due to his $2.75 million cap hit. I heard from a source this week though that his name hasn't been mentioned at all in actual discussions. -- Haase

5. Valtteri Puustinen is so much more comfortable with English this season -- enough to do multiple interviews -- but he still has his struggles. It's been nice to see the other players, non-Finns included, help him out at times. During rookie camp Puustinen was staring at a sheet of paper on the wall in the locker room, trying to make sense of it. It was a schedule with different names and instructions for the blood work tests as part of the team's fitness testing the following day. Jonathan Gruden saw Puustinen looking at the paper and came over from across the room to help explain it to Puustinen, a nice gesture. -- Haase

6. It was cool to see Eddie Johnston come by the Lemieux Complex almost every day of rookie camp to watch the prospects. He is around the team fairly often, but he doesn't have an actual front office role, so he wasn't in the management box. He just came to sit in the stands and watch with the fans. -- Haase

7. Had a long chat with Dustin Tokarski, the anticipated No. 3 goaltender signed in free agency this summer and someone who is certainly an upgrade over Louis Domingue. I'll have a feature on him in the coming days, but for now I can tell you that he doesn't see himself as the No. 3, he's focusing on competing for a spot in Pittsburgh after spending the last two years in the NHL with Buffalo. Of the four goaltenders who were part of Thursday's training camp scrimmage (Tokarski, Casey DeSmith, Filip Lindberg, Taylor Gauthier), Tokarski was easily the standout in that limited sample size. Oh, and he's not a spicy pork and broccoli kind of guy. He told me his go-to is sweet and sour chicken. -- Haase

8. The prospects and other Wilkes-Barre/Scranton invites are for the most part using the two smaller locker rooms adjacent to the main locker room at the Lemieux Complex. It's worth noting that Drew O'Connor and Radim Zohorna are both in the main NHL locker room in regular stalls. Tokarski, Alex Nylander and P.O Joseph are also notably in the main locker room, albeit in temporary extra stalls added to the end of the permanent spots. -- Haase

STEELERS

9. Fans aren’t the only people clamoring for more involvement of George Pickens in the passing game. It has been a hot topic all week after he has only seen a few targets in each of Pittsburgh’s first two games, leading into Thursday night's clash in Cleveland. I asked Chase Claypool earlier this week about Pickens, and he feels the rookie is ready to break out at any given moment.

“I think George could very easily have 100, 150 more yards,” Claypool said. “But, you know, the teams are looking out for him, so they’re going to try to take away all those explosive plays. But he’s close. He’s close to breaking out, even though he hasn’t been able to get too much, he feels like he’s doing all the right things in practice and in the game and stuff like that. Just keep being patient. It’ll come.” -- Corey Crisan on the South Side

What kind of “right things” in practice? I followed up with Claypool:

“Just running through his routes, getting his depth, knowing the plays, knowing the defense,” Claypool said. “So, he’s doing all the little things to make big plays. Time will tell.” -- Crisan

10. Some of the criticism has been pointed at the running game, but -- for a change -- not specifically because of the offensive line’s play. I talked to Chuks Okorafor about that, and he noted some of the timing could have been cleaned up in the New England game.

“I feel like, every week, we can always try to improve on stuff,” Okorafor told me. “I think it was just run timing, but for the most part, I really couldn’t tell you what the backs were thinking, but as a lineman, just have to kind of keep on showing them we can actually make holes for them so they can actually trust us more, in my opinion. So I think it’s more of the trust and it’s more of a timing thing as well.” -- Crisan

11. I followed up by asking Okorafor about how much time it actually takes to build that trust:

“(Sunday was) really our second game we’ve played,” Okorafor said about developing the timing with Najee Harris. “He barely played during the preseason games, so I think he is trying to work on his timing, too. We’re all trying to work on that timing. I couldn’t tell you if it was going to take three weeks or next week (that) we’ll be good. It’s just going to take time.” -- Crisan

12. The Steelers have played three games thus far, and Isaiahh Loudermilk has yet to make it off the inactive list. Even though he’s listed ahead of DeMarvin Leal on the team’s official depth chart, him not receiving a helmet in the first three weeks really tells you where he ranks -- as the seventh defensive lineman. I asked him if he’s been frustrated about not getting any playing time thus far: “There always is. You play this game to play. I trust the coaches’ decisions with the stuff they’re seeing. Right now, I’m just going to keep working like I have been working and pretty much just be patient until it’s my time to come up.” -- Chris Halicke in Cleveland

13. I also asked Loudermilk if the coaching staff has provided any feedback as to why he’s not getting a helmet week in and week out. Just like him not getting a helmet on a short week against a run-heavy team, the answer wasn’t very encouraging: “There hasn’t been a lot of talk about it between me and the coaches. I see the reasoning. They know I see the reasoning. There’s a lot more I can do. … There hasn’t been a lot of conversation, but I know the things that I need to do. I know and the coaches know that I trust the process. I’ll be ready whenever I’m called up. Whenever that happens, I’ll be excited for it.” -- Halicke

PIRATES

14. Oneil Cruz has hit 17 major-league home runs this season, and 17 times, he has had the same celebration. After rounding second, he looks down at his wrist like he is checking a watch.

I asked him about where that celebration came from while in New York, and ironically enough, the idea came from a former teammate and New York player: Todd Frazier. Frazier would occasionally break out a similar situation, telling reporters then that it was because it wasn't the right time for the pitcher to throw that pitch.

When Cruz hit his first home run with Class AAA Indianapolis before the season, he remembered that celebration and made the same move.

It has a different meaning for Cruz, though.

"It's about time that I'm able to help in a situation like this," Cruz explained to me, as interpreted by Mike Gonzalez.

15. There was a rumor circulating on social media that last month Cruz brought in outside coaching to help his swing, which is why he has started to heat up. Cruz shot that rumor down immediately, saying its the work he's done in house with the coaching staff that is making the difference. "It's not so much them telling me the caliber of pitching I'm facing as it is them being able to teach me how to study it," Cruz said. "How to learn from it, how to prepare a plan." Being able to learn how to watch film more effectively, paired with a lot of work with the machine, is making a difference. -- Stumpf

16. Outside help or not, there's no denying Cruz is doing a better job at being selective at pitches. In August, he had a 31.6% chase rate. In September, it's down 10 points to 21.6%. -- Stumpf

17. While in New York, Cruz visited MLB headquarters, where he had his choice of player jerseys to take home. He chose a divisional rival: Nolan Arenado of the Cardinals. "He's one of my favorite to watch," Cruz said with a smile. -- Stumpf

18. Ok, one last note on Ke'Bryan Hayes' sunflower seed video (hopefully this is the last piece of sunflower seed journalism I have to do for a while). One pitcher told me that when they saw that video start to go viral on Twitter, they just shut off their phone. They didn't care. They knew if Hayes had a play, he would have been ready, regardless. -- Stumpf

19. The two most popular interviews this past week in New York were Cruz and Hayes. If you had any doubt that they're the two players people associate this franchise with, there you go. -- Stumpf

20. Bryse Wilson has morphed his changeup into a split-change after having a conversation with Kevin Gausman a few weeks ago when the Blue Jays came to town. He showed me the grip, and honestly, it looks closer to a fork ball. Something to watch from a young starter looking for ways to get hitters out consistently. -- Stumpf

21. Best of luck to Bligh Madris, who was claimed by the Rays this week. He's one of the most well-liked players in the clubhouse, and while it didn't work out with the team that drafted him, he at least gets another chance to click. -- Stumpf