The Penguins have a number of NHL-contracted prospects playing in their first professional season down in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton or Wheeling this year.
Six of them were free agent signings made by the Penguins within the last year -- forwards Corey Andonovski, Jordan Frasca and Ty Glover, defensemen Colin Swoyer and Jack St. Ivany and goaltender Taylor Gauthier. Two more of those first-year pros -- forwards Raivis Ansons and Lukas Svejkovsky -- were draft picks of the Penguins.
How are those eight rookie prospects faring in their first professional seasons so far? Let's take a look.
Corey Andonovski
Position: Right wing
Size: 6-1/194
Shoots: Right
How acquired: Undrafted free agent signing in March 2022 out of Princeton
Age: 23
Season totals: 18 games, 4 goals, 3 assists (AHL)
Andonovski has been the most successful of the rookies so far, surely something that was helped by his five-game stint in Wilkes-Barre at the end of last season following the conclusion of his college career.
Andonovski, with his size and physicality and good defensive game, projects to be more of a fourth-line player at the NHL level. He has mostly been in a bottom-six role with Wilkes-Barre, but he has actually played on all four lines at one point or another over the course of the season.
Andonovski doesn't shy away from getting involved physically, either with hits or sometimes shoves after whistles when an opponent goes after one of his teammates:
Andonovski didn't have any points during that brief AHL stint last spring, but he's been producing pretty well for a first-year pro in a mostly bottom-six role. He has a pretty good shot, too:
Jordan Frasca
Position: Center
Size: 6-2/183
Shoots: Left
How acquired: Undrafted free agent signing in March 2022 out of Kingston in OHL
Age: 21
Season totals: 2 games, 1 assist (ECHL)
Frasca's just getting started in his pro career.
Frasca suffered a right foot injury in the NHL preseason that had him sidelined for the first two months of the year. He started taking contact at the start of December and was cleared to return on Dec. 9. Because of the logjam at forward in Wilkes-Barre, Frasca was sent down to Wheeling at that time and made his professional debut two nights later in Kalamazoo, Mich., where he recorded a secondary assist in the first period.
Frasca, who centered Wheeling's second line in both games, was scoreless in his second game in Wheeling.
The Penguins on Thursday recalled Frasca from Wheeling to Wilkes-Barre after Sam Poulin's absence and the recall of Drew O'Connor created an opening. He could make his AHL debut as early as Friday against Hershey.
Ty Glover
Position: Left wing
Size: 6-3/201
Shoots: Left
How acquired: Undrafted free agent signing in March 2022 out of Western Michigan
Age: 22
Season totals: 7 games, 1 goal, 1 assist (AHL)
Glover was a healthy scratch at the start of the season, there just wasn't a spot for him to start. He finally got into the lineup on Oct. 29 and played consistently for Wilkes-Barre's next seven games as the fourth-line left wing. His first pro goal came on Oct. 23 in Providence, with Svejkovsky getting the assist:
Glover's one of the bigger prospects in Wilkes-Barre, he has the size and strength of a pro player.. He's a good skater, and he's perhaps at his most effective in a net-front role.
It's hard to really offer much more in terms of assessments of Glover's game, just because he's been hurt. He hasn't played since Nov. 6 and is still rehabbing a lower-body injury that he sustained several weeks ago in practice. He has recently resumed practicing with contact, though.
Colin Swoyer
Position: Defenseman
Size: 6-0/185
Shoots: Right
How acquired: Undrafted free agent signing in March 2022 out of Michigan Tech
Age: 24
Season totals: 3 games (AHL), 6 games, 1 assist (ECHL)
Swoyer was another victim of the numbers game at the start of the season. He got into his first games at the end of October, playing a back-to-back. He was a healthy scratch again before a spot reopened for him in the lineup and he played in one more game. He didn't record any points in those games, but he's got a pretty good one-timer:
Instead of leaving Swoyer to sit in the press box, the Penguins sent him down to Wheeling to get some playing time. He got his first (and so far only) pro point with a primary assist in his first game with the Nailers:
The Penguins recalled Swoyer from Wheeling to WIlkes-Barre on Thursday after Mark Friedman's recall and Ty Smith's illness created a spot for him.
Jack St. Ivany
Position: Defenseman
Size: 6-3/201
Shoots: Right
How acquired: Free agent signing in Aug. 2022 after unsigned by Flyers
Age: 23
Season totals: 14 games, 1 assist
St. Ivany was another player who was a healthy scratch for the first few weeks of the season, but once he got into the lineup at the end of October he's been a regular ever since, primarily on the right side of the third defense pairing in Wilkes-Barre. HIs most frequent partner has been veteran blueliner Xavier Ouellet.
St. Ivany hasn't been contributing much as far as the score sheet is concerned, but he wasn't a big point-producer for much of his college career. He's more of a two-way, puck-moving defenseman, and he's been a pretty responsible, sound player for Wilkes-Barre to start. The one point he does have came when he took a shot from the blue line that was stopped, then O'Connor put in the rebound.
Forrest had a lot of praise for St. Ivany's game.
"He's a really good skater, he's long, he's got a pretty good reach,'" Forrest told me after a game against the Providence Bruins. "He shut down a lot of plays really early in the game. I thought defensively he was up in their face the whole time, and that really helps us. It stops their rush, it stopped some of their speed, it sends us back together way. He's able to make some of those simple plays. ... We like where he's headed."
Taylor Gauthier
Position: Goaltender
Size: 6-2/207
Catches: Right
How acquired: Undrafted free agent signing in March 2022 out of Portland in WHL
Age: 21
Season totals: 12 games, 6-6 record, 1 shutout, 2.89 GAA, .903 save percentage
Gauthier going down to Wheeling was expected, with Dustin Tokarski and Filip Lindberg splitting the net in Wilkes-Barre.
Gauthier has been splitting the net fairly evenly with Tommy Nappier -- who was Wilkes-Barre's starter at the end of last season -- with Gauthier earning slightly more starts. Gauthier was putting up better numbers earlier in the season (including a 20-save shutout in his first pro win) but hasn't had quite the same success as of late. That's more so a result of the Nailers just being pretty average as a team, though. They just recently got back to being a .500 team.
It's not a knock on Gauthier that he's in Wheeling to start, it doesn't mean he's being written off. But Tokarski is the No. 3 goalie in the system and one of the top goaltenders in the entire AHL, so he gets most of the starts in Wilkes-Barre, and Lindberg deserves to be in that backup role after the start he had last year before his injury. Wilkes-Barre has kept three goalies on the roster in the past, but it's far from ideal, especially given that both Gauthier and Lindberg are young and need the playing time. He can surely work his way up from Wheeling if he earns it. Heck, Casey DeSmith started as Wheeling's third goalie and just earned his way up the ranks. Wheeling also is in its second season with its own dedicated goaltending coach, Penguins goaltending development coach Chuck Grant focuses on Wheeling while the other goaltending development coach Kain Tisi works with Wilkes-Barre. Gauthier is in a good spot.
Raivis Ansons
Position: Left wing
Size: 6-1/195
Shoots: Right
How acquired: Fifth-round draft pick, 2020
Age: 20
Season totals: 10 game, 1 assist
Ansons has been in and out of the lineup as a healthy scratch throughout the course of the season so far, and has been mostly on the fourth-line left wing when he's playing.
Ansons did produce at right around a point-per-game pace in the QMJHL, but those numbers always have to be taken with a huge grain of salt in the offense-first league. He's really more of a reliable, defensive forward, and he's been fine in that regard to start. He's not a liability in the way that a lot of QMJHL forwards can be to start when they go pro. Forrest has told me that he likes Ansons' "smarts" and ability to kill penalties.
With Ansons, where he needs to improve is more about learning how to play at a pro pace -- which is another pretty common thing you hear regarding first-year pros coming out of junior.
"I'm not certain, but my guess is last season he's playing a ton of ice time and he's kind of pacing himself out there shift by shift," Forrest told me. "We want him to gas himself every 45 second-shift that he has and leave it all out there and come back and recover. So I think that part of his game is improving and he's understanding the intensity from shift to shift that you have to bring out there. He's taking steps there. I think anytime you go junior to pro it's a pretty big leap. So if it happens overnight, awesome. Usually, it takes a little more time."
Lukas Svejkovsky
Position: Wing
Size: 5-9/170
Shoots: Left
How acquired: Fourth-round draft pick, 2020
Age: 21
Season totals: 14 games, 3 assists
Svejkovsky's been a regular for the most part this season, but has spent a couple of games as a healthy scratch as well. He's mostly been on the fourth line and has played on both the left and right wings. He did also have a four-game stint as the first-line right wing at the end of October, opposite Alex Nylander on the left side and alongside either O'Connor or Drake Caggiula at center.
Svejkovsky's big weakness at this point is that he just needs to get bigger. He can't help being 5-9, but he could stand to get stronger. He was an offensive machine back in juniors and was able to score a lot of slick goals with the moves he could make. He's very skilled, and he's a good skater. But then when he goes up against much bigger grown men -- as opposed to the teenagers he was playing in junior -- he's just not able to do a lot of those things at the pro level. This was something I noticed before the start of the season, too. In the first development camp scrimmages when there weren't any players who had previously played professional hockey and were generally younger, Svejkovsky stood out with his hands and his speed. Then in the rookie camp where there were more AHL players, and then again in the main training camp, he was far less effective because he just got knocked off the puck too easily at his size. That's been the story in the AHL, too.
Sometimes Svejkovsky is able to show flashes of the skill that stood out in juniors and it pays off, like with the assist on Glover's goal:
Svejkovsky isn't going to be in the running for a call up anytime soon this season. But after working with Wilkes-Barre's trainers for a full season and then getting a full summer in the weight room, I'd be interested to see how much different that makes things for Svejkovsky next year. Players his height can definitely be successful in pro hockey, but there's definitely got to be some growth involved in other ways.
