Development camp: Plante benefitted from extra year in junior

CRANBERRY, Pa. -- When the Penguins drafted center Zam Plante in the fifth round in 2022, his plans were to spend one full season playing junior hockey in the USHL then make the move to college at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

Plans changed. When Plante and his Fargo Force team were in the Clark Cup Final in 2023 against the Youngstown Phantoms, I made the trip out to see Plante and speak to him about his year. When I asked about his plans for the following season, he said that instead of joining Minnesota-Duluth as a freshman for 2023-24, he was delaying the start of his college career by one more year to return to Fargo.

"I didn't have a terrible year, but I didn't have a great year," Plante said of that decision at the time. "Just another year to develop and just to be the older guy, it should be another good year."

Plante had fine production before he made that decision -- 12 goals, 21 assists in 51 games. He missed significant time at the start of the season as he recovered from shoulder surgery. And though Fargo made a run to the championship round, they were swept in the best-of-five series by Youngstown. Not a terrible year, not a great year, like he said.

In Plante's return to Fargo this past season, he got that great year he was hoping for.

Plante, who is 19 and a left-handed shot listed at 5 foot 10 and 172 pounds, scored 26 goals and 45 assists in 57 regular-season games. Those 71 points tied for the seventh-most in the league and ranked second on his team, only six points behind his roommate of two years in Mac Swanson ... a forward the Penguins ended up drafting this summer, too:

Swanson and Plante were only linemates on a handful of occasions -- Swanson was generally first-line left wing, and Plante was frequently second-line center -- but they did play together on the top power play unit and often teamed up for goals:

The production continued into the postseason, where Plante ranked second in team scoring with three goals and six assists in 12 games as Fargo went on to win the Clark Cup over the Dubuque Fighting Saints:

Plante's pretty pleased with the decision he made a year before to play one more year in junior.

"I had the injury the year before, and I just wanted to get back to playing this year," Plante told me at the Penguins' development camp last month at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. "Instead of going to college and trying to fight it, I got to go back and be at a level I was more comfortable at and achieve success. And I think it was great. I think it propels me going into next year, being able to have some confidence. It should be fun going into the college game."

One of the big differences in winning the championship, Plante said, was that they had been there the year before and got swept. This time around, they knew what it took to win.

"I think it was just preparation," he said. "Everybody that been there before knew what it took. So it was just a little more preparation, being ready to go. When we got to Dubuque, it was like, all right, we've come this far. We better close it out instead of what we did last year."

Swanson, sitting a few stalls down from his former Fargo roommate, told me they "couldn't have won without (Plante)."

"He was super important on and off the ice," Swanson said. "He kept it pretty light off the ice, but obviously a really skilled player on it."

JOE ZAK / PENGUINS

Zam Plante in the Penguins' development camp last month in Cranberry, Pa.

Plante will indeed be a freshman at Minnesota-Duluth in the fall, majoring in business. On his goals heading into his first year of college hockey, he said his goal is to be a "dominant player right away."

"Like, I don't want to sit back," Plante explained. "My game is making plays. We have 10 or 11 other freshmen coming in, so we're going to have a young group. I'm just trying to be a leader among all guys and hopefully bring Duluth to a level that they haven't been the last couple years."

Plante is pretty familiar with one of those other incoming freshmen already -- the class includes his younger brother Max Plante, a center drafted in the second round, 47th overall by the Red Wings in this summer's draft. I spoke with Max a little at the NHL's Scouting Combine in Buffalo, N.Y. in June, and he told me that the plan is for he and Zam to be roommates in school in the fall.

"I'm so excited for that," Max said. "We'll see how it goes, see if it lasts. I mean, we're always competitive, like everything we do. We argue, we fight, but it's probably best so we don't mess with anyone else too much. Let us be together."

I asked Zam about playing and rooming with Max next season, and it was funny how similar their answers were.

"Yeah, we'll see how it goes," he said with a grin. "It's brotherly love. We're competitive, so we're always, always bickering. There's no hate, but when you live together with a guy for your whole life? We'll see how it goes."

With Plante only just now readying for his freshman year, he's still going to be a few years off from a potential entry-level contract -- three years is pretty common. He'll need to spend that time getting stronger and adding some size, something he's been steadily making progress on since he was drafted two years ago. Being another year older with championship experience and the confidence that comes from such a strong USHL season this past year should set him up for success as he starts that college career.

JOE ZAK / PENGUINS

Zam Plante in the Penguins' development camp last month in Cranberry, Pa.