SUDBURY, Ontario -- The Penguins will have some exciting prospects in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this season, more than they've had in quite a long time.
But the organization has stressed the benefit of learning to win at the minor-league level if possible before those guys make it in the NHL. And if you look around the AHL, the teams that make real runs int he postseason do have some high-end prospects ... but nearly as important are the veterans they add at that level to round out the roster.
If a team can add to their AHL leadership core by adding a guy who has already won a professional championship before, his impact can be even greater. The Penguins found a guy that fits that bill just a week into free agency this summer, inking 30-year-old defenseman Dan Renouf to a one-year AHL contract.
Renouf, a left-handed shot, is listed at 6 foot 3 and 198 pounds. Most of his eight-year professional career has been spent in the AHL. He spent all of last season with the Providence Bruins, where he scored five goals and 16 assists in 63 games. He describes himself first and foremost as someone who prides himself in being "tough to play against."
"I try to be a leader out there just by my work ethic and being simple and smart and and just making the right play," Renouf told me this week. "I would say, mistake-free, and being hard to play against is what I try to do every single game."
For a team like Wilkes-Barre that has yet to win its first Calder Cup and has a lot of young players new to the AHL, Renouf brings a big benefit: He's actually won at this level twice. He won his first Calder Cup in 2017 with the Grand Rapids Griffins, and then again in 2019 with the Mike Vellucci-led Charlotte Checkers.
"I've been fortunate enough to win and see what it takes to win," Renouf said. "That's helped me become a leader down there. It's something I take pride in and want to bring to any locker room I go to. I think that's definitely a part of why (the Penguins) were interested in me too, having won and having been around the block. It's something I'm going to take pride in, helping the young kids get used to the AHL and pro hockey."
A lot of those "young kids" are defense prospects who will be right there with Renouf on the blue line. Top defense prospect Owen Pickering will be in his first pro season at 20 years old, and 21-year-old Isaac Belliveau will look to become an AHL regular in his second professional season. Filip Kral, 24, is back in North America after a yearlong stint in Finland and will likely start in Wilkes-Barre. A handful of AHL-contracted young defensemen will be fighting for spots of their own.
Pickering in particular has been put with Renouf throughout training camp, including on a pairing here in Sudbury, Ontario on Sunday night. When I asked Renouf about Pickering, he broke into a smile and called him a "great human being."
"I'm rooting him on already, just from meeting him," Renouf said of Pickering. "He seems like a great kid on ice. You can see his tools are there, his raw talent. He's someone I want to help as much as I can, just from being around and just help him develop his game and and turning pro. There's a lot of stuff that you're going to have to learn, living on your own and cooking, little things like that. Whatever I can do to help that kid, I'm gonna do."
Pickering lauded Renouf's influence so far, saying how helpful he's been during practices and on the bench when Pickering or young defensemen have questions, and said that he has the ability to explain things in a way that everyone will understand him. And he's looking forward to that help living on his own for the first time that Renouf mentioned, too.
"I'm going to lean on on guys like that a lot, especially him," Pickering said. "I think that for me, it's about learning how to be a pro. I've been in a billet house for the last four years and my billet family were unbelievable to me. I didn't have to live real life, she wouldn't let me do my laundry. I never did a dish for like, four years. It's different when I go back home, my mom's a little harder on me, but I find that it'll be a transition, for sure. To have guys like that to lean on, that care about you genuinely, is pretty special.
Whether it's on or off the ice, Pickering said Renouf "will be a rock, for sure."
Mike Sullivan recognizes the importance of players like Renouf for players like Pickering, and that's one of the reasons he's had Renouf around Pickering in camp so often.
"Some of the veteran guys that play at the American League level are vitally important people for our overall organization to create the culture that we're looking for where our players can develop," Sullivan said. "I think the veteran guys at the American League are really important for that regard, and so we're always trying to surround our young prospects with character people, first and foremost, guys that can show them the way in how to be a pro and lead through their example."
Wilkes-Barre has a vacancy at captain coming into this season after not re-signing Taylor Fedun in the offseason, and the frontrunners for the job really seem to be Boko Imama and Renouf, with Renouf perhaps having an edge from his two Calder Cups, as well as being on an AHL contract -- they wouldn't have to worry about him being recalled.
Renouf knows that the 'C' is open, but said that he isn't thinking about it. He's just focused on doing his job.
"I just have to show up and be who I am every single day," Renouf said. "Whatever they need for me is what I'm going to bring every single day. I'm just showing up, having fun here and meeting all the guys, trying to build relationships early, work hard and have some fun with these guys."
