3 Penguins Thoughts: Prospect Emerges as Future Captain, One Off the Rails (+)

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — The wild week for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins will finally conclude Sunday when the team plays its third game in three days. It’s been a dizzying week that began Tuesday with a glass-breaking penalty and overruled tying goal and continued Saturday with a second consecutive overtime loss, underscored by a celebrated punch.

After spending the better part of the week covering the WB/S Penguins, a clearer and far more detailed picture of the new Penguins foundation is emerging. The situation is dramatically different from most of the last decade when Penguins prospects stationed in Wilkes-Barre were entirely isolated, dunked into a cold situation surrounded by minor-league veterans just hanging onto a career.

The culture that produced more than a dozen Stanley Cup winners from 2007 through 2015 had long ago atrophied, leaving in its place a gaggle of players in their late 20s and career men such as Joseph Blandisi and Riley Barber.

The few prospects who entered the situation must have felt out of place, with no peer group to hang out with and mismatched teammates with whom they had little in common.

As we poked and prodded players this week, we stumbled onto an entirely unexpected story. It is the byproduct of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ renewed dedication to the prospects pool, which is accelerating prospect readiness considerably.