Penguins Announce Development Camp Prospects Roster & Dates

The pace of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ offseason activity is about to pick up.

A lot.

The front office and amateur scouting staff are making final preparations for the NHL draft, which will be held July 7-8 in Montreal.

Free agency, during which it’s quite possible that the Penguins will lose (and add) a number of players, gets underway July 13.

Around the same time, the Penguins will conduct a development camp for prospects and select free agents.

It is scheduled for July 10-14 at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry.

The camp, which is scheduled to include 24 players, introduces prospects to aspects of pro hockey such as nutrition and conditioning and allows club officials to become familiar with those players on a personal level.

“It’s a really good opportunity for our player-development staff and our management team to have all these kids in one place and not only see them on the ice, but get to know them better, as people,” said Nick Pryor, the Penguins’ director of amateur scouting.

“It’s challenging — during the (season), they’ve got their own practices and games and workout schedules and travel and all of that, so it’s tough to get to know them.

“But you get them all in the practice facility and you can spend time with them off the ice, in classroom settings, in the gym and around the locker room. Just get a better feel for the kid. … It’s extremely beneficial, for sure.”

Invitees to the camp generally include at least a few free agents who have not been drafted. The Pittsburgh Penguins have the option of signing any of those on the spot, but generally use the camp to determine which players they might want to pay particular attention to during the season ahead.

Players such as Conor Sheary, J-S Dea and Jordy Bellerive eventually earned contracts from the Penguins after impressive showings at development camps.

“Development camp is a lot of teaching and learning for these kids, so it’s hard to really evaluate (prospects), just because of the setting that it is,” Pryor said. “It’s a learning period for these kids.

“It’s time for them to learn how to train, learn how to eat, learn some things on the ice that they can take into next season. It’s probably not the best spot to evaluate, in terms of making a decision to sign a player, but I do think, for sure, that it’s a great opportunity to put some of these kids on our radar.”