Even if very slowly, the youth wave is starting to form here in Pittsburgh.
The opening night roster did not have a large youth presence; only Rutger McGroarty and Valtteri Puustinen really fit into that category to start the season. But as the season has dragged along, the Penguins have promoted several young players from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, their affiliate down in the American Hockey League.
Last week, forward Sam Poulin was the first to receive a call. Soon after, forward Vasily Ponomarev and defenseman Owen Pickering also got called up, with the former making his Penguins debut and the latter making his NHL debut on Saturday night in Pittsburgh’s overtime win over San Jose.
While the next few seasons are likely going to be pretty tough for the Penguins, it will provide for the first time in many years a true wave of prospects for us to watch develop in real-time.
And while the Penguins still have one of the weaker prospect pools in the NHL, there are some truly exciting names. Pickering and Ponomarev both had impressive debuts, and more names will continue to break into the lineup both later this season and in the near future.
But there’s one prospect that I am very high on in the Penguins system. One I would call my favorite of the prospects that Pittsburgh currently has.
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