Thursday Pens Points: Roster Trimmed, Players Take Physicals Today

Penguins rookies and prospects ended their London tournament 2-1-0, after getting shut out by the Maple Leafs 2-0 on Tuesday. Both goalies played in that game, with Murray stopping 12 of 14 and Jarry stopping all 15 shots he faced.

The Penguins training camp for the 2014-2015 season kicks off tomorrow. Here is an excellent preview by Dave Molinari outlining what we can expect from first-year head coach Mike Johnston.

Training camp roster is down from 57 to 55, as both tryout players invited to the rookie tournament - Wheeling's Patrick McGrath and San Jose Sharks former draft pick Christophe Lalancette - were released.

The players will report for their physicals and fitness testing today, and we will know whether Olli Maatta and Pascal Dupuis will be cleared for contact.

Barring a trade, there continues to be a logjam on defense. I will pay particular attention to Brian Dumoulin, who at 23 seems ready for a full-time role in the NHL after 3 years of college and 2 years of pro hockey.

Paul Martin insists he is not concerned about his expiring contract and seems intent on playing it out and seeing where he'll end up next season.

And now for some news around the league. Things between Ryan Johansen and the Blue Jackets went nuclear yesterday, and he left Columbus and headed home to Vancouver on the eve of training camp. The team publicly disclosed several contract offers of varying lengths made to him, and the two sides are now in an unpleasant impasse.

Obviously an offer sheet from another team remains a possibility, but here is a refresher from a few months ago explaining why that is easier said than done. Here is an excellent audio from Bob MacKenzie discussing this situation on the radio yesterday.

Amid speculation that the team might be planning a move, Florida Panthers owners penned an open letter to the fans claiming there are no such intentions despite a dozen years of losing money.

More weirdness from Minnesota, where if you thought Harding and Kuemper were going to be the goaltending duo you'd have been wrong. Harding has suffered a foot fracture in an off-ice incident (rumors are he kicked the wall after an altercation with a teammate and is out long-term), Kuemper still doesn't have a contract, so there is Backstrom and - yup you guessed it - Bryz is going back to the Wild camp on a PTO.

Reilly Smith and Torey Krug are expected to be no-shows at the Bruins camp. Here is a list of some notable RFA disputes and how they were resolved.

In Ottawa, Marc Methot negotiations also turned nasty, and there are rumors that Bobby Ryan turned down a 7-year offer because he wanted to see what his role would be. This has not been confirmed (Bob MacKenzie also touches on that in his radio interview above) and here are Ryan's thoughts on that captured yesterday.

Here are some of the NHL milestones that should be reached this season. Jagr will be in possession of many of them at the end of the season, if all goes well. He spent the first half of the summer coaching in Kladno, Czech Republic, followed by training in Las Vegas. Riiight.

Here is a funny video from the NHL media sessions in which the players were asked to guess their NHL15 overall player rating. While Sid was modest, guess who wasn't.

Teemu Selanne has a book out, and in there he claims he'd still be playing in the NHL if it weren't for Bruce Boudreau.

Here are USA Today's NHL team power rankings on the eve of training camp. Western Conference teams rule, and the Pens are ranked at #8, behind Bruins at #4, Lightning at #6 and immediately before the Rangers at #9.

On that note, have a great day. Camp kicks off tomorrow!