Penguins Training Camp 2022 to begin on September 22nd

After a long summer, the Penguins will be back on the ice soon enough. The team today announced training camp will begin on September 22nd, just over three weeks away. The rookies will get going a week earlier on September 15th.

As usual, the preseason moves quickly with the first exhibition game of the season on Saturday September 25th when the Pens host the Columbus Blue Jackets just a few days after the first official practice.

The use of the word official is key — 11 NHL players, led by Evgeni Malkin and Jake Guentzel were on the ice already today at the Pens’ facility at UPMC Lemieux this morning for a self-guided on ice workout.

The 51 players will be vying for a roster that will be cut down to no more than 23 players by the end of camp.

Here are the rosters —

Rookies (start practice September 15th)

Forwards (13):
Corey Andonovski
Raivis Ansons
Jordan Frasca
Jonathan Gruden
Filip Hallander
Sam Houde (AHL contract)
Brooklyn Kalmikov (AHL contract)
Nathan Legare
Kyle Olsen (AHL contract)
Sam Poulin
Valtteri Puustinen
Lukas Svejkovsky

Defensemen (9)
Isaac Belliveau
Nolan Collins
Clay Hanaus (AHL contract)
Josh Maniscalco
Ryan McCleary
Chris Ortiz (AHL contract)
Owen Pickering
Jack St. Ivany
Colin Swoyer

Goalies (3):
Tommy Nappier (AHL deal)
Filip Lindberg
Taylor Gauthier

—The rookies will be going to Buffalo for a tournament game to play against the Boston Bruins rookies on September 17th. They are only participating in that lone game and not the usual, typical full group of games in an odd twist. Surely the management feels practice time trumps glorified scrimmages as better usage of their time. And the Pens’ depth chart of youngsters is so lacking, they usually get throttled in most the games anyways. Better to go back to Pittsburgh and get instruction.

Some of those rookies who do well might find themselves attending the NHL camp on September 22nd. Given that the games start on Sept 25, it’s a good bet that as we see every year — the rosters early on in the pre-season will be very weak. And usually the veterans are given the night off to avoid travel for the road games in most instances.

In addition to the rookies, here’s the rest of the training camp lineup. It’s no real surprise, with all the players under NHL contract (and older AHL players) expected to attend.

Forwards: Josh Archibald, Teddy Blueger, Drake Caggiula, Jeff Carter, Sidney Crosby, Jamie Devane, Jake Guentzel, Danton Heinen, Kasperi Kapanen, Evgeni Malkin, Brock McGinn, Alex Nyander, Drew O’Connor, Ryan Poehling, Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust, Radim Zohorna, Jason Zucker

Defensemen: Brian Dumoulin, Taylor Fedun, Mark Friedman, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Kris Letang, Jon Lizotte, Xavier Ouellet, Marcus Pettersson, Jeff Petry, Mitch Reinke, Chad Ruhwedel, Jan Rutta, Ty Smith

Goalies: Casey DeSmith, Tristan Jarry, Dustin Tokarski

The regular season kicks off at home for the Penguins, who open on October 13 against the Arizona Coyotes. That’s only a little more than five weeks away, with the start of another season just around the corner.