I'm kind of surprised that there wasn't anything for a rookie camp announced by the Penguins or maybe there was one and it eluded me. Nevertheless, they did release their training camp roster, which has its fair share of kids and tryouts among the regular roster players. This will have to do, I guess.Looking at what is already on the top level roster, there are only a couple holes that require filling for the Penguins and both of them are on the blueline. The Penguins did well to replace Sergei Gonchar with both Zbynek Michalek and Paul Martin, but you really can't replace Gonchar, more than put a plan in place to hopefully make up those valuable minutes he logged. I'll be very interested to see if the Penguins can find a couple of defensemen in their training camp that can fit the bill this year.
| Forwards | Defense | Goalies |
| Sidney Crosby | Alex Goligoski | Marc-Andre Fleury |
| Evgeni Malkin | Kris Letang | Brent Johnson |
| Jordan Staal | Brooks Orpik | |
| Pascal Dupuis | Zbynek Michalek | |
| Chris Kunitz | Paul Martin | |
| Matt Cooke | ||
| Tyler Kennedy | ||
| Arron Asham | ||
| Mike Comrie | ||
| Mike Rupp | ||
| Craig Adams | ||
| Max Talbot | ||
| Eric Godard | ||
| Chris Conner | Ben Lovejoy | John Curry |
| Nick Johnson | Corey Potter | Patrick Killeen |
| Mark Letestu | Robert Bortuzzo | Mattias Modig |
| Ryan Craig | Simon Despres | Alex Pechursky |
| Eric Tangradi | Andrew Hutchinson | Brad Thiessen |
| Tim Wallace | Carl Sneep | |
| Nick Petersen | Brian Strait | |
| Brett Sterling | Steve Wagner | |
| Keven Veilleux | Alex Grant | |
| Joe Vitale | Reid McNeill | |
| Jesse Boulerice | Joe Rogalski | |
| Tyler Brown | ||
| Chris Collins | ||
| Joey Haddad | ||
| Dustin Jeffrey | ||
| Tom Kuehnhackl | ||
| Taylor Peters | ||
| Casey Pierro-Zabotel | ||
| Ryan Schnell | ||
| Zack Sill | ||
| Alex Smigelski | ||
| Geoff Walker |
When you look at the salary cap numbers though, you would have to believe that they must find a couple of players out of their training camp, just to fit them in the budget. The Penguins currently have 20 players and one cap penalty on their books for an annual cap hit of $57.2 million, leaving $2.2 million to fill those last two spots and possibly have some sort of breathing room at the top. There is still plenty of math to be done, but the Penguins could start with a shortened squad to save up some cap space in the early part of the year.
I think there are a few names among the defenders that could make a push for the last two spots on the roster, but its anyone's guess as to who will make the extra push and make the roster. I'm also curious to see if Eric Tangradi could possibly bump a roster player from the ranks and push for a 3rd line spot. He's supposed to have a lot of the tools to work out well with a talented team like the Penguins, but it is a solid team in front of him, so he'll have to be on top of it.
At the end of the day, it still just funnels down onto the defense for me and this team. Sure, the Penguins added some good talent into their top four, but how is chemistry going to work and how is ice-time going to be handed out? These are going to be hurdles for the team in the win column, which could make or break Marc-Andre Fleury's season. He might have to steal an extra game or two this season, just so the Penguins could be there in the end.
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