- Jonathan Bombulie of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review: The Penguins currently have nine players under contract that have a reasonable chance of claiming one of the three or four spots that could be open – Bryan Rust, Conor Sheary, Scott Wilson, Oskar Sundqvist, Dominik Simon, Bobby Farnham, Dominik Uher, Kevin Porter and Kail Mouillierat.
“Over the last two years, coming into training camp, one of the things that’s probably disheartening to a (player on a two-way contract) who is trying to make the NHL club is seeing 13 one-way contracts. It’s disheartening,” assistant general manager Tom Fitzgerald said. “So we’ve come a long way here. We’re looking at what we call competition spots.”
The Penguins could still look to add someone, with GM Jim Rutherford saying a center remains on his free agent shopping list.
- Sarah McLellan of the Arizona Republic: According to Coyotes GM Don Maloney, he’d be surprised if Max Domi didn’t warrant a roster spot out of training camp. Domi had been sent back to Junior after to past two camps.
“Now this is not all new and shiny and bright,” Maloney said. “There’s no more of this, ‘OK, everything’s great and wonderful.’ It’s, ‘I gotta make this team, and this is my team. This is where I’m staying, and I’ll do whatever I have to do to stay.’ It’ll be fun to see him.”
- Tom Gulitti of The Record: GM Ray Shero can see a handful of players that were at their development camp competing for a NHL job at training camp.
“And, I think that’s to be proven in September and October,” he said. “I think there will be some surprises both on the good end and maybe not-so-good end, but that’s training camp and that’s the competition. But, I think it’s been a good week for finding some of those things out in terms of letting the guys know that here’s where we are in the exit interview and if there’s any red flags then you’ve got two months (to improve) when you come back. So, I think that’s real beneficial, but there will be good competition, I think, and some guys will go back to junior hockey, some guys will go back to college, some guys will certainly be competing for jobs in New Jersey or putting the impression in with (seven) exhibition games if they should be the first call-up or not. So, lots to work with, I think, and lots to improve upon, but it was a good start.”
