Dec 4, 2025; Tampa, Florida, USA;Pittsburgh Penguins right wing Ville Koivunen (41) celebrates after scoring a goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first period at Benchmark International Arena. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images CRANBERRY, TWP., Pa — Depending on who is counting, the Pittsburgh Penguins have somewhere between 16 and 20 forwards in training camp who could be NHL players this season.
Loads of talent, scant opportunity in the short training camp. That’s not only a disadvantage for the players, but for coach Dan Muse, too.
Assistant general manager Jason Spezza held the customary GM press conference to begin camp Thursday and delivered an answer full of context and expectations, shedding light on the Penguins’ process. After an offseason of wondering how the young players would crack the lineup, Spezza both lit the roadmap to make the team and tacitly suggested that not many of the youngsters will break camp with the team.
“You’re not wrong in the fact that there are veteran guys here that have been in the league for a long time and guys that are used to playing in the NHL. I think what we would love to see is the young guys to really push their way in,” Spezza said.
“I think that everybody always wants finality at the end of training camp, like, this is the team and this is what’s going to be all year. I think there’s going to be plenty of opportunity for young guys to establish themselves as NHL players as the year goes on, whether that’s on opening day or not.
That’ll kind of sort itself out here over the next couple of weeks, or not even a couple of weeks—12 days, 13 days.” Whether the organization has given enough room for the young players to elbow their way into the Penguins’ lineup is a matter of opinion, but the general timeline is that players will get an opportunity during the season, and the opening night roster could be as temporary or as permanent as the young players deserve.
Of course, that too will become a matter of opinion in the near future, though it appears the organization wants the blocked youngsters to build more hate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and push past the veteran players. Spezza also conceded that adding more youth to the Penguins lineup, sooner or later, isn’t optional.
“We know we want to inject youth into the lineup. We know we have to,” Spezza said.
“We have to make sure we do it when the guys are ready and when they’re going to help the team, so I think it’ll be — we’re all interested, just as you are, to kind of watch and see where everybody’s at with young players. They can take big steps throughout the summer, and we’ll kind of monitor that and see where it goes.” More Spezza **Tommy Galvas will make the NHL team or head back to Czechia this season: “I think Tom had a great week.
It was obviously great to see the dynamic skill and what we expect from him, based on what we saw over the last couple of years. The plan is currently to let him play and see how things go for him.
You know, he had just his first day with the NHL guys. You know, he’s played at the World Championship level against guys, so I think that he’s comfortable out there.
So it’s more just a wait-and-see thing. And if he does not make the club here, then he’ll head back to his club back home to check.” **On the possibility that Ville Koivunen won’t make the team: “I don’t think it’s a problem.
I think that for Ville, he’s entering competition. As you know, we have quite a few capable bodies up front right now, and he’s one of them.
I think Ville has had himself a big summer, taking a lot of the feedback we gave him after the season very seriously. Obviously, you’ve seen some of the deals
