Summer Schedule 6/4

For the second straight season, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins made it to the month of June.

Unfortunately the AHL Pens aren't playing for their first Calder Cup Championship as that honor goes to both the St. John's IceCaps - who defeated the Penguins in six games - and the Texas Stars, who came back to win Game Seven over the Toronto Marlies last night.

As always, when most of the media outlets turn down their hockey coverage in the summer, Highland Park Hockey ramps up it's off-season coverage to not only keep fans in the loop but to keep some sort of hockey reading material prevalent year-round.

For breaking news related to the Penguins organization this summer, follow us on Twitter (@H_P_Hockey) - the most-followed non-team affiliated source for all the latest WBS Penguins news/updates/info etc on Twitter.

The summer writing itinerary after the jump.



Outline of the Summer Schedule

The first off-season post (barring any breaking news in the next day or two) will be our typical Playoff Grades post, recapping the postseason and assessing how the players did in the proverbial second season.

Next will be the first of several looks at the decisions on upcoming free agents in the Penguins organization (with a focus on the AHL players). Just a quick list below, but as you can see there are plenty of changes coming to the AHL roster too:

UFA's

Forwards (12) - Chuck Kobasew, Brian Gibbons, Zach Sill, Nick Drazenovic, Harry Zolnierczyk, Tom Kostopoulos, Spencer Machacek, Denver Manderson, Carter Rowney, Christiaan Minella, Cody Sylvester and Mike Carman

Defensemen (4) - Brendan Mikkelson, Dustin Stevenson, Peter Merth and Barry Goers.

Goaltenders (2) - Jeff Deslauriers and Peter Mannino.

RFA's

Forwards (2) - Jayson Megna and Bobby Farnham

Defensemen (2) - Simon Despres and Philip Samuelsson.
 
Under Contract For 2014-15

Forwards (13) - Josh Archibald, Jean-Sebastien Dea, Andrew Ebbett, Tom Kuhnhackl, Pierre-Luc Leblond, Matia Marcantuoni, Adam Payerl, Bryan Rust, Conor Sheary, Oskar Sundqvist, Dominik Uher, Scott Wilson and Anton Zlobin.

Defensemen (6) - Nick D'Agostino, Brian Dumoulin, Scott Harrington, Reid McNeill Derrick Pouliot, and Harrison Ruopp

Goaltenders (2) - Matt Murray and Eric Hartzell

Like last season, there isn't much time to get the end of the year player reviews out. This year I will simply group them into two lengthier stories by position. Goalies and Defenseman first and then a review of the forwards.

Then you have some stuff leading up to the 2014 NHL Entry Draft in Philadelphia on June 27th-28th which is only about three weeks away. After that it'll be news about which restricted free agents were tendered qualifying offers and then the big day when the calendar hits July and the free agency market opens.

I'm planning to go to Pittsburgh again this July to take in the Penguins annual Development Camp to gather some insights on some of the new prospects that will be playing in the AHL next season, so I will likely have some stories that week on the events that take place throughout that week.

Also note that this isn't a set schedule and I will be adding features into the offseason to break up the monotony of summer. That includes stories about players re-signing with the Pens or signing overseas, etc and possibly some features on returning Penguins and what to look for out of them in 2014-15.

As you can see, it looks to be a busy summer for me writing wise at least. So stay tuned this summer for plenty of Penguins-related items. It's another short off-season for the organization, with less than a month before the draft and free agency, a month and a half or so until the summer camps start up and about three months until training camp. The 2014-15 season is only about four months away, so bare with me during the summer.