Monday's Catch Up & Lunch Links 9/8

From the AHL Penguins, the team released it's "new" third jersey this morning. Photo of Anton Zlobin sporting the jersey from the team's Instagram page.

The Pittsburgh Penguins begin the rookie tournament with a 2 p.m. ET game against prospects from the Ottawa Senators in a four-day camp in London, Ontario this Saturday. Just five more days until some Penguins hockey.

The big news this morning is that the Penguins most recent first round pick, forward Kasperi Kapanen, won't be participating in the camp with an apparent hand/wrist injury. Also, forward Jaden Lindo (knee) won't play in the tournament. Lindo also missed the Penguins annual development camp in July.

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins released their alternate jersey for the 2024-15 season (pictured above). The baby blue jersey is similar to the team's jersey during the 2006-07 season which is oddly enough the season Daniel Carcillo last played in the organization. The Penguins will reveal their warmup jersey on Friday.

With the rookie tournament this weekend, I'm going to re-post my writeup on the Penguins' 22-man roster during the week and split it up into two posts in addition to a preview of the camp on Friday. Today, I caught up with Wheeling Nailers forward Patrick McGrath - an invitee to the Pens 22-man roster via a tryout contract. His story will be in the Friday preview of the rookie tournament as well.

Things here are going to get increasingly busy as the season gets closer, so check back often as there will be plenty of reading and new posts.

As I do every week, a list of things you might've missed recently and some things to keep in mind as the second week of September begins.

• Yesterday, I posted the 6th installment in Highland Park Hockey's Summer Series with a feature on big-hitting, physical defenseman Reid McNeill. He has a skill set not common amongst those in the Penguins system and is using that to his advantage to separate himself from his peers. 

• If you missed any of the features I have done on potential 2014-15 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins hopefuls, here are links to them:

• Conor Sheary Aims to Make an Impression
• Harrison Ruopp Fighting for AHL Role
• Matt Murray Looks to Make the Most of Rookie Season
• Clark Seymour Takes a Step in the Right Direction
• Josh Archibald Looking to Translate Collegiate Success to the Pros

• Some of the remaining free agents who were on the AHL Penguins last season are starting to get training camp invites around the league. Defenseman Brendan Mikkelson was reported to have a camp invite from the Toronto Maple Leafs, while former Penguins goaltender Jeff Deslauriers is heading to the Los Angeles Kings camp on a tryout. It's possible you'll see Deslauriers with the Kings' AHL affiliate in Manchester next season.

• If you're looking for an organizational depth chart heading into training camp, I wrote this two weeks ago with some interesting training camp battles that will take place in the Penguins organization. It does not include the addition of former Penguins forward Dan Carcillo, whom the Pens signed to a professional tryout contract this past week.

• Although the heat from discussion about westward AHL expansion has simmered a bit at the end of the summer, this article from Bill Ballou of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette gives us a pretty good idea that the Worcester Sharks want to move west when such a move is possible.