Pittsburgh Penguins 2014 first round pick Kasperi Kapenen had a goal in Finland’s 4-3 win over Team USA (White) in exhibition play today in Lake Placid.
Team USA played a split squad scrimmage today against Finland and Sweden.
“He is a big prospect,” Finland’s coach Hannu Jortikka told NHL.com of Kapanen. “Everybody can see his speed and his skill.”
Kapanen hopes he’s playing in Pittsburgh this season not the World Championships. “Everybody is talking about how I missed the last one and they’re telling me there’s more to come, but I hope not,” Kapanen told NHL.com. “If I’m there it means I’m not in Pittsburgh and that’s my goal, to be there, grab a spot there. I know that they’re looking for good goal scorers and that’s what I’m trying to do right now, score some goals and get a spot on the roster.”
Has Kapanen emerged as the Penguins consensus No. 1 prospect in their system? Early polling of scouts seems to suggest that. We will be releasing our top-25 Penguins prospect list prior to training camp but four of five scouts I’ve polled on the Penguins system so far over the last week, picked Kapanen as the Penguins No. 1 prospect.
However, it should be noted none of the five feel it’s a smart idea Kapanen plays in the NHL this season nor is he ready for the NHL like Jim Rutherford and some in the organization feel he might be.
Q & A
Once Brandon Sutter’s new deal is official, which will be any day now, Penguins news is going to be slow next couple weeks.
I’ll have some features going up and of course any chatter on the team, but wanted to keep the Penguins news flowing, so I was going to try out a Q & A Segment.
Send over questions on the Penguins or NHL that anyone would like to be addressed by me for a segment to askdepaoli@gmail.com.
If it goes well I’ll set up a system where questions can be asked directly from the site. Thanks