The Penguins front office calls forward prospect Kasper Bjorkqvist a "specimen."
Bill Guerin has called him that, so has director of player development Scott Young.
"I mean, you guys have seen him in a T-shirt, right? He’s ripped,” Young explained at last summer's development camp. “He’s a very disciplined person."
"This is as high a character kid as you can get," Guerin said on a recent EP Rinkside podcast. "When he comes into development camp, he's broken almost every strength and conditioning record that we have in Pittsburgh, with the big team."
To repeat: Bjorkqvist is breaking fitness testing records within the entire organization, not just for the group of prospects.
Bjorkqvist had surgery last month to repair a shoulder injury, but he's already back in the gym in his hometown of Espoo, Finland, and looking stronger than ever.
Bjorkqvist's conditioning coach shared this clip on Instagram. That's 10 hip thrust reps with 440 pounds, with a mini resistance band:
Here, Bjorkqvist does split squats using all the weight on a machine, plus a dumbbell:
Bjorkqvist's trainer also shared this compilation video of his first week of offseason workouts:
This video shows Bjorkqvist's offseason workouts from 2017. That's 292 pounds in the first clip, 364 pounds in the second, and 530 pounds in the third clip.
Providence College listed Bjorkqvist at 6-foot-1 and 207 pounds this season, an increase from his weight of 198 pounds when the Penguins drafted him in the second round of the 2016 draft.
Bjorkqvist, who turns 22 in July, signed his two-year entry-level contract with the Penguins on May 15, forgoing his senior year. He'll miss development camp, which will be at the end of June, as he continues to rehab from his surgery. He'll make his pro debut with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton when the season begins.
