Fifth round: Plante 'plays with a big motor for a small player'

MONTREAL -- It was back in November that the Penguins bolstered their amateur scouting department with the addition of two-time Olympian Krissy Wendell-Pohl.

Wendell-Pohl was added to increase the Penguins' scouting presence in the Minnesota area, watching players from the USHL junior ranks and local high schools.

The Penguins took advantage of Wendell-Pohl's work with their fifth-round pick, selecting forward Zam Plante, who played for Hermantown High School and the USHL's Chicago Steel last season. Wendell-Pohl had the honor of announcing the pick when the Penguins were on the clock at No. 150.

Plante told me he had an idea that the Penguins were interested in him after the way his interview went at the draft combine. To then hear the Penguins call his name Friday here in Montreal was a "dream come true."

"I've watched Pittsburgh win Cups," Plante told me, still with the biggest smile on his face. "And I like to say I model my game after Jake Guentzel, watching him a little bit. It's really cool."

Right after Plante walked off the draft floor following his selection, he was met with a Facetime call from Guentzel himself, and Plante just seemed to be in awe of the moment:

I asked Plante how he'd describe himself as a player, and the first thing he said was that he's "not an overly big guy," and that's accurate. He's 5-foot-9, 161 pounds. He said he'd like to get stronger and add more speed to his game, and said his biggest strengths are his playmaking abilities and 200-foot game.

Penguins director of amateur scouting Nick Pryor said that Plante "plays with a big motor for a small player," and praised his hockey sense and skill. 

Plante finished No. 2 in scoring for Hermantown High last season with 24 goals and 40 assists in 22 games, trailing only his 16-year-old brother Max, who had eight more points in nine additional games. He scored 10 goals and 11 assists in 31 USHL games with the Chicago Steel.

One of Plante's greatest performances for the Steel might have been on headshot day, though. Plante and his teammates all took wide-eyed, Brandon Tanev-inspired photos for the year:

Plante, being a late birthday, has another year of high school left. He could potentially split time between playing for his high school and the USHL again, or he could play full-time in the USHL. In 2023-24, though, Plante will be a freshman at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, a move that wasn't a tough decision for him. Both his parents went to UMD, and he said it's the only school he ever considered attending.

He has a pretty good relationship with the associate head coach of Minnesota-Duluth's hockey team, too. It's his father, former NHL forward Derek Plante.

Derek played 450 games over eight years in the NHL with the Sabres, Stars, Blackhawks, and Flyers, winning the Stanley Cup in 1999 with Dallas. Zam has no memory of his father playing in the NHL -- his last NHL game came three years before Zam was born. He's able to watch old NHL highlights of his dad via YouTube, though.

"Playing in the NHL and being in hockey his whole life, he's really had a lot of really good knowledge and helped me probably succeed, too," Plante said of his father. "So I think that's really cool."

While Pryor said that the team obviously wouldn't just draft a player for his bloodlines, they like that Plante comes from a family with such a successful hockey background.

"Being around the rink at a young age like Zam was and seeing what it takes to make it to the NHL level doesn't hurt," Pryor said. "He's been through it with his dad, his dad was a very good player. Zam's one of those kids who has been around the rink his whole life, he's got a good feel for the amount of time it's going to take to get to that NHL level. We're just really excited about him."

SCOUTS SAY

FC Hockey: "Throughout his shifts, he never seemed winded and always looked like he had enough energy to make something happen. He skates well and has a strong base when doing so, making him tough to knock off the puck … He was hard to pucks in his own zone and had good coverage as well."

Hermantown High head coach Patrick Andrews: "You can have all the genetics in the world but if you don't use it and work with it and work hard, then it doesn't matter. Zam is the first guy in the rink every day. He would come skate eight hours a day if he could get in here."

NHL Central Scouting: "Such high hockey IQ. Really good vision and moves the puck to the right places."