Swoyer's four-point performance leads way in Prospects Challenge win

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Penguins' forward group at this week's rookie camp features a number of players with a full season or more of AHL experience on their resumes.

The group of defensemen features more unknowns. Most have no AHL experience at all, and the handful that do only have a handful of games.

After watching the Penguins' 6-4 win over the Bruins' prospects at the Prospects Challenge here in Buffalo on Saturday, it was clear from the first period who the standout is among this group.

Colin Swoyer.

The Penguins made a concerted effort to bolster their prospect pool through the undrafted free agent market over the last season, and Swoyer was part of that haul. The 24-year-old right-handed blueliner was signed after his senior season ended at Michigan Tech, a season in which he led his team's defensemen in scoring with five goals and 18 assists in 36 games.

Swoyer, who is listed at 6-foot and 185 pounds, quarterbacked the Penguins' top power play unit in the win and picked up four assists on the man advantage. He was effective on the Penguins' top penalty-killing unit, and his skating stood out throughout the game.

He downplayed his offensive contributions after the game.

"It's not like I was Connor McDavid out there," he said with a chuckle. "I was just passing the puck, letting them do the work. ... I don't think I've ever had four points in a game, it was all due to (Filip) Hallander, (Sam) Poulin, (Lukas) Svejkovsky and obviously (Valtteri Puustinen). I was just feeding them."

He can downplay his efforts all he wants, but he deserves much of the credit for the Penguins' win in this game.

Swoyer's first assist was a primary one on Poulin's opening tally. He ripped a shot from the point that went off the end boards and popped right back out to an open Poulin, who buried it:

"He's really mobile," Poulin told me of Swoyer after the game. "He can move the puck really well. And he's a really nice guy, a cool dude."

Swoyer's second assist came off of a feed to Hallander, who made it 2-0 off of a wrister from the left circle:

Swoyer's third assist was a secondary one, sending a pass to Svejkovsky, who set up Puustinen for an absolutely ridiculous one-timer:

Swoyer picked up his fourth and final assist in the second period. His shot from the point was stopped by Bruins goaltender Reid Dyck, and Hallander swept in and put in the loose puck:

"I felt good out there in special teams," Swoyer said of his game. "I think five and five, there's room for me to grow. I think I really just want to make an emphasis on getting pucks through and just kind of getting shots on net."

Swoyer, who describes himself as a "two-way defenseman, puck-moving, and a good skater," made his professional debut last season. With Michigan Tech's season ending early, he was able to join Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on an amateur tryout contract for the remainder of the AHL season, where he appeared in five regular-season games and one playoff game, with his lone point being an assist in the postseason. 

Coach J.D. Forrest hasn't had Swoyer on his team very long, but he's already impressed with what he's seen from Swoyer both on and off the ice.

"In the role he was in today, he got a lot of ice time, the first power play, and I thought he handled it really well," Forrest said. "He was super steady out there. He's a smart player, he's elusive. Even in the time we had him (in Wilkes-Barre), you could see that. He's a smart kid. He's always asking questions about the game and what he can do. He's intelligent that way. I thought you could see that in today's game. (Assistant coach Kevin Porter) was talking with him before about the power play about making sure we get shots through, he established that right away. He did a fantastic job. There were a bunch of goals on the power play for us. We're excited about what he can do."

As Swoyer prepares for his first full season of professional hockey, Forrest pointed to a couple of areas of Swoyer's game in which he'd like to see improve in order to find success at the pro level. He first mentioned Swoyer's grasp of the defensive side of the game, something Forrest said was "not a real weakness, but just something that all those guys coming into pro hockey kind of have to get a better grasp of." He also said he'd like to see Swoyer better utilize his teammates, work on his "give and go game" and learn that he doesn't have to do so much of the playmaking on his own.

"He's already shown some good steps in the right direction," Forrest said of Swoyer's development since he first met him in the spring.

The Penguins' defense prospect pool is pretty shallow, even more so among the group of players who will be playing at the professional level this season. Based on these early impressions, Swoyer very well may be the Penguins' top right-handed defense prospect. 

MORE FROM THE GAME

• Former Princeton forward Corey Andonovski scored the Penguins' fifth goal off of a beautiful cross-ice pass from AHL-contracted forward Sam Houde, with forward prospect Ty Glover picking up the secondary assist. Aside from the goal, Andonovski's physicality was very noticeable in this game.

"I thought today he was a moose out there," Forrest said of Andonovski. "You know, he's a big (6-1, 194) strong guy. He played with some speed, played with the edge. He had a big goal for us too. For him, you're graduating a level of hockey here, coming from where he came from. He had a few games with us last year (after his college season ended), this is the best game I've seen him play."

• The Penguins' power play scored on their first four opportunities of the game. The top unit was Puustinen, Poulin, Hallander, Lukas Svejkovsky, and Swoyer. The second unit was Corey Andonovski, Nathan Legare, Sam Houde, Ty Glover and Isaac Belliveau.

The first penalty-killing unit was Raivis Ansons, Jordan Frasca, Josh Maniscalco and Swoyer. The second unit was Kyle Olson, Jonathan Gruden, Chris Ortiz, and Ryan McCleary.

• Legare was Public Enemy No. 1 throughout the game and drew four power plays. Danny Shirey has more on Legare's night in his story. Legare scored the Penguins' sixth goal of the game when he put in a rebound from an Andonovski shot, and stared down the entire Bruins bench on his way to the fist bump line.

• Filip Lindberg was near-perfect in his first game action in 10 months. He played the first half of the game and stopped 16 of 17 shots faced, with the lone goal allowed coming just toward the end of his time in net off of a deflection.

"It's the first game of the year so nobody had a perfect game," Forrest said. "Lindy may be the closest to it. ... He was pretty good, he made some huge saves for us. The one goal got deflected. He made some huge saves, a real calm presence. I liked his game a lot."

• Taylor Gauthier was in net for the second half of the game as planned and allowed three goals, but none of them could be considered "soft." He had a fine game.

• There was a large contingent of Penguins management/coaches in attendance to watch the game, including Ron Hextall, Brian Burke, Mike Sullivan, Todd Reirden, Andy Chiodo, Kain Tisi, Chuck Grant, Tom Kostopoulos, Trevor Daley, Chris Pryor, and Nick Pryor. Poulin spoke about the pressure that comes with so much brass in the stands.

"You try to forget it as much as possible," he said. "You know, it's extra pressure that's not really useful. So I just try to focus on what I need to do on the ice and then things are gonna go by themselves. Yeah, know, there's a lot of people watching but I just try to forget it as much as possible."

THE ESSENTIALS

• Live file

THE THREE STARS

My selections from Harborcenter

1. Colin Swoyer, Penguins D
2. Filip Hallander, Penguins F
3. Filip Lindberg, Penguins G

THE INJURIES

• Owen Pickering, defenseman, is being evaluated for an upper-body injury and is not participating in the on-ice sessions of rookie camp.

• Zam Plante, forward, underwent shoulder surgery before the draft and is sidelined until mid-October.

• Nolan Collins, defenseman, is dealing with an upper-body injury. He is participating in the on-ice sessions of camp in a non-contact capacity.

THE LINEUPS

Forrest's lines and pairings:

Filip Hallander - Sam Poulin - Valtteri Puustinen
Lukas Svejkovsky - Sam Houde - Nathan Legare
Raivis Ansons - Jonathan Gruden - Kyle Olson
Ty Glover - Jordan Frasca - Corey Andonovski

Isaac Belliveau - Josh Maniscalco
Chris Ortiz - Jack St. Ivany
Colin Swoyer - Ryan McCleary

And for Ryan Mougenel's Bruins::

James Hardie - Georgii Merkulov - Fabian Lysell
Luke Toporowski - John Beecher - Marc McLaughlin
Ryan Humphrey - Matthew Poitras - Keltie Jeri-Leon
JD Greenway - Joey Abate - Curtis Hall

Jackson Edward - Jacob Wilson
Fedor Gordeev - Grant Gabrielle
Frederic Brunet - Ryan Mast

THE SCHEDULE

The prospects have a scheduled day off on Sunday. The last two days of rookie camp are Monday and Tuesday, both days featuring 9:45 a.m. practices at the Lemieux Complex in Cranberry. Training camp starts two days later on Sept. 22.

THE CONTENT

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