Daily Clips 5/31/11 Penguins relinquish rights to prospects Bathgate, Ekbom Tuesday, May 31, 2011 By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The Penguins will relinquish their rights to two prospects, center Andy Bathgate and defenseman Viktor Ekbom. Both were 2009 draft choices and had to be signed by June 1 if the Penguins wanted to hold onto them. They will go into the talent pool for the draft June 24-25 in St. Paul, Minn. Bathgate, a fifth-round choice and grandson of Penguins Hall of Famer Andy Bathgate, had 25 goals and 35 assists in 64 games with Belleville of the Ontario Hockey League this season. He was scoreless in two games with the Penguins' American Hockey League affiliate in Wilkes- Barre. He was injured several times in recent seasons, and Penguins officials suggested in December that Bathgate's absence from the lineup made it difficult to assess his pro potential. "Andy Bathgate hasn't played much hockey for a while," assistant to the general manager Tom Fitzgerald said then. "You look at his numbers, and say, 'Well, geez, he should be doing this or that. He's a first-line center.' "But he hasn't played much hockey. He's a tough kid to project because of the lack of games he's played over the last 2 1/2 years because of his shoulder injury." Ekbom was a sixth-rounder who played for Linkoping in Sweden's Elitserien. He had no goals and eight assists in 96 games there over the past two seasons and did not get a point in a threegame stint with Wilkes-Barre this year. Kaib Ready for the Next Step By Michelle Crechiolo
Leave no stone unturned is an idiom that s normally used when searching for a lost item or embarking on a house hunt. But for Barrett Kaib, that was basically his motto when it came to playing sports. It s the reason why the Upper St. Clair native who is ranked among the best players available for the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, set for June 24-25 in St. Paul, Minn. got involved in hockey in the first place, albeit slightly later than most. Growing up, I played all sports, Kaib said. I liked to be active. I didn t actually start skating until I was 8 ½ years old, just because my friends were playing and it was just another sport for me to try. I ended up liking it. I wasn't really good my first year or my second year, but as soon as I picked it up, I got pretty good at it and I just loved playing. It was a fast game, fast-paced, lot of hitting and a lot of physical play. Fast forward 10 years later, and that physicality has become one of the defenseman s greatest strengths. He doesn't mind the physical game at all, said Kyle Woodlief, the chief scout and publisher of the Red Line Report, an independent scouting service. He will give and take hits to make plays. Kaib began playing competitive hockey with the SHAHA Panthers alongside fellow draft prospect and Upper St. Clair native Vince Trocheck. The two players both moved to the Pittsburgh Predators organization for three years after that, where they also played with Baldwin native John Gibson, the No. 1-ranked North American goaltender for this summer s draft. After that, Kaib and Trocheck both joined the Pittsburgh Hornets organization the area s elite travel program for another three years, through Kaib s freshman year of high school (where he also suited up for Upper St. Clair High School that season). It wasn t until the next year that Kaib decided to drop the other sports he was playing and concentrate solely on hockey. He attended Culver Academy in Indiana his sophomore year of high school to play before getting recruited by the U.S. National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The opportunity (to play for the USNTDP) is just something you can t pass up in my eyes, Kaib said, who said his role on the team was to be an "aggressive, gritty, hard-nosed defenseman who's tough to play against.... I didn't always rack up the points, but I had a great plus-minus, one of the best on the team, and just to be out there in key situations and be a shutdown defenseman." And while it was a special two years with the Program, as Kaib and his teammates call it concluding with a gold medal at the World Under-18 Championships on April 24 in Crimmitschau, Germany, alongside fellow Pittsburgh-area prospects Gibson and J.T. Miller Kaib is looking ahead to the fall, as he s earned a full-ride scholarship to play Division I college hockey with Providence College in Rhode Island. The past few years of my life were great, Kaib said. But you re just kind of glad it s over, almost, because you worked so hard. Now just looking to college, I m just looking to go and get a fresh start and just be with a new group of guys just like you were the past two years, get to know some people, study a lot in the major that I m doing and hope to have a good college experience. Woodlief believes that a change of pace will do wonders for the 5-11, 188-pound blueliner, who is currently ranked No. 193 overall on the Red Line Report. I think his game is one of quick puck movement and quick decision making, and he s a terrific passer, Woodlief said. He makes that first outlet pass right on the tape. I think because of that, he can also help on the second power-play unit and that he s a good puck distributor. For me, I would take a shot on him late. I would see him as some teams taking a shot on him in the sixth, seventh round, because I think he s got a better talent level than that if he gets his confidence level back up when he moves on to a different level. Miller Time By Michelle Crechiolo
This year, the Penguins are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their first-ever Stanley Cup. J.T. Miller wasn t born yet when that happened, nor was he born when the Penguins won their second of back-to-back Cups in 1992. But Miller born less than a year later on March 14, 1993 ultimately got started playing the game of hockey because of the residual effects those championships had on the Pittsburgh area. When the Pens won in 91 and 92, that s when my dad started watching hockey, Miller said. So that s kind of how I got started playing my dad saw the Pens winning, so he wanted me to play because he started really getting into it. I ve been playing ever since and I have been the biggest Pens fan ever since then. The now 18-year-old Miller has come a long way since then, as he s now one of the topranked prospects eligible for the 2011 NHL Entry Draft set for June 24-25 in St Paul, Minn. The 6-foot-2, 193-pound forward is projected as a potential first-round pick. Miller is listed as No. 23 among North American skaters on NHL Central Scouting s final rankings while the Red Line Report, an independent scouting service, has him ranked No. 10 overall. I feel he is a really complete player, said Kyle Woodlief, the chief scout and publisher of the Red Line Report. This guy has really good size and he s got really good natural strength in that he goes into corners against bigger defenseman and usually always comes out with the puck. He s always winning those one-on-one battles. He causes a lot of turnovers and havoc among defensemen with his heavy pressure. He s a guy who uses that size to really drive hard to the net on a consistent basis. All of those things are very positive traits. Miller got his start with the Beaver Badgers, a AA team based out of Beaver County, Pa. right across the state line from East Palestine, Ohio, where Miller grew up, splitting his time between there and Coraopolis, Pa., where his mom moved when he was in seventh grade. But it soon became apparent that the young forward s talent would be better served by playing at a higher level, which is when he joined the Pittsburgh Hornets, the area s AAA hockey organization. He spent five years with the Hornets, which, looking back, played a huge role in getting him to where he is now.
I think they gave me a lot of exposure there, Miller said. They gave me every opportunity to be great and show off what I can do. I could show my talents in several different ways and the coaches were great. He gained exposure on a national level with the Hornets and got noticed by scouts with the U.S. National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich., which boasts alumni such as Patrick Kane (Chicago) and Ryan Kesler (Vancouver). Miller spent the last two campaigns with the USNTDP, but it s the way he finished this last season that has people talking. He paced Team USA in scoring at the World Under-18 Championships in Crimmitschau, Germany, producing 13 points (4G-9A) while leading the Americans to their third-straight gold medal at the tournament. To top it off, he produced dominant efforts when his team needed them most. In the semifinals, Miller scored a goal and two assists to help the U.S. rally from a 3-1 deficit to an eventual 5-4 overtime win over Canada. He then notched a pair of helpers in the gold medal game against Sweden, again helping the Americans rally from another 3-1 deficit to win (again in overtime), 4-3. Woodlief sees Miller going in the first round of the draft partly because of his international performances. You ve got 200 NHL scouts in the stands watching the games at the World Under-18s, so it s certainly going to have a boosting effect on his draft stock, Woodlief said. But over and above that, I think his game really started to turn up in February too, when he was an outstandingly strong player for the U.S. team at the Five Nations tournament over in the Czech Republic. I think that really started to turn his season upward. "So between the big performance in the February tournament and the really strong performance in April, he s gotten so much exposure to NHL scouts at those two major tournaments that I can t see any way he gets below the late teens to early 20s (in the draft). While Miller is pleased with the way his season ended, he still isn t done making an impact on those who will help shape his hockey career. He plans to start with making a good impression at the NHL Scouting Combine in Toronto,
Ontario, which began Monday and goes through Saturday. He also wants to carry his momentum from last season into both making the U.S. squad for the 2012 IIHF World Junior Championships, which will be held at the end of this year in Calgary and Edmonton, and having a strong freshman year at the University of North Dakota. Finishing on a strong note like that, I feel like I can carry it to the next level and keep that confidence going and try to start the year like I finished it, Miller said. But regardless of what happens in the near future for Miller, he s sure to continue representing the Steel City with his fellow Pittsburgh-area prospects. Hopefully we can keep it going by just having these good players putting Pittsburgh on the map, he said.