Penguins fans should not worry about this prospect missing camp

The Penguins finally released the roster of players that are going to be playing for them this upcoming weekend at the prospects challenge tournament in Buffalo. The Penguins participate in the prospects challenge usually every year and have for the last few years.

But when it came to the roster that they put out for this tournament, there was something that might be unusual to Penguins fans. One of their top prospects that finished the year with the Penguins made the roster for this tournament and one did not.

Ville Koivunen was the one that was included on this roster. The one that might be puzzling to some Penguins fans is Rutger McGroarty. Here is a reminder that McGroarty broke his foot at the end of last year with the Penguins and likely just needs more time to recover.

Seeing Koivunen on this roster and not McGroarty should not make any Penguin fan nervous. Fans will want to see McGroarty fully healthy as training camp should be starting up really soon as we move through September.

It is better to be safe than sorry with McGroarty

For Penguins fans, they usually like to see the best-of-the-best in terms of prospects when the tournament rolls around this time of year. But for McGroarty, he really has nothing left to prove as he was quite good in the AHL for most of last year and saw some NHL action and in his NHL minutes, he impressed.

He even did something that no hockey player should really do when their team is not going to make the playoffs. He stuck his leg out to block a shot in a meaningless game at the end of last season, and and broke his foot as a result of the blocked shot.

Fans will want to see McGroarty fully healthy going into this new NHL season as new Penguins head coach Dan Muse will have the opportunity to develop his game even more. McGroarty got to participate in the prospects tournament for the Penguins last year, so missing this one should not be a huge deal.