With the Penguins in the midst of their offseason, the Tribune-Review is looking at all 48 players currently under NHL contracts to the organization in alphabetical order, from mid-level prospect Niclas Almari to top-six winger Jason Zucker.

Cam Lee

Shoots: Left

Age: 24

Height: 6-foot

Weight: 190 pounds

2020-21 AHL statistics: 31 games, 15 points (two goals, 13 assists)

2020-21 Slovak Extraliga statistics: 14 games, 11 points (two goals, nine assists)

Contract: First year of a two-year entry-level contract with a salary cap hit of $950,000. Pending restricted free agent in 2022

(Note: According to CapFriendly, Lee is still exempt from waivers in the event he is sent to the American Hockey League.)

Acquired: Undrafted free agent signing, March 17, 2020

2020-21 season: NCAA free agents are certainly nothing new to the Penguins. Given how often they have traded away top-tier prospects or high draft picks, they have pursued many college free agents in the name of restocking their talent pool.

There have been successes such forwards Zach Aston-Reese and Conor Sheary as well as misses along the lines of goaltender Eric Hartzell and defenseman Ethan Prow.

Lee, who played for former NHL coach Andy Murray at Western Michigan, looked like he took a step toward being the former and not the latter in 2020-21.

In October, with most leagues in North America on hiatus due to the pandemic, the Penguins loaned Lee to HC Slovan Bratislava of the Slovak Extraliga in the hopes of furthering his development. While that league is hardly one of the best in the world, Lee was playing against grown men in a professional setting for the first time and was a dynamic offensive threat, displaying his skating ability on a larger ice surface than most rinks in North America.

Lee’s loan was terminated by mid-December and participated in the NHL club’s training camp in January. He was assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on Jan. 11 and spent the entire season in Northeast Pennsylvania.

With Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Lee primarily served on the second defensive pair as well as the second power-play unit. During the occasions high-end defensive prospect P.O Joseph was recalled to the NHL club, Lee took over on the top defensive pair as well as the top power-play group.

Appearing in 31 of a possible 32 games, he finished as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s sixth-leading scorer.

The future: As a left-handed defenseman, Lee is kind of caught up in a logjam at the position within the Penguins.

Some of that will get sorted out this offseason if the Penguins part ways with a veteran or two such as Mike Matheson, Marcus Pettersson or Juuso Riikola through this month’s expansion draft or other means. But even then, Lee is still behind Joseph on the organizational depth chart.

Lee isn’t quite NHL ready. A waterbug of skater, he meets all the criteria to be the proverbial “puck-moving defenseman” with his feet as well as his passing and vision. But he is still learning the defensive aspect of his job. By all accounts, he appeared to make sufficient strides in that area this past season in the eyes of management.

Overall, he took a good step forward in his first professional season, even if it was disjointed and spread out over two different continents.

Going into 2021-22, Lee could be in line to be Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s top defenseman.

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