Penguins A to Z: Colin Swoyer has a chance to prove he has a future
With the Penguins’ 2021-22 season coming to a quick ending in the first round of the playoffs, the Tribune-Review will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at the 54 individuals who were signed to an NHL contract entering this offseason – including those whose deals do not begin until the 2022-23 season - with the organization, from mid-level prospect Niclas Almari to top-six winger Jason Zucker.
Colin Swoyer
Position: Defenseman
Shoots: Right
Age: 24
Height: 6-foot
Weight: 185 pounds
2021-22 AHL statistics: Five games, zero points (zero goals, zero assists)
2021-22 NCAA statistics: 36 games, 23 points (five goals, 18 assists)
Contract: Entering a one-year entry-level contract with a salary cap hit of $842,500. Pending restricted free agent in the 2023 offseason.
Acquired: Undrafted free agent signing, March 28, 2022
Last season: There’s almost a before and after nature to the Penguins’ pool of prospects.
To be blunt, prospects who were drafted or signed by current management definitely have an advantage over prospects who were acquired by previous management.
A perfect example is Colin Swoyer.
A native of Hillsdale, Ill., Swoyer came up through the Chicago Fury youth program and spent time at the United States Hockey League level with the Chicago Steel and Sioux Falls Stampede before spending four seasons at the NCAA level with Michigan Tech.
Throughout that time, members of current Penguins management kept tabs on Swoyer and that led to the team signing him this past spring after he completed his senior season.
During the 2021-22 campaign, Swoyer led all Michigan Tech defenseman in scoring while regularly playing on the team’s top pairing with Michael Karow, a fifth-round pick (No. 126 overall) of the Arizona Coyotes in 2017.
An alternate captain with Michigan Tech, Swoyer was named to the Central Collegiate Hockey Association’s second team after the season.
In addition to signing his NHL contract on March 28, Swoyer signed an American Hockey League amateur tryout contract with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on the same day.
After appearing in five regular season AHL games, he played in one postseason contest and recorded his first professional assist in a 7-6 home loss to the Springfield Thunderbirds on May 15.
The future: Swoyer figures to get plenty of opportunities in 2022-23.
The Penguins’ current management has largely cleaned house of several prospects it inherited from the regime of former general manager Jim Rutherford. In fact, on Monday, the team declined to extend qualifying offers to defensive prospects Niclas Almari, Cam Lee and Will Reilly and cut them loose as unrestricted free agents. And veteran Juuso Riikola departed after signing in Sweden in May.
So Swoyer will likely be in a position to claim ample ice time with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton next season, especially as a right-handed shot, a characteristic that makes him something of a precious commodity in professional hockey.
Swoyer, who attended the St. Louis Blues prospect development camp in 2019, has the base components to be an NHL defenseman. That’s to say he can skate and move the puck well. He just needs to figure out the details of the professional game.
Penguins management is giving Swoyer a chance. Now, he has to prove he has a future.
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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