Penguins A to Z: Jan Drozg adjusts between Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Wheeling

While the NHL is on hold because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Tribune-Review will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 55 individuals under NHL contract with the organization, from mid-level prospect Niclas Almari to high-profile trade acquisition Jason Zucker.

Player: Jan Drozg

Position: Left winger

Shoots: Right

Age: 21

Height: 6-foot-2

Weight: 174 pounds

2019-20 AHL statistics: 32 games, eight points (five goals, three assists)

2019-20 ECHL statistics: 24 games, 23 points (13 goals, 10 assists)

Contract: First year of a three-year entry-level contract with a salary cap hit of $809,166. Pending restricted free agent in 2022.

Acquired: Fifth-round draft pick (No. 152 overall), June 24, 2017

This season: In his first full professional season, Drozg has split the season between the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and the Wheeling Nailers.

Assigned to Wheeling twice — at the start of the season and briefly in February — Drozg showed he could be productive at that level by nearly recording a point per game. By the time he was recalled to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in December, he was the Nailers’ leading scorer.

(Video courtesy Wheeling Nailers)

Finding offense was a little bit more difficult in the AHL, especially given he primarily inhabited a bottom-six role among the team’s lines.

Upon his most recent recall, Drozg, who recorded some ice time on the power play, had two points (one goal, one assist) in four games before the AHL halted play because of the coronavirus pandemic.

(Video courtesy Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins)

The future: It’s fair to label Drozg as a long-term project. His development is a project playing out on and off the ice.

First, he’s from Slovenia, a tiny country surrounded by Italy, Croatia, Hungary, Austria and the Adriatic Sea that has only seven rinks in the entire country.

There are as many Slovenian first ladies (Melania Trump) as there are Slovenian NHL-ers (Kings forward Anze Kopitar).

In order to play a higher level of hockey, Drozg moved to Sweden at the age of 16 before journeying to Shawinigan — a town in Quebec where French is decidedly the primary language — to play junior hockey.

So trying to function as a human — let alone athlete — in various languages and cultures has been a considerable challenge.

A productive player in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, he briefly played in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton the previous two seasons on amateur tryout contracts before turning professional this season.

An assignment to Wheeling probably offered him some benefit as he was able to get more ice time and be used in several more roles than he would have in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

Capable of playing all three positions but probably best suited as a right winger, Drozg has some fairly high-end skill and more than adequate speed to be an NHL-er. He just needs to further his education on the details of the North American professional game if he’s to take the next step.