Penguins A to Z: Josh Maniscalco has his own trajectory
As the NHL prepares for a new season scheduled to start in mid-January, the Tribune-Review will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 48 individuals under NHL contract with the organization, from mid-level prospect Niclas Almari to high-profile trade acquisition Jason Zucker.
Josh Maniscalco
Position: Defensemen
Shoots: Right
Age: 21
Height: 6-foot-2
Weight: 205 pounds
2019-20 NCAA statistics: 36 games, 32 points (11 goals, 21 assists)
Contract: First year of a three-year entry-level contract with a salary cap hit of $853,333. Unrestricted free agent in 2023.
Acquired: Signed as an undrafted free agent, Aug. 21, 2020
Last season: There’s a lot to like about the Penguins as a free agent.
By all accounts, the team treats its players with all the finest of amenities from a practice rink that resembles a country club to a team plane worthy of heads of state.
And don’t forget the success the franchise strives for on the ice as well as the possibility of playing with some of the world’s elite players such as Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
Add in the relatively low cost of living as well as Pittsburgh’s relatively central location to points in the Northeast and the Midwest and the Penguins have plenty of tangible benefits to offer players they are recruiting to join the organization.
A phone call from Mario Lemieux doesn’t hurt either.
Such was the case with Josh Maniscalco when the Penguins convinced him to leave Arizona State this past summer following his sophomore season.
Lemieux, whose son, Austin, played with Maniscalco at Arizona State, sold him on joining the Penguins.
So did the three-year entry-level deal they dangled in front of him despite not being drafted.
The native of Perkiomenville in Eastern Pennsylvania, Maniscalco showed why the Penguins pursued him so vigorously during the 2019-20 campaign.
Finishing second in all of the NCAA among defensemen with 11 goals, Maniscalco had a breakout season with an Arizona State team that largely barnstorms against established powerhouse programs as an independent.
The proverbial “puck-moving defenseman,” Maniscalco possesses all the skills — fleet skating, sharp passing and a strong shot — that go with that description.
With virtually every NCAA sport in a holding pattern over the summer because of the coronavirus pandemic, Maniscalco opted to turn professional thanks to the Penguins’ overtures.
The future: It’s easy to look at Maniscalco and wonder if he can be the next John Marino and jump to the NHL immediately. The parallels are there.
Each is a right-handed defenseman. Each left school early. Each had something of a preexisting connection with the Penguins. And each were recruited, in some fashion, by the organization.
But it’s not fair to expect Maniscalco to have the same trajectory as Marino. The latter was a unique case. That’s not to say Maniscalco is incapable of becoming an NHLer quickly. But it’s not likely.
In the immediate sense, he’ll participate in the Penguins’ training camp starting Sunday. But it’s difficult to see him making the NHL roster or even the taxi squad with only 10 days of practice and no preseason games to display his skills to management.
Most likely, Maniscalco will join the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins assuming the American Hockey League starts Feb. 5 as scheduled.
The Penguins have plenty of options among their right-handed defensemen, so there’s not an immediate need for someone as raw as Maniscalco to step in.
Then again, the same could have been said about Marino approximately 16 months ago.
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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