BY MIKE MASTOVICH
Wheeling made a high-profile addition on Wednesday, as the Pittsburgh Penguins assigned top-rated prospect Luca Caputi to the Nailers prior to Wednesday’s 5-3 loss to the Johnstown Chiefs at Cambria County War Memorial Arena.
The Hockey News rated Caputi as the Penguins’ No. 1 prospect and the NHL’s 70th-best prospect overall in the magazine’s Future Watch ’09 issue this week. The 20-year-old left wing scored a wrap-around goal to give the Nailers a 2-0 advantage before the Chiefs came back.
“You can tell around the boards he has a little more patience than most guys,” Chiefs defenseman Mike Knight said.
“He’s really good in close quarters. But you can’t respect him too much because he’s still just another guy. You’ve got to be aware when he’s out there. He kind of got me on that wraparound goal. I adjusted. We shut him down the rest of the game.”
Ironically, The Hockey News said Caputi’s “best asset is puck-protection skill below the goal line in the offensive zone,” which is exactly how he scored on Wednesday.
Caputi made his NHL debut with the Penguins on Feb. 3 at Montreal and had one goal in five games with Pittsburgh through Feb. 11.
Since then, he had been skating with the Penguins’ AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, where he had 40 points (15 goals, 25 assists) in 54 games overall with the Baby Pens.
“He’s a guy that can control play,” Chiefs goaltender Kris Mayotte said. “Everything is a bit slower for him (in the ECHL). He sees things that maybe some other guys don’t see. You can’t just assume the puck is going up ice off the stick. You really have to focus and react. You try not to over-anticipate because that’s when he becomes dangerous.”
