CANONSBURG, PA. Kraft has good shot at making Penguins' roster for this season

This could be the year that Milan Kraft breaks out of the AHL.
CANONSBURG, Pa. (AP) -- The Pittsburgh Penguins have waited patiently for Milan Kraft to develop into the player general manager Craig Patrick thought he'd be -- a skilled, perhaps dominant, center -- when the team selected him 21st overall in the 1998 draft.
During the past three seasons, though, Kraft has become a regular on the shuttle between Pittsburgh and Wilkes-Barre, home of the Penguins' American Hockey League affiliate. But this year, expectations are high that he'll finally break out and remain in the NHL throughout the season.
"This is a big year for Krafty, there's no doubt about it," Penguins first-year coach Eddie Olczyk said. "He knows that, we've talked about it."
To that end, Kraft entered a rigorous training regimen to prepare for the upcoming season.
"During the summer I worked really hard and focused on special things, so right now there isn't a question in my mind that I did the right thing," Kraft said. "I just have to focus on every shift, be sharp on every pass and everything."
Opportunity knocks
Kraft, as well as every other player fighting for a roster spot, will get an opportunity over the next three days as the Penguins play a trio of exhibition games.
Pittsburgh is scheduled to play the New York Islanders Friday night in Wheeling, W.Va., and at home Saturday in Mellon Arena. The team then travels to Wilkes-Barre to play the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Along with extensive travel, players will have to figure out the Penguins' new system.
"We started implementing our defensive zone from day one and [now] we're getting into what we really want to get accomplished in our neutral zone and fore-check," Olczyk said.
Has good chance
Making the team should not be a problem for Kraft. For an organization that finished with the second-worst record in the NHL a year ago, young players with upside potential won't be discarded. Another factor in Kraft's favor is if the Penguins opt to send him to the minors, he would first have to clear waivers. Very few teams would pass on a 23-year-old center that has scored 22 goals and 42 points in 141 games.
"He's a guy who's had his opportunities and, at times, has played extremely well," Olczyk said. "There was a stretch last season for about three weeks where he and Michal Sivek carried this team, and they did the kinds of things [needed] to be players in the National Hockey League for a long time."
The problem for Kraft has been a tendency to disappear.
Inconsistent
During his first season with Wilkes-Barre in 2000-01, he scored 12 goals and 19 points in 14 postseason games, but when the Penguins called him up during the Stanley Cup playoffs, he went scoreless in eight games.
Kraft spent most of the 2001-02 season in Pittsburgh, but despite flashes of potential he finished with just eight goals and 16 points in 68 games.
"Of course, during the season, you have games where you play your best and games when you don't. That's everybody," Kraft said. "I just want most games to be playing my best and do whatever I can to be an important part of the team."