Penguins forward prospect Tristan Broz is in a better place
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Tristan Broz was in a strange place Monday.
A canoe.
A human canoe.
During the Pittsburgh Penguins development camp tournament — a three-on-three competition — Broz scored the winning goal in overtime of the championship game with a one-timer from the right circle and initiated a silly celebration in the opposite corner.
Pointing to the ice, the forward prospect sat down at the goal line and his teammates followed suit. Sitting in a row, all 10 members of Broz’s team began to “row” as if they were trying to circumnavigate Brunot Island.
Tristan Broz wins it in OT to take the Development Camp tournament for Team Black. Gotta love the team celly! @penguins @tristanbroz pic.twitter.com/Ml3ZkxMEeT
— Josh Getzoff (@JG_PxP) July 3, 2023
Absurd. But completely fun.
And it perfectly illustrated how Broz is in a much better place mentally than a year ago.
A native of Bloomington, Minn., Broz spent his freshman season of 2021-22 at home with the University of Minnesota, one of the blue-blood programs of college hockey.
The narrative was almost perfect. The hometown kid from the so-called “State of Hockey” going to school all of 14 minutes away and playing for the powerful Golden Gophers.
The reality was far from perfect, however. Broz largely labored through a mundane freshman campaign, producing just 11 points (six goals, five assists) in 36 games and was even a healthy scratch on occasion.
“It’s a big learning experience,” a forlorn Broz curtly said in July 2022 during the Penguins’ previous development camp. “That’s kind of how I would summarize the year. Obviously, a lot of things didn’t go the way I wanted them to.”
Roughly, one year later, Broz, if nothing else, is smiling a lot more when explaining his sophomore season of 2022-23 at the University of Denver after a badly needed transfer.
Is it fair to say the expectations for a hometown kid at Minnesota were much different than an import at Denver?
“You’re spot on there,” Broz said. “Just the culture that they’ve built there and the guys they recruit, it’s high quality. That was the most important thing and the best thing for me. There’s no egos there. Just a bunch of guys having fun playing hockey. Guys love each other, love coming to the rink.”
Another area of adaptation? Altitude in the so-called Mile High City.
“I think they say it takes six weeks to fully adjust to it,” the left-handed Broz said. “It was tough at first. I skated by myself the first day, I felt it after like 10 minutes. It was tough.”
The Penguins’ second-round pick (No. 58 overall) in the 2021 NHL Draft, Broz was far more prolific in his first season with the Denver Pioneers. In 40 games, he posted 29 points (10 goals, 19 assists).
Aside from being relieved of some external pressures, what else worked for the 20-year-old last season?
“I think I just developed physically, mainly,” said Broz (6-foot, 183 pounds) “(Denver senior associate athletic director of sports performance) Matt Shaw did a great job there. Just put on a lot of muscle, a lot of weight in the weight room and that helped out a lot.”
“You’re lifting two times a week, even during the season. That was the biggest improvement, I think.”
Some improvement is still required for Broz to fill out as an NHL prospect in the eyes of Penguins management. But the direction Broz is heading is encouraging.
“He’s been a streaky scorer,” Penguins director of player development Tom Kostopoulos said. “One of the messages is really starting the game fast, coming out of the gates hot. That would translate into his season. We want him to get off to a real fast start. He has the skills. He’s dedicating himself more than ever to his off-ice training, which I think will get him off to a head start to the season.
“He’s really starting to understand what it will take to play in the NHL, and he’s starting to put in the work.”
A year ago, Broz wasn’t terribly eager to talk about hockey.
Today, he’s smiling and having fun.
He’s in a much better place.
“That’s fair to say,” Broz said. “It’s been good, a good change for me.”