Faceoff Factor

Caputi & Veilleux Headed To WB/S

Jesse Marshall | Minor Leagues (ECHL, AHL, etc)

Apr 16, 11:00 AM | Hype this story!

Luca Caputi has come a long way.

Look back on the statsheet of the young agitator/goalscorer for the Niagara Ice Dogs. In his first 80 OHL games, he mustered only 9 points.

However, last year (his draft year), is when it all started to come together. Caputi’s game became a beautiful blend of offensive talent mixed with an almost Avery-like agitating attitude.

This year, both of those attributes exploded onto the scene as Caputi registered 111 points (51+60) in 66 games. He didn’t slow that pace down for the playoffs, either. In 10 games for Niagara, he registered 8 goals and 9 assists.

As impressive as his offensive tendencies are, his willingness to do battle with the opposition at all ends of the ice and consistently get under the skin of the opponents doesn’t take a backseat. It’s all a part of his game.

The challenge for Luca will now be to take his talents to the next level. Caputi is expected to sign an amateur tryout contract for the WB/S playoff run that starts tonight against the Hershey Bears.

Keven Veilleux has had a much different year.

After starting the year with the Victoriaville Tigres, Veilleux was traded in January to the Rimouski Oceanic for another star forward, Maxime Tanguay. Controversy swirled at the announcement of the trade as to what the reasons were for each team dumping top players. Many fans in Victoriaville seemed a bit tired of Veilleux’s splotchy performances and aversion to physical play.

Keven Veilleux has better size and natural skill than anyone in the Pittsburgh prospect pool right now. At 6’5, 200lbs, the right handed centerman was expected to take his game to the next level after a semi-lackluster campaign in 2006-07. That didn’t materialize in Victoriaville, and Veilleux continued his trend of showing up sporadically and having a questionable work ethic.

Upon his trade to Rimouski, we saw what Veilleux was capable of. He scored 11 points in his first 5 games with the Oceanic, but leveled off after that and returned to the Veilleux of old.

We’ve seen what Veilleux can do when he’s on his game. His sheer size alone makes him a good prospect. His passing skills and vision are extremely adept. His slapshot is deadly accurate.

However, the consistency is downright disappointing. Perhaps this trip to the AHL will awaken the monster inside the player and Penguins fans will be treated to another top-notch center in the system.

The division-winning Baby Penguins take the ice against Hershey tonight for game 1 of the series.