Well, so much for that “youth movement.” GM Jim Rutherford began his summer by trading a top prospect for the top free agent on the market, and he ended it by extending a training camp invitation to Sergei Gonchar (more on that later), who, if his last meaningful game with the Pittsburgh Penguins was any indication, wears his age on his uniform.

The upside of Rutherford’s offseason double-talk is he bought more time for the Penguins to do something they haven’t done well enough: develop forwards. Now the pressure will be on top 2015 draft pick Daniel Sprong to pick up where Kasperi Kapanen, the aforementioned casualty of the Phil Kessel deal, left off. If Sprong achieves his stated goal, he’ll get an early taste of that pressure when the puck drops for real in Dallas Oct. 8.

Sprong is no Dunkin’ Dutchman, but “Dekin’ Dutchman” might one day become a thing, judging by his first goal in preseason action against the Carolina Hurricanes Tuesday. He scored while playing in Kessel’s stead on the Pens’ second power play unit and added a power play assist when Gonchar notched a PPG of his own.

The 18-year-old winger has been fine-tuning his shot by observing the three-time All-Star, which is already impressing decision-makers for the organization. The book on Sprong is that, like Kessel, he’ll shoot first and ask questions later. After seeing the perfectionist Pens try unnecessarily hard to manufacture offense at times, what fan wouldn’t want to see them add a younger, more trigger-happy sniper?

Previously, Sprong buried two goals in three games, including a nifty overtime winner versus the Montreal Canadiens, and set up another in the Pens’ rookie tournament in London, Ontario. Since then he has shown no signs of being intimidated by his first NHL training camp. Kessel was brought in to support Sidney Crosby, and Sprong has already taken practice reps with the captain.

Still, it’s going to take more consistency and perhaps, heaven forbid, another rash of injuries to improve the chances of the Amsterdam native getting that free nine-game trial before returning to the Charlottetown Islanders of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

Jordan Staal famously took advantage of that brief NHL exposure as a rookie, earning his way onto the roster permanently and later earning a Calder Trophy nomination in 2006-07. The circumstances of his meteoric rise, however, were different.

Staal went much higher in the draft; it took until the second round, with the 46th pick overall, to get Sprong off the board. More importantly, the Penguins, at the time, were a team still trying to figure out what it could be. He and the Penguins arrived ahead of schedule. While those Penguins played like Cup contenders, these Penguins are Cup contenders, or so they believe, and they now have offensive depth for sustaining a long playoff run that they didn’t in Staal’s rookie year.

Even if the numbers game gets the best of Sprong this year, look for him to continue following in Kessel’s footsteps by pushing hard for a 40-goal campaign after falling one short last season. He’s already led his junior team in scoring and was one of the QMJHL’s rookie points leaders last season. On his current trajectory, he’ll push for a roster spot next summer at the earliest.

Sprong wouldn’t be the first Pens rookie to make the unlikely seem likely. A more realistic expectation would be a good, productive, injury-free camp, which would be considered a small victory for him and a franchise perfectly capable of buying talent, but has struggled mightily to build it.