CENTER BRAYDEN YAGER, THE PENS’ FIRST-ROUND PICK IN 2023 | PHOTO COURTESY PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

It might be difficult to appreciate based on free agency and the continued aging of the NHL roster, but the Penguins are getting younger.

Just not yet.

Eventually, sooner rather than later, perhaps, there will be an influx of youth, enthusiasm and energy.

The five-day development camp the Penguins concluded on Wednesday in Cranberry shined a light on how the Penguins are headed in that direction, and on all the resources they’re committing to get there.

Director of Player Development Tom Kostopoulos called that effort a “massive investment.”

It’s been a while.

Kostopoulos should know. A former seventh-round pick of the Penguins in 1999 and a veteran of 630 career NHL regular-season games with the Penguins and five other teams, Kostopoulos was promoted to his current position by former GM Ron Hextall in June of 2022.

Things have changed since then, as they had to for the Penguins eventually.

“It’s been interesting, me with different GMs, to see how each one looks and uses the development department,” Kostopoulos observed. “I think [President of Hockey Operations] Kyle [Dubas] and [Assistant General Manager] Jason Spezza and Fenway [Sports Group, the current ownership] have invested hugely in the development department in terms of time, money, staff, and it’ll only benefit the players.

“We have different skills coaches, skating coaches, strength coach, video analyst, all under our wing here [in player development]. It’s just more of everything, it’s been great.”

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The ramped-up emphasis on player development probably won’t result in any of the 49 players who were on display starting on Friday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex cracking the lineup when the Penguins open the coming season on Oct. 9 against the New York Rangers.

But center Brayden Yager, the Pens’ first-round pick in 2023, is going to show up to training camp with the mindset of making that happen, anyway.

Yager, 19, still needs to get stronger, but “He can skate at the NHL level right now,” Kostopoulos maintained.

Defenseman Daniel Laatsch, a seventh-round pick in 2021, will be back at Wisconsin when the puck drops against the Rangers. He has the desired size at 6-foot-5, but not the bulk at 183 pounds. But Laatsch, 22, can defend.

Player Development Coach “Chris Butler has been saying for a couple years now he has the best defensive stick in college hockey,” Kostopoulos reported. “We think there’s an NHL role for him.”

Center Chase Yoder, 22, is also headed back to the NCAA rather than the NHL. But the Pens saw in Cranberry the leadership skills that have helped endear Yoder, a sixth-round pick in 2020, to his coaches at Providence College.

“He’s a leader off and on the ice,” Kostopoulos said. “He was leading the way here. He’ll go back to Providence and wear a letter (Yoder was a co-captain for the Friars last season). We expect him to have a big year.”

And then there’s center Tristan Broz.

All he did last season was score twice in overtime during the NCAA Tournament while helping to lead Denver to college hockey’s national championship.

Broz, 21, spent a season at Minnesota before playing two at Denver, so he’s familiar with blueblood programs and with winning.

For Broz, a second-round pick in 2021, the AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins will be a stop along the way, not a destination.

“He’s been one of our most intriguing prospects to follow the last few years,” Kostopoulos emphasized. “It’s great to see him and how he keeps maturing and growing as a player.”

Those players are on the come, and they were among a handful of the prospects who made an impression during a significant part of a development process the Penguins are determined to continue to emphasize.

“We have to be near the top of the league, I would say, in what our organization has to offer,” Kostopoulos insisted.

That’ll pay dividends eventually.

No matter the average age of the lineup that’ll face-off against the Rangers.