ELITE ROOTS
Penguins youth program has foothold on Penn State roster
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Carter Schade wasn’t initially too fond of cold surfaces.
The son of two Robert Morris graduates, Schade went with his parents to the Colonials’ ice rink at the ripe age of 4 years old to learnhow to skate.
“I hated it. I cried, but my dad made me stick through it,” Schade said of his first skating experience at the Robert Morris University Island Sports Center. “I endedup loving it.”
A Mars native, Schade soon switched his mindset toward hockey and would play the sport throughout the rest of his childhood. He played seven years in the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite System, a youth development organization affiliated with the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins.
During Schade’s age 16 season, he was part of a squad with the Penguins Elite System that won a national championship in 2019. He was joined on that victorious squad by Alex Servagno of Gibsonia, who was the captain of the 16U team.
Unlike Schade, Servagno’s introduction to hockey was a bit more conventional and required a tripto Civic Arena.
“My dad loves hockey, but he never played. No one in my family’s played,” Servagno told the Post-Gazette. “But they took me to my first Penguins game when I was 4 or 5 and I just loved it from there. I started learning to skate and then started playingabout a year later.”
Though Servagno wasn’t involved with the Penguins Elite System for as long as Schade, he was still a part of it between the ages of 12 and 16. After that one season, though, Schade and Servagno went their separate ways to play in a junior hockey league, as is customary for skilled youth hockey players.
Both Schade and Servagno went onto play in the United States Hockey League, a highly regarded league for amateur players. In this juniors league, Schade joined the Lincoln Stars while Servagno took his talents to the Green Bay Gamblers.
Still, the two Pittsburgharea hockey players who shared a magical season together as youths kept tabs onone another.
“I got pretty close with him,” Schade said of their time together in the Penguins Elite System. “We kind of just stayed in touch. He was in Green Bay and I was in Lincoln, so we were on different sides of the conference.”
During their years in the Midwest, Schade and Servagno each seemed to have their futures planned out, as well; Schade had committed to playing at Penn State back in 2018 and Servagno had done the same to Ohio Statein 2017.
Except, things “didn’t work out” as intended for Servagno with the Buckeyes, and soon enough, he was looking for a new school. To figure out where he’d spend his collegiate career, Servagno turned to an oldfriend.
“[Servagno] asked me about it and I told him the coaching staff is top-notch here,” Schade said about Penn State. “The culture, the experience, the guys in the room that we have right now, it’s unbelievable. I couldn’tbe happier.”
But Servagno didn’t just turn to his former Penguins Elite teammate. In Green Bay,Servagno played with a trio of soon-to-be Nittany Lions in freshman defenseman Jared Crespo, sophomore forward Ryan Kirwan and junior forward Tyler Paquette.
Kirwan, who told the Post-Gazette he’s known Servagno since he was 12 years old, was all in on recruiting Servagno once the latter was in need of a new destination.
“He said you really need to come here,” Servagno said of Kirwan’s recruiting efforts. “He said it’s such a good experience and that he loved the coaches. I’m glad hementioned that to me.”
After talking things over with his trio of Gamblers teammates and Schade, Servagno announced his commitment to Penn State in January2022. Flash forward to October, and the pair are both Nittany Lions, much to the pleasure of head coach GuyGadowsky.
“Boy, they’ve been doing agood job there,” Gadowsky said of the Penguins Elite System. “There’s a lot of great players coming out of there. Honestly, I feel the morePens Elite guys we get, the better. I love what that programhas been doing and the values they stand behind, not just their development.”
Schade and Servagno, who Gadowsky said are both “high-character guys,” are part of a freshman class thatthe head coach has commended for its maturity. They’ll look to help the Nittany Lions improve upon their sub-.500 mark last year when Penn State ended up fifthin the Big Ten.
Schade has already impressed seasoned veterans like fifth-year defenseman Paul DeNaples with a wellrounded game he’s demonstratedthrough fall camp.
“Carter’s a great guy. To me, he reminds me of a new ColeHults in his style of play and his personality too,” DeNaples said, comparing Schade to Penn State’s alltime points leader for a defenseman. “I sit next to him in the locker room, I sat next to Cole in the locker room for two years. They resembleeach other a lot.
“I think [Carter’s] going to be a really good player for this program and just keep growing.”
Such high praise from DeNaples means the world to Schade. But the newcomer recognizes Hults’ skates are pretty big ones to fill, as are those of recently graduated defenseman Clayton Phillips, who played the end of the 2021-22 AHLseason with the Wilkes Barre/ScrantonPenguins.
“I stay with the mentality thatI’m here to prove myself as a player and as a person,” Schade said. “I’ll stick to my game because it works for me. I think I play well and I think I can play well under thesystem that we have.’”
For Gadowsky, what stands out the most about Schade was his on-ice performance during the 2021-22 season. Schade racked up four goals and 27 assists for theStars, good for 31 points.
“If you look at his plusminus, it’s ridiculous. I would consider him a bigtime two-way player,” Gadowsky said. “Carter’s plusminus compared to the other defensemen on his team was an absolute aberration. He’s a heck of a player.”
Servagno has also stood out for his ability to make the most of his physical stature. Standing 5-foot-9 and weighing 170 pounds, Servagno is hardly the most intimidating presence, and he ishe not the loudest player.
ButKirwan is fully aware of the fire he plays with. Senior forward Connor MacEachern has quickly picked up on Servagno’s intensity,as well.
“He’s definitely a quieter kid, but on the ice, you wouldn’t know that,” MacEachern told the PostGazette. “He’s hard on the puck. He’s physical for being not necessarily the biggest guy on the ice. He uses his body, he gets in front of thenet, which I think is a big partof our game.”
Of course, playing college hockey doesn’t come without its adjustments, as is the case for any collegiate athlete. Servagno has had to familiarize himself with the classroom once more, something he didn’t have to deal withwhile in junior hockey.
Servagno said he’s starting to get more used to the college landscape and has been having an enjoyable experience both on and off the ice with his teammates. But to reach this level, Servagno recognizes it all goes back to an organization in the Penguins Elite System that he believes seems to get betterevery year.
“It’s like they’re a prep school or almost even a junior team,” Servagno said. “They’re obviously doing the right thing there and developing a lot of good players like Logan Cooley (a Minnesota forward and the 2022 NHL draft’s Number 3 overall pick). I think what they’re doing is unbelievable. It’s just helping other hockey players get to the level they want to go to and hopefullythe NHL one day.”
Schade couldn’t agree more with Servagno’s assessment. For him, it’s been greatto reconnect with a former teammate and Pittsburgh-area native at the same college, one the two can share for the next few years.
It’s been a long journey for Schade, from hating the concept of skating at just 4 years old to preparing for his first season of college hockey. And without those seven years of instruction with his hometown team’s youth organization, Schade realizes he and Servagno likely wouldn’t be together oncemore.
“There’s a lot of guys that go through there, but with me and Alex, you can obviously tell that we kind of developed at [the Penguins Elite System],” Schade said. “It’s not just us that made it here. We got a bunch of other guys that are in collegenow. It just speaks to the level of coaching and how great that program’s run there.”