The Penguins still don't have a general manager.

It's not even clear they have a firm timetable for hiring one.

Nonetheless, the organization already is starting to change the way it did some things during Craig Patrick's 16 ¹/₂-year run as general manager.

Coach Michel Therrien, for example, has been working on the details of an on-ice rookie camp he wants to conduct in early September. Although Penguins officials recall doing that just once during Patrick's tenure, in 1997, they are fairly common around the NHL.

Rookie camps have become popular because they give teams an in-depth look at young players who might get limited exposure during the regular camp.

"We're not going to be able to concentrate on rookies, like the guys we're going to draft [June 24]," Therrien said. "I'd like to have a rookie camp, to give them an opportunity to show us what they're capable of doing."

Therrien anticipates inviting roughly two dozen players to the rookie camp, which would begin about a week before the regular camp opens Sept. 14. Some players who attend the first camp might perform well enough to earn an invitation to the second, where Therrien expects there to be approximately 45 players.

That's fewer than usual for the Penguins and, consequently, Therrien said the camp roster will be divided into only two groups. In previous years, there generally have been three or four.

"We'll concentrate more on our team, [rather] than having 60 or 65 guys in training camp," he said. "We'll have 13 or 14 practices, at the most, and I have to take full advantage of every practice. Every day is going to be important."

The obvious asterisk on his plans, of course, is that the new GM will be Therrien's boss, and thus have the final say on anything the coach wants to do.

That includes selecting the assistant coach expected to join the Penguins' staff for next season. Therrien has "three or four guys" under consideration for that position, and it seems unlikely that Patrick's successor would get heavily involved in the selection process.

Alain Vigneault, coach of Vancouver's American Hockey League affiliate in Winnipeg, appears to be at the top of Therrien's list of candidates, but Therrien acknowledged Vigneault could end up replacing coach Marc Crawford as coach of the Canucks.

In addition to preparing for the preseason and figuring out how he wants to complete his staff, Therrien, like assistant GM Ed Johnston, has been honing assessments of players already in the organization for the new general manager.

There are many critical decisions -- like which players should be re-signed, and who the Penguins should target in free agency -- that must be made before July 1, and the next GM presumably will rely heavily on the input from front-office holdovers before making them.

Therrien declined to cite specific areas of the Penguins' depth chart that he believes should be priorities for an upgrade, but did say he feels the Penguins should try to bring in players who are experienced, though not aging.

"We have young kids, and we have old guys," he said. "We're missing [players] in the middle. Hopefully, over the summer, we're going to be able to bring in some guys from the free-agent market.

"We're missing guys in the 28-, 29-, 30-year-old range of players. We want to bring in some experienced guys who will give us depth."

With Sidney Crosby, a gifted playmaker, already on the roster and another in Evgeni Malkin likely on the way, the Penguins clearly would benefit from adding an accomplished goal-scorer or two to fully exploit their passing abilities.

Only a few, led by Anaheim's Teemu Selanne, Patrik Elias of New Jersey and Edmonton's Sergei Samsonov, are scheduled to be unrestricted free agents this summer, and any willing to relocate probably will be too expensive for the Penguins.

Therrien agreed that, "We don't have that natural goal-scorer who, game-in and game-out, is going to score, who we figure is going to score 40 or 50 goals," but doesn't expect the Penguins to seriously contend for Selanne, Elias or Samsonov.

"To be honest, those aren't the type of guys we're going to be able to target," he said. "I wish I had Patrik Elias on my roster. Like 29 teams in the NHL would like it. We're probably going to look for more depth."

NOTE -- The Penguins will play their exhibition opener Sept. 19 against Ottawa in Halifax, Nova Scotia, then face Philadelphia in Moncton, New Brunswick the next night. The rest of their preseason schedule will be announced later.