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Maatta (shoulder) expects to be ready for Pens training camp

Olli Maatta

Olli Maatta

Gregory Shamus

Olli Maatta says he doesn’t look back on the 2014-15 campaign.

That’s probably a good thing.

After a year in which he had a cancerous tumor removed from his neck, got the mumps and had season-ending shoulder surgery, the young Finnish blueliner only wants to look forward to next season, and get healthy for training camp.

“We’re on the schedule,” Maatta said this week, per NHL.com. “Obviously the goal is to be ready for training camp. Everything is going as we planned, so that’s the goal.”

With Paul Martin now in San Jose and Christian Ehrhoff still entertaining free agent offers, the Pens will certainly need Maatta on the back end -- and for him to stay injury-free. After scoring nine points in 20 games last year, the shoulder ailment sidelined him on Dec. 6 and the decision to have surgery was made in mid-January.

That essentially snuffed out what many thought would be an impressive campaign; as a rookie in ’13-14, Maatta showed great promise by scoring nine goals and 29 points in 78 games, finishing fifth in Calder voting.