When the Penguins claimed Jordan Staal with the second choice in the 2006 NHL entry draft, they knew they were getting a prospect with exceptional size and skill and hockey sense.

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A player who, though still 2 1/2 months shy of his 18th birthday, had almost unlimited potential to go with some impeccable bloodlines.

It was only a matter of time, they believed, until Staal became an impact player in this league.

Turns out they were correct. They just had no idea how little time it would take. Two or three years seemed realistic. One, rather optimistic. Less, darned near unthinkable.

At least until Staal reported to rookie camp shortly before he turned 18 and proceeded, day by day, to build a case for keeping a spot on the Penguins' roster, something the team announced yesterday that he has done.

"I can't say that was part of the plan," general manager Ray Shero said. "Usually, when you draft these 18-year-old players, they come to camp, play a couple of exhibition games and you sit down with them afterward. Send them back to junior and tell them what they need to work on."

Staal was told of management's decision before practice, which is when 19-year-old defenseman Kristopher Letang learned he was going back to his Quebec Major Junior Hockey League club in Val d'Or.

Letang was a healthy scratch for the past two games, and the impending return of injured defensemen Brooks Orpik and Eric Cairns helped to nudge him out of the Penguins' immediate plans.

"I don't want to have a 19-year-old player here whose ice time consists of seven or eight minutes a game, and 75 percent of that is on special teams," Shero said.

While Letang's workload shrank over the course of his stay with the Penguins, Staal's has grown. He started the regular season as a penalty-killer and fourth-liner, but has centered the No. 2 line for the past two games while continuing to pull special-teams duty.

He has four goals -- a league-high three of them short-handed -- and one assist while averaging 13 minutes, 14 seconds of ice time in nine games.

"He deserves to stay here," Shero said. "He's contributing to a good hockey team, and he's making a difference. It's the best decision for Jordan, for his development, and it's the best decision for our hockey team."

Staal's on-ice work never really was an issue; the uncertainty about his short-term future stemmed from having the first season of his three-year entry-level contract activated when he appears in his 10th game, which will happen when the Penguins visit Los Angeles tomorrow.

After that, the next major milestone for Staal will come near midseason. If he stays with the Penguins for more than 39 games, he will be credited with an "accrued season"; that would start him down the path which, under the NHL's current labor agreement, leads to unrestricted free agency after seven years.

"That's the last thing on my mind right now," Staal said.

Whether Staal is returned to his junior team in Peterborough by, if not before, game No. 40 likely will hinge on several factors. Not only how Staal is playing, but whether the Penguins are seriously contending for a playoff berth, if not something more substantial.

"It will be apparent to us, what to do," Shero said.

Staal acknowledged that "when I came to training camp, I wasn't expecting to make the team," and added that even after he played well through the early weeks of the season, he wasn't certain he'd stick because "there's a business world, too."

The arguments for returning him to the Ontario Hockey League became less convincing with every strong shift he turned in, the case for keeping him more compelling with each display of talent and maturity.

"The more the season went on, he was getting better and better," coach Michel Therrien said.

Even Staal, who insisted that " I have to keep getting better," agreed that he has become consistently more effective in his first month as a pro.

"From the first game to the ninth game, my game definitely stepped up," he said.

"I'm getting faster out there, thinking quicker. If I keep that going, I think I could be a good player."

The Penguins, it is clear, have decided that he already is.

NOTES -- If Evgeni Malkin gets a goal tomorrow, he will become the first NHL player since the 1917-18 season, the league's first, to score in each of his first six games. Joe Malone, Cy Denneny and Newsy Lalonde, all eventual Hall of Famers, got goals in their first 14, 12 and eight games. ... Although Letang's departure leaves the Penguins without a right-handed defenseman, Shero believes it isn't a problem. "That's a bit overrated, in my opinion," he said. ... Cairns returned from a three-game conditioning stint with the Penguins' minor-league team in Wilkes-Barre and practiced yesterday, but has a charley horse.