The Pittsburgh Penguins’ prospect pool looks a lot healthier than it did not long ago, and The Athletic’s latest tier rankings make that pretty clear.
Scott Wheeler’s list, assembled with help from NHL scouts and executives, includes seven Penguins prospects and young NHL-connected players. That’s a notable jump from last year, when Pittsburgh had only three players on the list, all of them in Tier 5. Go back two years, and the Penguins had just one name show up, also in Tier 5.
This year’s group is led by two players in Tier 4, the “Star” tier: goalie Sergei Murashov and center Ben Kindel. Harrison Brunicke, Rutger McGroarty, Bill Zonnon, Liam Ruck and Will Horcoff are all in Tier 5, the “Contributor” group.
That raw total matters because it puts Pittsburgh in solid company across the league. There are only 10 teams with at least seven players on Wheeler’s list, and only six teams with more than that.
Chicago sits alone at the top with 11. San Jose, Anaheim and Detroit each have nine.
The Penguins still don’t have a player in Tier 1, Tier 2 or Tier 3, and that remains the biggest hole in the system. But that shortage is not unique to Pittsburgh.
Only seven teams have even one Tier 1 or Tier 2 prospect. San Jose has two - Macklin Celebrini and Ivar Stenberg - while Chicago has Connor Bedard, Anaheim has Leo Carlsson, Montreal has Lane Hutson, Philadelphia has Porter Martone, the New York Islanders have Matthew Schaefer and Toronto has Gavin McKenna.
The bigger story for Pittsburgh is the direction of the pool. A year ago, the Penguins had three names on the list.
Two years ago, they had one. Now they have seven, and two of them have climbed into a higher tier.
Of course, not every prospect turns into a real NHL piece. That’s just the nature of the business.
But if three of these seven become regulars, that’s a win. Anything beyond that starts to feel like a bonus.
From there, the questions get more interesting. Kindel looks like an NHL player, and there’s obvious value in a center like that. Murashov reaching the “star” level would change the Penguins’ outlook in a major way, both now and later.
Then there’s the rest of the group. Can Brunicke grow into a No. 2 or No. 3 defenseman?
Can McGroarty, Horcoff or Ruck develop into a top-six scorer? Can Zonnon become a middle-six center?
And could a couple of these players eventually be used as trade bait, along with the draft picks Pittsburgh has stockpiled, to bring in a more proven young impact player?
Those answers are still ahead. But the progress is real, and it has come fast. The Penguins’ highest draft pick over the past two years has been No. 11 overall, which makes the improvement in the prospect pipeline stand out even more.
It also fits the bigger picture. This isn’t a classic teardown, but it is a team clearly leaning toward the future. The draft picks they’ve gathered, along with the young NHL players they’ve targeted in trades, point to a franchise trying to build long-term.
The Penguins still need more. They still need to find “the guy.” But after where this pool was not long ago, this is meaningful movement in the right direction.
In Other News...
Sidney Crosby Looms Over Penguins Camp For One Huge Reason
The Penguins prospects are already on the move, with Detroit set to be their base as they get ready for their first game next Saturday and begin the soft launch of the 2026-27 season. Even with the formal training camp start date still to come, informal skates are underway and the calendar is already filling up, with the first preseason game scheduled for Sept. 21 against Buffalo.
All of that naturally keeps Sidney Crosby at the center of everything in Pittsburgh. The bigger question hanging over camp is whether Crosby will extend his contract before the season gets going or enter the year in the final season of his current deal, a possibility that would only add more intrigue to every camp session, every preseason shift and every bit of news coming out of the organization. [Read more 🡒]
Penguins Fans Will Have Strong Opinions On This Perfect Player Debate
The idea of building a perfect player out of todays Penguins is the kind of thought experiment that always gets fans talking, because it asks them to separate favorite names from favorite traits. Sidney Crosby is the obvious starting point for hockey IQ, while Erik Karlsson brings the kind of vision that changes how a play develops before it fully exists. Add Bryan Rusts mentality and Evgeni Malkins knack for delivering in big moments, and the result already feels like a snapshot of why Pittsburghs stars have defined so much of the franchises recent identity.
What makes the exercise more fun is how quickly it becomes a debate over which skill matters most, not just which player is best. Kris Letangs athleticism belongs in the mix, Egor Chinakhov supplies shot and finishing ability, and Elmer Soderblom offers the size piece that rounds out the build. Even without a final answer, the argument says plenty about how Penguins fans see the roster now: as a collection of distinct strengths, each one worth borrowing for a different part of the game. [Read more 🡒]
Penguins Move Is Already Bigger Than A Routine Prospect Extension
The Penguins eight-year deal for prospect Ville Koivunen has already started to ripple beyond Pittsburgh, because it was the kind of commitment that other teams notice when they are weighing how to handle their own young talent. A move that might have looked routine on the surface suddenly feels like part of a larger conversation around how much value clubs are willing to lock in early, and it comes with the added backdrop of a market that is shifting around the league.
Elsewhere, the Canucks signing of defenseman Zeev Buium fit right into that same wide-ranging evaluation of prospect value, while the Red Wings were said to have asked for a top-line center in trade discussions involving Dylan Larkin. The Islanders have also admitted they are in a transition phase, and the Bruins used the 2025 NHL Draft to grab James Hagens sixth overall, all of which makes the Koivunen contract look less like a standalone decision and more like one more sign of how aggressively teams are trying to shape their future now. [Read more 🡒]