Finn Harding’s first full pro season gave the Penguins organization something useful: a seventh-round pick who didn’t just survive in the AHL, he carved out a real role.
The 20-year-old defenseman logged 54 games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last year and finished with 22 points, collecting four goals and 18 assists along the way. That came after three steadily stronger seasons in the Ontario Hockey League with the Mississauga-turned-Brampton Steelheads, where his 50 assists in the 2024-25 campaign set a single-season franchise record for Steelheads defensemen.
Harding’s path to this point took a major step on March 3, 2025, when he was offered and signed his entry-level contract. From there, he moved into the AHL and earned regular minutes as a 20-year-old, which is no small thing for any player, let alone the antepenultimate pick in a draft class.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton head coach Kirk MacDonald, who attended the Penguins’ annual prospect development camp after the 2026 NHL draft, pointed to Harding’s growth last season and highlighted one stat in particular: his plus-minus. MacDonald said Harding kept improving, absorbed coaching well, and put instruction into action on the ice.
“He just kept getting better,” MacDonald said. “His ability to take coaching, whether it’s video or just instruction on the ice and you could see him go and apply what we talked about.
More often than not, he executes at a high level. The more information or analytics that are available, the less people look at plus/minus.
But when you’re plus-30 every year, I don’t think that’s an accident either.
“That’s a stat that’s not important until it is. If you’re a really good plus, like Finn has been consistently for the last couple of years, and you’re really in the minus bad, that stat starts to mean something when you start to separate yourself from the herd. I don’t think it’s an accident that he continues to do that.
“He makes a lot of really good plays. He just got better. It’s hard to play in the (AHL) as a 20-year-old, as a young guy and he stepped in and was an every-night guy for us.”
Harding’s rise from seventh-round flyer to legitimate defensive prospect counts as a win for the organization. Plenty of players taken that late never make it to the AHL at all, but Harding got there and became a regular in his first pro year.
The next step probably won’t come fast. A 2026-27 NHL appearance looks unlikely with the Penguins’ depth on the right side of the blue line, and another season in the AHL appears to be the best route for his development at 21.
Harrison Brunicke still sits atop the organization’s defensive prospect list, but Harding is starting to push his way into the conversation as a player worth tracking on the blue line, even if his ceiling is different.
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