Howe dropped ten spots in Pensburgh’s prospect rankings over the last year because of a knee injury that will sideline him for at least half of the 2025-26 season. The Penguins are still hoping he can develop into a Brad Marchand-type agitator at the next level once he’s recovered.
Find all the previous entries in this year’s series below.
Pensburgh Top 25 Under 25: Graduates and Departed players in 2025
Top 25 Under 25: The best of the rest
No. 23: Travis Hayes
#17: Tanner Howe, LW
2024 Ranking: No. 7
Age: 19 (November 11, 2005)
Acquired Via: 2024 draft (Round 2, No. 46 overall) by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Signed to three-year ELC in 2024.
Height/Weight: 5’10”, 183 lbs
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Reports from around the time when the Penguins selected him in last spring’s draft all have a similar theme of describing Howe’s aggressive, competitive, pest-like approach to the game:
Howe is the kind of player you absolutely can’t stand in your beer league games. He shows up giving an effort level that is way beyond what you expect for an 11:00 p.m. faceoff, he’s chirping on the ice and from the bench all night long, and at some point he’s going to knock you off the puck, walk it in for a prime scoring chance and let you know about it. —The Athletic’s Jesse Marshall
“However people view Brad Marchand is what I see in [Howe]. . He’s a guy that’s got that fire, that competitiveness in his game. There’s not many checks he won’t finish, yet he’s got that offensive touch to play up and down a lineup, in the top six. He has that scoring and playmaking ability to play with elite players.” — Regina Pats head coach Brad Herauf, per NHL.com’s Mike G. Morreale
Howe used that energy to take a step toward the AHL during his fourth junior hockey campaign.
The former teammate of Connor Bedard and captain of the Regina Pats adjusted from a midseason trade to score 39 points (12 goals, 27 assists) in 37 games with the Calgary Hitmen.
The winger also represented Team Canada at the 2025 World Junior Championship and scored a goal during the team’s quarterfinals loss to Czechia.
TANNER HOWE STRIKES SHORT-HANDED!
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) January 3, 2025
Canada ties it up.#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/nbliEKU1GH
He later helped the Hitmen make it to the conference semifinal of the WHL playoffs with nine points (two goals, seven assists) in six postseason games. Howe is wearing No. 9 in the clips below.
Howie from his knees pic.twitter.com/vHnMiXUacB
— Calgary Hitmen (@WHLHitmen) April 2, 2025
When we say we want Moore – we usually get it… pic.twitter.com/y82vhCIBlC
— Calgary Hitmen (@WHLHitmen) March 30, 2025
️ Ben Kindel has two! pic.twitter.com/cSRB4MScZF
— Calgary Hitmen (@WHLHitmen) April 3, 2025
That campaign put Howe on track to make his Wilkes-Barre/Scranton debut when eligible for AHL play this fall, especially after WBS general manager Jason Spezza complimented his development in March.
“I would say probably his consistency off the puck has gotten better in terms of his ability to reload, his ability to kind of keep a high pace during a shift, and I think he’s just grown in a lot of his kind of smaller habits that I call pro habits that we’re trying to really encourage him to get better at,” Spezza said in March, per NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman. “I think that’s been, for me, the biggest area of growth.”
Howe meanwhile said at the time, per Kimelman, he believed that “with a good summer I have a really good shot” at the next level.
Then came the bad injury news.
After Howe closed out the playoffs with a season-ending knee injury, Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas announced on April 24 that Howe had undergone reconstructive surgery on a torn right ACL.
Howe’s expected recovery time is nine months, according to the press release, so the winger won’t be on track to return until late January.
Spezza said in July that Howe will still spend the next season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton while recovering.
“He’ll miss a good chunk of the season to start. We’ll take things slow with him. With the injury that he had, it’s important that he’s 100 percent healthy,” Spezza told reporters at development camp on July 15. “But he’ll be in Wilkes next year. When he’ll be back from the injury is a little more up in the air, based on what he’s feeling. And we won’t rush him, either. It’s a young kid. You want to make sure the rehab goes smooth, and just put it behind him.”
Howe’s three-year rookie contract hasn’t started yet. The Penguins will want to make sure he’s healthy and ready to play, especially because Howe is both an undersized and physical player.
Howe’s former linemate Ben Kindel is also in the Penguins organization, and his other linemate Oliver Tulk was invited to development camp in July. Potentially getting the chance to play with some of his former WHL teammates down the road might eventually help ease Howe’s transition to the next level.
The best-case scenario for Howe next season involves a smooth recovery from knee surgery, a careful ramp-up to play, and a strong professional debut that leads to him finishing out the season with the WBS Penguins.
The Penguins could use some agitators in the lineup after some lackluster performances over the last few seasons. If Howe is able to infuriate his AHL opponents like he did for four seasons in the WHL, he could make a compelling case for the Penguins to call him up some time during the 2026-27 campaign.
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