We have reached the top of the PensBurgh top-25 under 25, and unless you are a certain prospect analyst that has been making waves on social media over the past week it is probably not a shock to see who is at the top of the list: It is 19-year-old center Ben Kindel, moving up from the No. 4 spot a year ago.
Pensburgh Top 25 Under 25: Graduates and Departed players in 2025 Top 25 Under 25: The best of the rest #25: Chase Pietila, D #24: Ryan Miller, F #23: Finn Harding, D #22: Peyton Kettles, D #21:
Zam Plante, F #21: Brady Peddle, D #20: Melvin Fernstrom #19: Tanner Howe #18: Tomas Galvas #17: Pierce Mbuyi #16: Jake Livanavage #15: Owen Pickering #14: Tristan Broz #13: Avery Hayes #12: Ville Koivunen #11: Hendrix Lapierre #10: Markus Ruck #9: Mikhail Ilyin #8: Joel Blomqvist #7: Liam Ruck #6: Will Horcoff #5: Bill Zonnon #4: Rutger McGroarty #3: Sergei Mursahov #2: Harrison Brunicke
#1: Ben Kindel, F
2024 Ranking: No. 4
Age: 19 (April 19, 2007)
Acquired Via: 2025 NHL Draft, 1st Round, 11th Overall
Height/Weight: 5-foot-11, 182 pounds
Elite Prospects resume:
Even though it did not take on the look anybody was expecting at the start, and even though it came to a disappointing conclusion with a first-round playoff exit to the Philadelphia Flyers, the 2025-26 Pittsburgh Penguins season was a pretty solid success.
On a team level, they overachieved, made the playoffs, and gave everybody one hell of a fun season.
On an individual level, there were some pretty important additions and player developments that took place.
The addition of Egor Chinakhov is potentially significant. Collecting more long-term assets and seeing the prospect pool get deeper is significant, whether that development happened in the NHL or at the AHL level. But perhaps the biggest development, and honestly one of the most surprising on the time frame, is the fact Ben Kindel not only made the NHL roster coming out of training camp, but that he played an entire season in the NHL and more than held his own.
Actually, it is understating things to simply say that he “more than held his own.”
He contributed. Significantly. He contributed significantly to a playoff team, and did so while playing in a pretty major role.
The Penguins also knew pretty quickly there was a chance he could do that.
The most well-known story from the preseason was when head coach Dan Muse decided he was going to put Kindel into as many one-on-one matchups as he could with Detroit Red Wings winger Patrick Kane in an exhibition game just to see how he could handle it.
From The Athletic back in January:
“The exhibition game in Detroit, I remember that well. I remember there was a point where I told him, ‘I’m going to put you out there against Patrick Kane as often as possible, just so you know.’ He kind of turned and looked at me and and got this huge smile and said, ‘This is awesome.’”
Kindel put on a show that night, and the Penguins knew it was appropriate for him to remain.
“He did awesome,” Muse said. “Just seeing how he reacted in different situations, he was not fazed at all. It was so impressive. You’re looking for responses when things don’t go well in training camp and exhibition games. There were times when seemingly everything was going well for him. But I wanted to see how he’d respond when he turned the puck over or when a goal against was on him. What are you going to do next? It’s important to see how young players react in those moments. And he just keeps playing. He just plays. It doesn’t get to him. He’s been so good.”
There might be some question and uncertainty as to how high his ceiling actually is, but it is probably fair to say that we have at least established that he has a fairly high floor. He is an NHL player, and his contributions are impressive given the position he plays, his age, and the production he delivered as an 18-year-old.
The list of 18-year-olds to play enough games in the NHL to score even 15 goals, let alone more than that, in the salary cap era is a short one.
It consists of only Sidney Crosby, Patrik Laine, Jeff Skinner, Macklin Celebrini, Nathan MacKinnon, Cole Bedard, Matthew Schaefer, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Steven Stamkos, Jordan Staal, Andre Svechinkov, Kindel and Cole Sillinger.
The worst players on the list are probably Skinner and Sillinger.
In Skinner’s case, he was still a six-time 30-goal scorer on the wing that peaked at 40 goals.
Sillinger is still only 23 and has at least proven himself to be a capable NHL player, even if in a depth role.
The only two players with at least 15 goals and a Corsi percentage higher than 50 percent as an 18-year-old are Skinner, Schaefer, Kindel and Svechnikov.
The point with these comparisons is that we should at least have a good idea that Kindel is going to be an NHL player for a long time.
That was always the hope when he was taken with the No. 11 overall pick, but that is also a spot in the draft where nothing is a guarantee. At that point you are starting to get into the range where you might make it to the NHL, but you might not stick. Even if you do stick, it might not be a high-level player. The fact Kindel has already made it, and shown something impressive, is a really good sign that he is going to stick and be a very, very useful player. The fact it happened this quickly is an even bigger win. Now they get to see how good he can be and how much better he can be in year two of his career.
