It’s been almost two months since our last prospect update, time to check in again with some of the young players that aren’t in Pittsburgh or Wilkes-Barre. This won’t be a comprehensive check-in for every single prospect out there, rather some quick hits about notable recent occurrences to be aware of as the season progresses.
Harrison Brunicke
There haven’t been many dull moments for Harrison Brunicke lately, aside from the Penguins barely playing him in November and December. Brunicke turned in a so-so
performance at World Juniors, it was clear the only spot for him for the rest of this season was back in the CHL, which is where Pittsburgh assigned him to Kamloops (WHL). Brunicke can be recalled to Wilkes-Barre once his junior season ends. Kamloops is currently 5th in the 12-team Western Conference.
Brunicke has taken to the WHL like a duck to water, producing eight points (2G+6A) in his first five games back. That’s a step up from last year’s rate of scoring 30 points in 41 games. He’s been looking good with some individual highlights.
So far, so good for Brunicke. He is now finally in a spot where he can play big minutes and grow his game while building confidence being the big fish in a smaller pond before moving on to the challenges of the pro full-time starting either this spring or next fall.
Bill Zonnon
Bill Zonnon has had the most quiet and frustrating draft+1 seasons out of Pittsburgh’s three first round picks from last summer. We all see what Ben Kindel is doing in the NHL, Will Horcoff is among the most prolific goal scorers in the NCAA. Zonnon, for his part, is just now getting his season off the ground. An injury from junior training camp left him watching in Pittsburgh’s NHL camp. Zonnon then only played two QMJHL games after he recovered from that first injury before going down again. He’s back now and able to show his stuff. Zonnon has 21 points in 15 games, and has produced 16 (6G+10A) in his last ten and ten points (3G+7A) in his last five games, including a hat trick.
It’s nice to see that the two injuries won’t result in a total lost year for Zonnon who will get a chance to keep working upwards. The Penguins will be allowed one 19-year old CHL player in the AHL next season and he looks like a candidate for that slot should things continue in this manner.
Melvin Fernstrom
It hasn’t been a very smooth season for the 19-year old that came to the Penguins via the Marcus Pettersson/Drew O’Connor trade. Fernstrom was the SHL rookie of the year in 2024-25 (scoring 8G+9A in 48 games), but as Kyle Dubas likes to point out, growth and progress is not always a neat, linear trend that constantly ticks upwards. That’s been the case for Fernstrom this year, who only scored four points (3G+1A in 36 games), was left off Sweden’s WJC team and recently loaned down to the second level pro league.
However, it looks like Fernstrom (who is signed to an NHL contract and loaned to Sweden currently) might be coming to America mid-season instead in some recent breaking news from this morning via an announcement from his Swedish club.
The google translation:
Melvin Fernström has been on loan to Örebro Hockey during the season and now it is said that he will be recalled by the Pittsburgh Penguins.
– Melvin’s season has not been as neither we, Pittsburgh nor Melvin himself wanted. Now we have ended up in a situation where we cannot offer Melvin the playing time he needs. We have had a dialogue with Pittsburgh and Melvin’s advisors and together we have agreed that this will be the best solution for everyone. Melvin will join Pittsburgh’s organization shortly and until then he will continue to train in our organization, says Henrik Löwdahl
The motivation for the Pens is clear, this is a player that would benefit immensely from getting into an NHL organization’s fitness and skating program. His best traits (shooting, offensive abilities) are going to sink or swim based directly on how much he can upgrade his skating ability. No time better than the current to get to work on that, especially since the season results have shown that it looks like he needs it.
Will Horcoff
Horcoff is an interesting watch right now. His WJC was not especially good, and since the return he hasn’t scored a goal and has two assists in four games back with Michigan. There’s always little bumps in the road, as mentioned above, this note is just to point out that his stock was probably at an all-time high at the end of November and has cooled a bit since then. It was expected that he would have a long developmental curve and need some time to put all his tools together, which might be kept in mind after an exciting red hot start this season.
Gabriel D’Aigle
We haven’t always had the most glowing of notes on what D’Aigle (third round pick in 2025) has displayed, though a positive update from Jesse Marshall is certainly worth checking in on for a very deep dive of a big, athletic goalie. There’s a lot of raw material to work with in this case.
Cruz Lucius
Lucius, a prospect picked up in the Jake Guentzel trade, is a senior that the Penguins will have to decide about signing after he finishes up his season with Arizona State. Staying healthy has been a concern, though not this year. Lucius has 35 points (12G+23A) in 26 games to rank 4th in scoring in the NCAA. His pass from behind the net here was a nice one to start a sequence of the eventual goal.
