As the draft gets closer, let’s look back at the results for the Pittsburgh Penguins over the last 10 years. We’re going off of the look we took last year, to see what changes and developments have happened in the last twelve months that might have changed the way we see the draft now.
let’s see how the Pens have done recently in the draft.
2025
Grade: Incomplete (but hell yeah!)
One year isn’t near long enough to find deep meaning withing how an NHL draft went, but we still are including it to show what
happened more than try and cast a critical eye at this point. For starters, getting a non-top 10 pick to play all season and be a contributing player is a unicorn occurrence, the Ben Kindel pick looks like it could be a very, very good one for the Pens. That alone will likely set them up for a good grade once it gets time to tell exactly what has panned out.
Beyond Kindel, it’s very much wait-and-see, which again is normal, expected and completely fine. Horcoff had a solid year in the NCAA, Zonnon turned heads making a seamless transition to the AHL in the playoffs and the rest of the many picks all had various degrees of success this season. There could be a few diamond in the rough hopefuls (Ryan Miller and Kale Dach are longshots worth keeping tabs on, for starters) and still plenty of time for the others to make their way. It’s early to make bold statements in any particular direction, but with that qualifier out of the way, the 2025 draft haul for the Pens could one day end up being very good. It certainly shows a lot of promise 12 months later.
2024
2025 Grade: Incomplete (but trending nicely enough)
2026 Update: Yeah, that sounds about right for the time being
Brunicke became the rare teenaged defenseman in the NHL, though briefly and to spotty results. His future looks bright, especially after a great turn in the AHL playoffs. Several other players from this class like Howe, Pietila and Harding also completed modestly successful AHL seasons. It doesn’t look like a nearby NHL future is assured for any besides Brunicke, but considering that the Pens didn’t have a first rounder and only made two picks within the top-100, this is a so far so good situation for having a few decent prospects a couple years later. There’s enough going right at the moment that you don’t have to squint too hard to see several reasonable candidates for NHL action in the future, though it remains to be seen if any of them (besides Brunicke) will end up as important and long-lasting pieces of a future NHL roster.
2023
2025 Grade: Incomplete (and also trending nicely enough)
2026 Update: Uh oh
Yager made his NHL debut for Winnipeg at the tail end of the season, but his overall prognosis is not looking very rosy at the moment based on underwhelming AHL stats. The Pens may have done well to trade him early on based on the post-draft developments, or lack thereof. (Of course, they’d be doing better still had they selected one of Matthew Wood, Samuel Honzek or Axel Sandin-Pellika, the next three choices off the board after they took Yager…)
Pieniniemi was just traded in what looks like a throwaway deal to move on from a young player after he failed to report to the ECHL at one point and held a virtual lock out for himself for a couple of months. Not unusual to see a third rounder flame out, but the circumstances around it were unfortunate to see that situation come to a resolution so quickly.
Ilyin had some nice moments in his AHL debut this spring and could well salvage this class, even if we include Rutger McGroarty as a stand-in for Yager, which he was as a prospect for prospect trade (McGroarty was drafted in 2022). The results from Pittsburgh’s 2023 picks is not looking like it’s going to create a lot of waves at the NHL level. At this point, you really need to see a big step from McGroarty in 2026-27 and Ilyin take a leap in order to get something out of it.
2022
2025 Grade: C- (with time remaining to improve the grade)
2026 Update: C- (with time starting to run out for the class)
Pickering had a very troublesome draft+4 that only saw him play in four NHL games and venture into the territory where he’s moving towards potential bust in a hurry. Next year will be big for him to sink/swim when it comes to his NHL prospects. The same could be said last year with some optimism but now is a lot more measured about what the possibilities are shaping up to be.
With that in mind, it looks like Murashov will likely be a one-man class out of this as far as candidates to play a major role as an NHLer for the long haul. (Plante and Devlin are in the NCAA with rights retained but not much pro projectability). Murashov has been a great AHL goalie and will likely soon get a chance to show if he has what it takes to make it in the NHL. Expectations around him have arisen monumentally within some segments of the media and fanbase, and not without reason. But it’s going to be a lot to live up to for him at this point. If Murashov becomes a quality NHL goalie, this grade goes up. Until then, it’s staying the same.
2021
2025 Grade: F (with a slight chance of improving)
2026 Update: Not much has changed
There was only one top-150 pick, so this class was likely always bound to be whatever Broz could develop into. He’s gotten right on the verge to see some NHL action but for one reason or another (sometimes due to him being hurt/sick when the opportunity was open), he’s only played one NHL game through his draft+5. Broz still has some intrigue and upside, but at this point he doesn’t look like a long-term difference maker either. Given the nature of this draft, a failing grade was almost bound to happen, so the harsh grade isn’t directed as a negative to the team so much as acknowledging the circumstances that occurred to make the result happen.
2020
2025 Grade: D+ (with slight chance to increase)
2026 Update: Moving to an F, for now
Clang provided the Pens with value when they moved him as part of the Rickard Rakell trade, and now he’s signed to a Swedish team after a few AHL seasons. Blomqvist has gotten stuck in the pecking order clearly behind Murashov. Blomqvist is a decent AHL goalie but hasn’t grown much beyond that to this point. The book isn’t closed on him helping the Pens at some point, but it doesn’t look like he’s going to be a major player either with Murashov and Arturs Silovs in his age range and firmly ahead of him.
Again, not much for high-value picks to work with so this is what it is. The curious decision to take goalies with both of the only two top-100 picks the team held was questionable then as it is now. It’s always good for a team to strategize taking the best player they think is out there, it might have been better if they tried to find a skater they liked for at least one of those picks.
2019
2025 Grade: D-
2026 Update: F
For all the hope that Poulin and Legare inspired, they have amounted to 19 games, 0 goals and two points between themselves. Even seven years later that is a bitter pill to swallow, following the expectations of developing some young talent. Sometimes, it’s just not meant to be and it wasn’t in this case.
Puustinen showed some flashes but didn’t have much staying power at the NHL level, and now the Pens have nothing from this draft class remaining in their organization with only the most modest of contributions to show from it (almost all of it at the NHL level from the seventh round pick). Disappointing result to end up with so little.
2018
2025 Grade: I don’t know, maybe a C?
2026 Update: D-
The Pens brought Hallander back for 2025-26 to see what he looked like as a fully formed 25-year old, and the results weren’t that impressive before he suffered an unfortunate blood clot. He’s still under contract and might be a fringe player for next season if cleared to play but doesn’t look like much gained or lost either way. The best of this class was trading Addison when he had value to be a part of the Jason Zucker trade. Beyond that, another classic Jim Rutherford year of not prioritizing draft picks and ending up gaining virtually nothing out of the draft as a result.
2017
2025 Grade: F (or a 0 if we’re being really stern but accurate)
2026 Update: Yup
As written last year, “for the first time since the team’s initial two-pick amateur draft in 1967, the Pens produced a draft class that has zero NHL games played. None at all. Might as well have stayed home.”
Such is a risk with no first round picks and only two inside of the top-150. They weren’t set up for success in the 2017 draft and didn’t come close to finding any. Oh well, the banner will fly forever.
2016
2025 Grade: D+
2026 Update: B-
Gustavsson’s rise into an NHL starting goalie, and a decent one at that, has changed my outlook about this draft class. If just grading that, you have to give the Penguins credit for mining a starting goalie out of a late-second round pick. (Perhaps less credit for trading said goalie less than two years later as part of the Derick Brassard deal, but that’s a different subject for a different day). Gustavsson did losing his starting job by playoff time to an even better goalie in Jesper Wallstedt but he’s turned into a very respectable player.
Considering the Pens again didn’t have a first round pick to make and little draft ammo to work with, they at least found one legit NHL player. That’s more than what they can say most other recent seasons.
