2023-24 NHL Prospect Pool Breakdown: Pittsburgh Penguins

Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

With just four first-round picks over the past decade, it isn’t a surprise that the Penguins have one of the worst prospect pools in the NHL.

It doesn’t help that two of those – Kasperi Kapanen in 2014 and Samuel Poulin in 2019 – never really panned out the way they wanted them to. Poulin is still young with a chance to prove people wrong, but with just three NHL games to his credit, it’s hard to get really excited about the potential there. They have found some nice mid- and late-round gems, but few teams have struggled on the draft floor as the Penguins.

In fact, between 2016-21 (giving the 2022 class a pass), only two of the 31 players selected have played more than 10 NHL games – Calen Addison and Filip Gustavsson. Neither is with the organization.

As a result, the Penguins are doing whatever it takes to keep the Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin/Kris Letang era alive. And that won’t change in 2024 after the team moved its first-round pick in the deal to bring in Erik Karlsson. It was a tremendous deal worth making, but the Penguins have just five picks in 2024, including two in the seventh round. So their prospect pool isn’t improving any time soon.

But that happens when you’re in a long-term contention window. GM Kyle Dubas, who can’t be blamed for the pipeline’s deficiencies, believes this group can still win. But don’t expect the next crop of top prospects to be much help.

Biggest Strength

In a way, the team does have some solid goaltending prospects worth keeping an eye on. Joel Blomqvist is the team’s best shot at becoming an NHLer, and at 21, he’s quite young. Taylor Gauthier had a solid season between the AHL and ECHL and should earn some call-up opportunities in a few years. Sergei Murashov was great in the MHL, but still needs a tougher challenge in the KHL. There’s also Filip Lindberg, who returned to Finland for 2023-24. At 24, he’s the oldest goalie in the system. Maybe we’ll see him back one day?

Biggest Weakness

The star reality is that if the top three don’t become full-timers, there’s a good chance nobody else becomes more than a depth threat. Yager was a huge get, and someone with a bright future. Owen Pickering is good, but not top-pairing good. And there’s Blomqvist, who still has an upward climb to go. Between traded picks and assets not panning out, this prospect pool hasn’t really improved over the past five years, to be honest.

TOP 10 PROSPECTS

*Brayden Yager (Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports)*

Grade: D

1. Brayden Yager, C, 18 (Moose Jaw, WHL)

Drafted: No. 14, first round in 2023

After years and years of mediocrity, do the Penguins finally have a scoring prospect worth getting excited about? The team’s first pick in 2023, Yager has the makings of an impact top-six forward. Yager has mainly been a center throughout his career, but I see him moving to the wing. He’s a strong shooter but had 50 assists, showing he can be a highlight-reel machine. There have been enough off-games to get some scouts concerned. He can play all situations, but he rarely engages physically and most scouts wanted to see more goals out of him. If you give Yager a more responsibly sound center to work with, I think Yager will become quite the scoring threat.

2. Owen Pickering, D, 19 (Swift Current, WHL)

Drafted: No. 21, first round in 2022

Standing tall at 6-foot-4, Pickering is so dangerous with the puck. He’s deceptive, smart and isn’t afraid to shoot it from the point. He has a nice size advantage but doesn’t always use it aggressively – he uses it to separate the puck from the carrier. He had a nine-game stint with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to close the season out, which was a good chance to see what he could do against pros. The Broncos captain should also factor into Canada’s world junior team in December.

*Owen Pickering (Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports)*

3. Joel Blomqvist, G, 21 (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, AHL)

Drafted: No. 52, second round in 2020

After sharing the net with Kärpät in Finland last year, Blomqvist is set for his first full season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He has two starts over two years resulting in a pair of losses, but he hasn’t exactly had much in front of him to work with. It’ll be interesting to see how he’s truly utilized, with the Penguins having Taylor Gauthier, Magnus Hellberg and Garret Sparks signed for the AHL squad. The 21-year-old will have his work cut out for him, but he’s a top 15 goaltending prospect in the NHL and projects to be a future long-term option for the Penguins. His journey has only really just begun.

4. Valtteri Puustinen, RW, 24 (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, AHL)

Drafted; No. 203, seventh round in 2019

Is this the year that Puustinen breaks through? A last-round pick in 2019, Puustinen looked destined to become one of the few small players to make a big impact in North American pro hockey. He had 59 points in 72 AHL games last year, but didn’t get an NHL call-up like the previous year. The offensive talent is there, so it’s more about finding the right role for him in the NHL lineup.

5. Samuel Poulin, RW, 22 (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, AHL)

Drafted: No. 21, first round in 2019

Once the top prospect in the Penguins’ system, Poulin just struggled as an AHL rookie before missing most of 2022-23. Poulin spent three months on the sidelines while focusing on his mental health and needed some time to get back into the swing of things. It was great seeing him back to close out the season, and, hopefully, the summer treats him well. He’ll have a chance to challenge for a spot on the Penguins this year and hopefully make the team full-time, but expect him to at least start in the AHL.

*Samuel Poulin (Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports)*

6. Isaac Belliveau, D, 20 (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, AHL)

Drafted: No. 154, fifth round in 2021

Belliveau is set to begin his pro career with WBS after putting up 46 points with Gatineau last year. It wasn’t his career-best, with the left-handed defender recording 11 goals and 53 points in 2019-20. Still, it was a good year as an offensive leader for the Olympiques. Consistency can be an issue, and when he’s off his game, he can be really off. But with some AHL seasoning, he could find himself as an injury call-up option a few years from now.

7. Sergei Murashov, G, 19 (Loko Yaroslavl, MHL)

Drafted: No. 118, fourth round in 2022

Murashov’s MHL season can’t be understated. He had a 26-9-6 run between Yaroslavl’s two teams and also won his KHL debut with the franchise. With 11 shutouts and a .946 save percentage, Murashov was by far the best NHL goalie prospect in the top Russian junior league. Scoring is quite low in the league, so it’s not a great sense of his abilities, but he was still dominant. Hopefully, we’ll see him get a few more starts in the KHL.

8. Jonathan Gruden, LW, 23 (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton)

Drafted: No. 95, fourth round in 2018

Jonathan, the son of Toronto Marlies head coach John Gruden, had the best season of his career with 16 goals and 31 points in 51 AHL games. He also skated in three NHL games with the Penguins but failed to score a point. At 23, this has to be a make-it-or-break-it season for the winger. He can clearly score in the AHL, but can he do enough to force himself into a bottom-six NHL role?

*Jonathan Gruden (Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports)*

9. Tristan Broz, C, 20 (University of Denver, NCAA)

Drafted: No. 58, second round in 2021

Broz moved to Denver after a year with the Minnesota Golden Gophers, putting up a respectable 10 goals and 28 points in 40 games last year. Broz was never a dominant scorer in junior, but he attacks every play, forces turnovers and reads plays fairly well. But Broz’s impact can be limited when he isn’t in all-out attack mode. He’ll need to take his game up another step in 2023-24 if he’s going to establish himself as a realistic NHL target.

10. Emil Pieniniemi, D, 18 (Kärpät, Liiga)

Drafted: No. 91, third round in 2023

Projected to be more of a depth option, Pieniniemi was one of the first players signed to an ELC out of the 2023 NHL Draft. The 18-year-old defender spent most of last year in the Finnish U-20 league, recording one goal and 13 assists in 31 games with Karpat. Pieniniemi also stood out against U-18 competition, where he had six points in seven playoff games. He should be considered for a spot on the Finnish world junior team in December before playing a bigger role in 2025.

Other notables: Taylor Gauthier, G (22), Zam Plante, C (18), Emil Jarventie, LW (18), Luke Devlin, C (19), Cooper Foster, C (18), Kalle Kangas, D (18), Filip Hallander, C (23), Kirill Tankov, C (21), Mikhail Ilyin, C/LW (18), Dillon Hamaliuk, LW (22), Ty Glover, C (22), Raivis Ansons, LW (21), Lukas Svejkovsky, C (21), Nolan Collins, D (19), Filip Lindberg, G (24)

Previous 2023-24 NHL Prospect Pool instalments

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