As another August draws down, so too does our annual feature on the Top 25 players in the Penguins’ organization this year. With Kyle Dubas’s focus on rebuilding the youth has kicked into full gear, so too has the excitement and promise of the list.
There are three spots to go, but no secret to keen observers who will fill them (letting the secret out for the rest if its even necessary, in alphabetical order still to be profiled this week are Harrison Brunicke, Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty).
Dubas’s impact on the organization is really starting to be seen within the pipeline, he famously made 13 draft picks in 2025, in part due to stocking up with the trades of veteran players like Cody Glass, Anthony Beauvillier, Kevin Hayes, Lars Eller and Reilly Smith, all of whom added to the draft pile this past year. There’s still more to come, the Pens already have at least one extra pick in the second and third round in 2026, 2027 AND 2028, and sometimes more — they own three second rounders in ‘26 and three thirds in ‘27, with plenty of time to add to that collection.
In all, in 26 months on the job, Dubas has about completely reworked the T25U25 list with his imprint. 21 of the 25 players, including eight of the top 10 and 13 of the top 15 were acquired by Dubas. Sam Poulin, who makes his last appearance on the list this year and Joel Blomqvist are the last “young” player vestiges of the Jim Rutherford era still remaining. Owen Pickering and Sergei Murashov are the only signs on this list that remain of the ill-fated Ron Hextall stint as Pens GM. The rest are all players that Dubas has drafted or acquired via trade in the past two years, which stopping to think is quite the turnaround and focus on stocking the organization up from the bottom and growing out.
This turnaround an influx in talent is reminiscent of how Ray Shero made a concerted effort in the early 2010’s to add to the prospect pool. That movement eventually brought the Pens players like Bryan Rust, Jake Guentzel, Olli Maatta, Matt Murray, Teddy Blueger and Tristan Jarry — as well as some others like Tom Kuhnhackl, Scott Wilson and Josh Archibald that chipped in to help round out championship teams in 2016 and 2017. It will take several more years for the prospects and picks of today to turn into NHL caliber contributors, but Pittsburgh will certainly be working the developmental angles to help the list of today eventually turn into perhaps the next solid Penguin team years down the road as the youth movement continues.
In terms of tiers, there is a lot muddling the waters this year. There are a couple of older “young” players like Philip Tomasino and Arturs Silovs that will help in the short-term but have questions about their long-term impact for the organization. A broad sort of tiers could be seen as follows to help explain and understand the placement of the different players at different spots on this year’s list.
Tier 7: #22 – honorable mentions; Long-term prospects with some upside
Starting with Brady Peddle (22), Travis Hayes (23), Cruz Lucius (24) and Quinn Beauchesne (25) and stretching even deeper to players that didn’t quite make the list like Daniel Laatsch, Ryan Miller, Kalle Kangas and Charlie Tretheway this area sees players that are basically long-term fliers for NHL contributions. Several of these players are 2025 draftees and barely 18 and will need significant time and development in the next couple of years to get a sense of what the team might have. There could potentially be some NHL impact, but at this point one really has to squint and/or project some best case paths of development in order to see what might happen.
Tier 6: #15 – 21; Slightly more developed prospects still a ways away
There are a couple of young prospects like Tanner Howe (17), but the majority of this tier fits as players who are mostly going to be in the pros in 2025-26, and/or are 20+ years old and have their futures coming into focus a little bit more. For many in this tier, next season will be absolutely crucial to see how things go for players like Emil Pieniniemi (15), Tristan Broz (16), Avery Hayes (18) and Finn Harding (21) as they get measuring sticks to show where they are at and exactly how much of their upside could be reached. That means different things for different players, Pieniniemi and Harding would be well-served as rookies simply to retain spots in the AHL lineup next season, while others like Broz and Hayes are up a level and trying to make headway towards a spot in the NHL, showing that not all of the players linked within the same tier need to be at the exact same position, depending on the different stages of their own individual careers and journeys.
Tier 5: #12 – 14; Intrigue, but patience required
This might be one of the more interesting tiers, and 3-4 years from now could go a long way to determining how good the Pens’ youth looks depending on just how many pan out. Melvin Fernstrom (12), Peyton Kettles (13) and Mikhail Ilyin (14) have reason to be all a little bit more notable today than others found in the lower tiers, but none will be playing in the organization regularly in 2025-26. Fernstrom and Ilyin will be loaned to their respective European teams, Kettles returns to juniors. All need substantial growth and seasoning in their games, but have some intrigue for their talents. Fernstrom has a NHL level shot, Ilyin has the puck skills, Kettles has the size and nastiness to be an impact defender that made the Pens want to take him at 39th overall. If any of these players rise towards the top of the list in years to come as mid-level prospects that emerge, that would be a very, very good thing. None of these players are ones that the team is truly counting on right now to carry their future, but this is a sort of “lottery ticket” type of tier — if a few end up panning out in a positive way, the health of the organization will benefit greatly.
Tier 4: #9 -11; The wildcards
Tomasino (9) and Silovs (11), as mentioned, as very difficult to place within others that have much longer runways. Both of these players will do something for the NHL Penguins next season, but beyond that it’s unknown how much staying power either will show to have. They could be pieces of the puzzle moving ahead, they could wash out depending on how next season goes. Sergei Murashov (10) doesn’t truly fit into this tier in the same way as the other two, aside from being a 20-year old goalie that could certainly be considered a wildcard given the various paths young goalies get on. These players carry more value to the organization since they will contribute something in the immediate future. But just how long that will last is still up in the air at this point.
Tier 3: #7-8; Older, near ready players
It can be odd in some regards to designate Owen Pickering (8) as an “older” prospect at just 21 years old, but all nine of the defenseman drafted in the first round of 2022 have already made their NHL debuts. Many will be NHL regulars next season. It’s high time for Pickering to show that he’s ready to be in that mix, even while recognizing as second-year pro and young player that he still has time and room for further growth. Similarly, at 23, Joel Blomqvist (7) is getting close to a launch or fall inflection point after making his NHL debut last season. He won’t be a lost cause to stay in Wilkes-Barre and try again in 2026-27, but if he’s going to get it in gear and become a full-time NHL player it’s getting to be time to demonstrate that in the coming year.
Tier 2: #4-6; Recent first round picks
The three players that the Penguins drafted in the 2025 first round, Benjamin Kindel (4), Will Horcoff (5) and Bill Zonnon (6) are neatly tucked together in this tier. Similar to Tier 5, the future success/failure of the 2025 T25U25 list will largely hang in the balance of just how much these three grow and where they end up years down the line. Obviously just a few months after being drafted, there is justifiably high hopes for all at this point but it’s still going to require a lot of time and work to see how it goes for each one of them. Unlike Tier 5, these are players based on their draft position that the organization is counting on to turn into something. That doesn’t mean we should expect future NHL All-Stars or absolute core players, but the spotlight will be on these three to grow into some sort of big league contributors down the line.
Tier 1: #1 -3; Cream of the crop
We’ll have the profiles and exact ranking of the three this week, but it’s not jumping the gun too much to say that the trio of Brunicke, Koivunen and McGroarty are the most valuable and highest-profile three young Penguin properties in this moment. Brunicke’s rocket ship of a career path nearly had him make the NHL last year at just 18, and he will get a long look in camp to prove himself as one of the top-6 options on a not-very-quality Penguin blueline. Even if he doesn’t stick in the show for the whole season, the arrow is pointing up to reasonably expect big things in the near future. Similarly, barring some trades, it might not be out of the realm of possibilities to send either Koivunen or McGroarty back to the AHL for the start of the season but these two players will be integrating into the NHL lineup much sooner than later and become the first part of the next wave of young players as the Pens build.
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