PITTSBURGH \u2014 The future keeps getting brighter for the Pittsburgh Penguins.<\/p>\n
In June, the organization was delighted with the draft haul reeled in by president\/general manager Kyle Dubas and VP of player personnel Wes Clark. A few months later, it\u2019s even more excited.<\/p>\n
The Penguins\u2019 internal optimism started when they hired Dan Muse a few weeks before the draft. Hiring a new coach \u2014 especially a relative no-name such as Muse \u2014 naturally comes with some level of \u201cwait-and-see\u201d skepticism. After a summer, a training camp and seven weeks of the regular season, I assure you the Penguins are sold on Muse.<\/p>\n
The optimism continued with Ben Kindel, whom the Penguins drafted at No. 11. Pittsburgh was roundly torched for that decision, but a few months later, Kindel seems to have a reasonable opportunity to be a Calder Trophy candidate. At age 18.<\/p>\n
Dubas and Clark aren\u2019t being ridiculed for that anymore. Team sources told me they still would\u2019ve picked Kindel even higher than No. 11 if they\u2019d had a better draft slot.<\/p>\n
Dubas and Clark entered the draft with Kindel ranked as the fourth-best prospect available. They fell in love with his poise, skill, hockey IQ and potential. They saw him as a legitimate, top-six center. Acquiring someone with the potential to become a top-six center is always a big deal, no matter an organization\u2019s plight. When your top-six centers are 38 and 39, respectively, it\u2019s an even bigger deal.<\/p>\n
The Penguins\u2019 optimism doesn\u2019t end there.<\/p>\n
If anyone besides Kindel has emerged as a first-round \u201csteal\u201d candidate from the 2025 draft, it\u2019s Will Horcoff.<\/p>\n
The Michigan standout doesn\u2019t turn 19 until January. He was the third of the Penguins\u2019 three first-round picks, but he could be a top-10 pick in a re-draft.<\/p>\n
Horcoff, a hulking 6-foot-5 power forward who is still filling out, has 13 goals in 14 games for the Wolverines. When he was selected, the majority of the Penguins\u2019 scouts really liked him and thought it was a solid pick. The one knock was that, despite Horcoff\u2019s massive frame and impressive two-way game, he was not finishing enough to their liking. If he learned to finish, the thinking went, his stock would rise dramatically, from a projected solid middle-six forward to perhaps a top-line player.<\/p>\n
Well, he leads the NCAA in goals.<\/p>\n
The Penguins are giddy about his ascent. He seemingly leaped from intriguing prospect to NCAA stud in the blink of an eye.<\/p>\n
Of course, he\u2019s not on Kindel\u2019s trajectory. Teenagers are rarely ready to play in the NHL, and power forwards typically require more time to become NHL-ready. That said, a team source told me the Penguins think there\u2019s a good chance he\u2019ll be ready for full-time NHL action within two years. They have a growing belief that, in time, he could become a top-six standout. If that\u2019s the case, the Penguins could\u2019ve found two such players in the same draft.<\/p>\n
This brings us to Bill Zonnon, the second of the three first-round picks. His season was temporarily derailed by a couple of nasty injuries, but he\u2019s finally getting his season underway in the QMJHL with Blainville-Boisbriand.<\/p>\n
Zonnon was viewed as one of the safest picks in the draft in June, a surefire second- or third-line player with an uncommon work ethic and tenacity. The injuries have not changed the Penguins\u2019 belief in Zonnon, whom they project to be in the NHL in a couple of years. In fact, some people I\u2019ve spoken to within the organization believed Zonnon was the most NHL-ready of the three selections in June.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how good this draft may have been for the Penguins.<\/p>\n
Oh, there\u2019s more<\/p>\n
Past the first round, the Penguins also feel they have a steal in fifth-round pick Quinn Beauchesne, much like they did with defenseman Finn Harding, who was picked in the seventh round in 2024.<\/p>\n
Beauchesne, a right-handed defenseman, like Harding, is off to a great start with the Guelph Storm (OHL). He has four goals and seven points through 12 games. Beauchesne was a standout in training camp, looking nothing like a fifth-round player. He has some buzz around him through the organization.<\/p>\n
How the Penguins landed \u0160ilovs<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to get distracted by Sergei Murashov because the Penguins haven\u2019t developed a goaltender like him since Matt Murray.<\/p>\n
Murashov\u2019s teammates are blown away by him. But they\u2019re also blown away by Art\u016brs \u0160ilovs.<\/p>\n
\u0160ilovs has been one of the NHL\u2019s best goaltenders this season. When the Penguins acquired \u0160ilovs this summer, I talked to Jim Rutherford, who told me \u0160ilovs had \u201ca very real chance to become a very good NHL goalie.\u201d The Canucks\u2019 issue was that they were filled to the brim with goaltenders and knew they\u2019d lose \u0160ilovs to waivers.<\/p>\n
Rutherford knew Pittsburgh could give \u0160ilovs an immediate opportunity. The former Penguins GM also happens to like Dubas and doing business with him. The Penguins had salary cap space and a reasonable offer. Put it all together, and we\u2019ve got a deal.<\/p>\n
Goaltending is the difference<\/p>\n
One veteran Penguins player told me that the consensus in the locker room is that the team would have been around this good last season if they had gotten the goaltending they\u2019re getting now. He said that, yes, the additions of Kindel, Parker Wotherspoon, Justin Brazeau and Anthony Mantha have made an \u201cobvious difference,\u201d but \u201cwhen you\u2019re not giving up the first shot for a goal every game,\u201d it makes quite a difference.<\/p>\n
The veteran noted that \u0160ilovs, Murashov and the much-improved Tristan Jarry are all responsible for the turnaround. He also mentioned Andy Chiodo, the goaltending coach. Indeed, the Penguins showed faith in him when everyone thought he\u2019d be dismissed in the offseason.<\/p>\n
It looks like a very sound decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 The future keeps getting brighter for the Pittsburgh Penguins. In June, the organization was delighted with…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":392844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[293,1334,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-392843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115583539516447656","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}