Despite the interest and intrigue leading to the big day, the public ranks for the NHL Draft can seem more like a blind draw than a targeted judgement of a prospect\u2019s ability to succeed at the next level. <\/p>\n
With three picks within the first 24 selections, in 2025 the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> selected two players whose rankings were nowhere close to their draft slot. They selected Ben Kindel with the 11th overall pick despite the draftniks typically putting him in the mid-20s, and actually traded up to select Will Horcoff<\/a> at No. 24 despite most draft lists putting Horcoff\u2019s rank in the 50s. <\/p>\n The only pick of the three that somewhat aligned with the public ranks was Bill Zonnon<\/a> at No. 22, which was just about where the hoi polloi slotted him into the process. <\/p>\n Even the Penguins\u2019 second-round pick (Peyton Kettles) carried a third or fourth-round grade in most of the draft books. <\/p>\n However, based on the selections of which current Penguins vice president of player personnel Wes Clark<\/a> has been involved over the last several years, including his time in Toronto, we can also get a sense of the types of players he is looking for. <\/p>\n As a resume burnishment, Clark helped Toronto select Matthew Knies<\/a>, Fraser Minten, and Easton Cowan in consecutive seasons after his promotion in the organization. In his first season with the Penguins, they selected Kindel, Zonnon, and Horcoff, and one year later all look like outstanding picks in the range they were taken. <\/p>\n The first notable among the picks are that skating does not appear to be a major driver in the selections. Cowan had elite speed, but Kindel and many of the Penguins\u2019 picks last year needed skating work at the time of their selection. <\/p>\n Second, hockey IQ seems to be a major driver. Sure, they can play at the junior or collegiate ranks, but do they have a hockey brain that will translate skills to the highest level?<\/p>\n In fact, IQ appears to trump size and stature with regard to draft attractiveness for Clark and the Penguins. They draft players who know the game. <\/p>\n Draft Rankings<\/p>\n Using the Canadian rankings, several very interesting players have settled into the Penguins\u2019 range, including a former Penguins locker room guest. <\/p>\n Wyatt Cullen<\/p>\n Cullen, 18, is former Penguins center (and former player development coach) Matt Cullen\u2019s son, whose homeschooling took place at the UPMC Lemieux Complex, and who used to run around the room with his brother. <\/p>\n As a player with the US program, he is a dynamic playmaker and responsible two-way center with good wheels who lifts his teammates. Cullen has also undergone a large growth spurt, sprouting up five inches and a few dozen pounds to 6-foot-1, 176 pounds \u2014 much closer to NHL size than he was before the growth plates shifted. As a result of the spurt, he suffered a muscle injury last season and wasn\u2019t ready to begin the season until late October. <\/p>\n There is a schism amongst scouts. Craig Button of TSN and Sportsnet scouts place him in the 20s, while other boards have pushed him into the mid teens. Button has him at 21 in his final ranking, while Sam Cosentino of Sportsnet ennobled him to No. 12. <\/p>\n J.P. Hurlbert<\/strong><\/p>\n The prospect who wore a suit to the NHL Scouting Combine to show respect for the teams has watched his draft ranking fluctuate as wildly as prospect available. He was highly rated at mid-season, dropped to the back of the first round in the penultimate ranks before becoming a consensus 20-something. <\/p>\n Button put Hurlbert at No. 23, while Sportsnet put him at No. 20. If the Penguins were impressed by his play while watching both him and Harrison Brunicke with Kamloops last season. Hurlbert is listed as a center but seems to have spent good time on the wings because he is a scoring threat. At 6-foot, 182 pounds with a nifty wrister, he\u2019s not a sexy pick, but scouts almost unanimously put him in the Penguins\u2019 range. <\/p>\n Adam Novotny<\/p>\n The Czech born center declined a chance to play in the Czech pro league to play junior hockey with the Peterborough Petes of the OHL. He\u2019s got the necessary size to fill the middle of an NHL rink (6-foot-1, 205 pounds), he skates well, but is otherwise a coach\u2019s favorite player because he plays in all situations, including the dirty areas of the ice but also able to fill big minutes at the end of a game. <\/p>\n Novotny, 18, had 34 goals and 65 points in 58 games this season. Button has him at No. 26, while Cosentino put him at 19. His aggregated ranking, however, is 13. He\u2019s most likely gone by the time the Penguins pick, unless Button and a few others are right. <\/p>\n Perhaps the hockey gods want to see another talented Czech in a Penguins sweater?<\/p>\n 2 to Watch, Gut Feeling<\/p>\n Veering off the board, there is one player that this writer has a gut feeling about, much in the same way we advocated the Penguins select Lane Hutson in 2022 (who was drafted deeper into the second round by Montreal), and Zach Benson (who was selected one pick earlier by Buffalo) in 2024. <\/p>\n Last year\u2019s gut feeling was Roger McQueen, also selected one pick ahead of the Penguins at No. 10 by the Anaheim Ducks. <\/p>\n Maddox Dagenais<\/p>\n That prospect that speaks to us this year is Dagenais.<\/strong> The fireball center has good speed for a big man, size (6-foot-4, 196 pounds), intensity that is growing as he matures, and some real physicality in his game. On the surface, those could be enough, but he also knows how to put the puck in the net. He had 30 goals and 62 points in 62 games for the Quebec Ramparts last season, which was only his second junior campaign. <\/p>\n Scouts say things like, \u201cHe\u2019s scary,\u201d but in positive ways as he crashes the end walls on dump-and-chase plays. He might be a power forward at the NHL level, but the Penguins showed they like those types of players by selecting both Zonnon and Horcoff, who are both centers that might be better suited on the wings in the NHL. <\/p>\n Button has him at No. 32, Cosentino has him exactly at 22. His aggregated rank is 29, so there is an expectation he\u2019ll be available to the Penguins. <\/p>\n Tommy Bleyl<\/p>\n Bleyl, 18, is another quietly rising prospect generally rated in the 20s. He is a right-shot defenseman with a lot of offensive pop. Although he\u2019s not big, at only 5-foot-10, 165 pounds, Bleyl had 81 points in only 63 games for Moncton of the Q this season. <\/p>\n The Penguins have few defensemen prospects in the pipeline, and those are the toughest to develop, so it might behoove Dubas and Clark to plant a few more seeds on the blue line. <\/p>\n As a caveat, players selected in the first round are expected to be able to play in the AHL next season. So, raw prospects or those in less than developmental situations could have a different path beginning next season. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTags: 2026 NHL draft<\/a> adam novotny<\/a> Maddox Dagenais<\/a> Penguins Prospects<\/a> Tommy Bleyl<\/a> <\/p>\n Categorized:2026 NHL Draft<\/a> Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite the interest and intrigue leading to the big day, the public ranks for the NHL Draft can…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":876351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[42],"tags":[99723,356166,349640,293,35184,62,349643,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-876350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-2026-nhl-draft","tag-adam-novotny","tag-maddox-dagenais","tag-nhl","tag-penguins-prospects","tag-sports","tag-tommy-bleyl","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116772318044088003","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876350","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=876350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}