{"id":886422,"date":"2026-06-23T04:46:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T04:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/886422\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T04:46:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T04:46:14","slug":"draft-notes-lin-bjorck-rudolph-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/886422\/","title":{"rendered":"Draft Notes: Lin, Bjorck, Rudolph \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"byline\">\n  By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prohockeyrumors.com\/author\/ethan-hetu\" title=\"Posts by Ethan Hetu\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ethan Hetu<\/a> |<br \/>\n  at June 22, 2026 9:40 pm  <\/p>\n<p>The Pittsburgh Penguins are among the many teams who can progress their youth movement in a meaningful way this week, as the 2026 NHL Draft on Friday and Saturday represents the year\u2019s most significant chance to add young talent to an organization. The Penguins sit at No. 22 in the first-round draft order, but <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7360594\/2026\/06\/22\/penguins-draft-trades-dubas\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">according to Josh Yohe of The Athletic<\/a>, it would not be a surprise if the team elects to trade up.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of where they pick, one name that has \u201cdrawn the Penguins\u2019 attention\u201d is WHL blueliner <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockeydb.com\/ihdb\/stats\/pdisplay.php?pid=272045\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ryan Lin<\/a><\/strong>, right-shot defenseman. Lin is generally ranked in the early-to-mid teens in the public-facing draft rankings, but could end up slipping to the Penguins\u2019 No. 22 on account of his size. (Lin stands just 5\u201911, 178 pounds)<\/p>\n<p>More notes ahead of the NHL Draft later this week:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"longlis\">\n<li>If the Penguins do end up vaulting up the draft order, one name they could be targeting is Swedish center <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockeydb.com\/ihdb\/stats\/pdisplay.php?pid=286518\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Viggo Bjorck<\/a><\/strong>. According to Yohe, the Penguins \u201clike [Bjorck] a great deal.\u201d Bjorck was also connected to the New York Rangers, who pick No. 5 overall, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prohockeyrumors.com\/2026\/06\/morning-notes-bjorck-preston-quinney.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">in a report<\/a> we covered last week. Although Bjorck lacks the prototypical size teams look for down the middle, he has risen to the top end of draft boards as a result of his skill level, competitiveness, and fearless style.<\/li>\n<li>The Winnipeg Jets\u2019 top decision-makers \u201cwould be thrilled\u201d if WHL defenseman <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockeydb.com\/ihdb\/stats\/pdisplay.php?pid=287657\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Daxon Rudolph<\/a><\/strong> is available when the team is set to pick at No. 8 overall during the draft this week, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7376928\/2026\/06\/22\/jets-draft-week-hellebuyck-contract-trades\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">reports Murat Ates of The Athletic<\/a>. The 6\u20193\u2033, 208-pound defenseman is consistently ranked among the draft\u2019s top-10 prospects by most public-facing scouts. He was among the WHL\u2019s most dominant blueliners this past season, scoring 78 points in 68 regular-season games and 27 points in 19 playoff contests. Beyond Rudolph, Ates writes, the Jets are also targeting defensemen <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockeydb.com\/ihdb\/stats\/pdisplay.php?pid=291538\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Alberts Smits<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockeydb.com\/ihdb\/stats\/pdisplay.php?pid=272560\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Keaton Verhoeff<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ethan Hetu | at June 22, 2026 9:40 pm The Pittsburgh Penguins are among the many teams&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":886423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[42],"tags":[99723,347348,293,8993,1334,347353,80192,62,67,132,68,113004,44044,292],"class_list":["post-886422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-2026-nhl-draft","tag-daxon-rudolph","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-draft","tag-pittsburgh-penguins","tag-ryan-lin","tag-shl","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-viggo-bjorck","tag-whl","tag-winnipeg-jets"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886422","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=886422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}