As another chapter of the NHL draft comes to a close, the Pittsburgh Penguins have fully embraced the reality of their rebuild. Sportsvival has already written about the draft picks that were just made by Kyle Dubas and company, but I believe now would still be a good time to discuss Dubas’ plan and what the overall intentions are from their draft picks.
To begin, the Pittsburgh Penguins took three forwards with their three first round picks. This was the first time they had three first round draft picks since 1984. A little player by the name of Mario Lemieux was drafted that same year. Needless to say, it’s been a very long time since the Penguins have had so much draft capital to play with. 13 draft picks compared to the 4-6 draft picks that they averaged between 2013-2024 is a major swing compared to where they’ve been.
Ben Kindel was taken first at number 11. A former 99 point scorer who has a knack for finding the back of the net. He has a very good shot with the ability to create offense on a dime. Areas of concern would be his lack of height (5’10) and he’s definitely a little skinny and needs a little bit more muscle throughout his body. He won’t see the NHL for a few years, so he has more than enough time to add those things before his name is inevitably called up to the big league.
The Pittsburgh Penguins made a very curious decision when they decided to trade the number 12 pick to the.. Philadelphia Flyers? I haven’t seen enemies do business with each other since Henry Kissinger met with Chairman Mao Tse Tung. But Dubas had a vision when that deal was made. The Flyers took Jack Nesbitt with pick 12, and the Penguins received picks 22 and 31. The Penguins took a big forward in Bill Zonnon at pick 22, and at pick 31, the Penguins took a forward who is very similar to Nesbitt when they decided to take Will Horcoff at 31. It’s fairly obvious to see what the Penguins and Dubas are doing. Dubas has been very vocal about wanting to make the team as big, fast and physical as possible. All GM’s say this to a certain effect, but Dubas has really been treating it as gospel.
Guys like Zonnon (6’2) and Horcoff (6’5) are proof of the aforementioned plan. Sure, Kindel is smaller and still can grow a little bit, outside of him being an outlier at 5 '10, Dubas completely loaded up on height, strength and speed. Defensemen Peyton Kettles (6 '6) Brady Peddle (6' 3) and Charlie Trethewey (6 '2) show loud and clear the goal: if you’re going to beat us, you’re gonna have to be as big and strong as we are. There were some other good choices made that give them more forward depth in terms of prospects. Guys like Travis Hayes and Quinn Beauchesne could have higher skills and a decently sized upside for where they were taken. This year’s draft wasn’t extremely deep and filled with tons of elite talent, but I’m sure some of these kids taken in the later rounds will probably turn into solid players. That happens every year. Scouts don’t get everything right.
In terms of this year’s draft, there really wasn’t that much elite talent there. I think if there was going to be a year where you were going to be understandably aggressive with trading up, a year like this year, would’ve done it. Evidently, next year’s draft is supposed to have a lot more elite talent in it. So if I were to guess, Dubas and company are going to be hard stuck on hyper fixating on next year’s draft. Dubas knows they’re rebuilding. He knows this core is getting ready to walk into the sunset together. They’ll probably be picking relatively early in next year’s draft as well. If they do, they could have an opportunity to get an elite talent to leapfrog them in terms of the rebuild they’re in. But, that’s a year away. But it’s fun to speculate, isn’t it?
Overall, I think the Pittsburgh Penguins touched on pretty much every base they could’ve in regards to what they needed. They didn’t have a lot of forward depth, especially at the center position. They got a couple really big, beefy defensemen and the forwards that were taken in later rounds are young talents who could possibly be diamond in the rough type guys. After all, Dubas has always been known as a draft nerd. With as much as he researches, and as much as he puts into it, I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple of these later picks end up becoming relatively well-known players. The Penguins have done that relatively well for years. The future is now. But not right now. It’s too early to assume what any of these players are going to do, but I do believe they checked almost every single box they needed to check with what they had. Only time will tell if this draft class will be one that we remember, or we will be so eager to forget.