Heading into the 2025-26 season, the Pittsburgh Penguins have shifted the focus to youth and development.
With more talent in the system than Pittsburgh has had in years – and 13 picks in the 2025 NHL Draft – top prospects lists are becoming more competitive and more difficult to discern. Since the prospect pool is deepening, The Hockey News – Pittsburgh Penguins takes a look at the top-20 prospects in the organization.
At No. 6, we discuss a blueliner who made his way to the NHL in 2024-25, and – although he didn’t stick around through the end of the season – he showed flashes of top-four potential. That would be Owen Pickering.
The 2024-25 season was a big one for Pickering, who was selected 21st overall by the Penguins in 2022. The 6-foot-5, 200-pound blueliner was touted more so as a two-way defenseman heading into the draft, as he registered nine goals and 33 points in 62 games with the Swift Current Broncos in 2021-22.
Since then, Pickering’s offensive game has yet to really take off in a big way. He did record 16 goals and 91 points in 120 more games with Swift Current before moving on full-time to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (WBS) Penguins of the AHL last season – but that is where flashes of his shutdown ability really started to surface.
In 47 games with WBS last season – split between the beginning of the 2024-25 season and the end of it – he put up just two goals and 13 points total. But it was his game on the defensive side of the puck and in transition that impressed the Penguins and led to an unexpected mid-season callup ahead of a Nov. 16 game against the San Jose Sharks.
Pickering recorded an assist in his first NHL contest, and just five games later, he recorded his first NHL goal against the Florida Panthers. The spurts of production – and ability along the offensive blue line – was encouraging to see from Pickering, but what was even more encouraging was the fact that he jumped into minutes alongside Kris Letang on the top pairing less than a month later.
And this, perhaps, was an assignment that Pickering wasn’t quite ready for. It wasn’t for lack of ability, but rather, for lack of experience. Much of the steadiness and suredness that was shown from him early on and in WBS earlier in the season started to fade a bit, and an injury just before the holiday break kept him out for two weeks. Pickering did stick around through most of January, but he saw his minutes dwindle and eventually ended up back in WBS.
But make no mistake: Pickering showed enough in his NHL sample size to prove he is ready for full-time NHL action next season, even if in more controlled, sheltered minutes. And that’s exactly where he intends to be in 2025-26.
“You never want to get sent back,” Pickering said near the end of WBS’s 2024-25 season. “You always want to be in the NHL. I feel like I proved to myself that I can play in the NHL. I want to be full-time next year, I want to be [in Pittsburgh] the whole year. That’s the goal.”
And Pickering certainly has the ability, even if – as GM and POHO Kyle Dubas said in his post-season press conference – he isn’t quite ready for top-four minutes yet. He is figuring out how to use his frame to his advantage, as he is getting better and better at boxing guys out and pushing them to the perimeter of the ice. He’s mobile for his size as well, and he already excels at navigating the offensive blue line and finding lanes.
What Will Owen Pickering’s Role Be In 2025-26?
Next season will present a prime opportunity for several Pittsburgh Penguins’ prospects to crack the NHL roster.
But there is still room for improvement as well. Pickering could use some work on his breakouts, and he could also develop a more physical game. He’s also still working on establishing his presence in front of his own net and not forcing plays and decisions.
All in all, the Penguins see Pickering as a big part of their future on the blue line. Dubas wants to see the young defenseman push for a bigger role this season, and one doesn’t have to look very hard to see the potential there.
“We can’t have him same as we had him go down, settling into a 12-13 minute a night role,” Dubas said. “He needs to come in and push his way into 17, 18, 19, 20 minutes and earn that.”
It remains to be seen what Pickering does with the opportunity he has. There is a lot of uncertainty on the left side of the Penguins’ blue line, and it seems as though a spot is there for the taking for Pickering if he has a good training camp.
If he does crack the NHL roster, he may very well develop into a shutdown presence that the Penguins have needed for a long while. And there might still be some room for him to make his way onto the scoresheet consistently, too.
Top-20 Penguins’ Prospects 2025: Forward Prospect Continues To Build Two-Way Game
Heading into the 2025-26 season, the Pittsburgh Penguins have shifted the focus to youth and development.
The list so far:
– No. 7: Tanner Howe
– No. 8: G Arturs Silovs
– No. 9: G Joel Blomqvist
– No. 10: F Tristan Broz
– No. 11: F Will Horcoff
– No. 12: F Mikhail Ilyin
– No. 13 F Filip Hallander
– No. 14: F Bill Zonnon
– No. 15: F Melvin Fernstrom
– No. 16: D Emil Pieniniemi
– No. 17: F Avery Hayes
– No. 18: F Cruz Lucius
– No. 19: D Finn Harding
– No. 20: D Peyton Kettles
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