Last summer we highlighted potential surprise players for the Penguins with a spotlight on Filip Hallander (no), Harrison Brunicke (kinda but not really), Alex Alexeyev (no) and Arturs Silovs (yep). 1.5 out of four is a .375 batting average that would look pretty good in baseball, at least. With hindsight, there were no shortage of players who ended up being major positive surprises like Kindel, Parker Wotherspoon, Anthony Mantha, Justin Brazeau and Ryan Shea at the top, with the total number impressive performances exceeding expectations stretching all over the lineup. Finding basically a point per game winger in Egor Chinakhov wasn’t one that many had in the sights either at this time last season, showing that the best surprises are ones that aren’t even on the radar ahead of time.
With that in mind, who could be some players that make a major mark on next season? For this, I’m not going to consider Sergei Murashov – most expect he will be in the NHL and while it would be a surprise if he plays at a high level, it’s not exactly out of the range of possibilities that no one would have expected. That’s too easy of a development to see on the horizon to stretch the surprise element. I’m not going to go with Andrei Kuzmenko either, though he might have a large impact on the season since he’s a guy with a 39-goal, 74-point NHL season under his belt. Seeing him producing points when given an opportunity wouldn’t be a shock, even though it would be a nice development if he performs a little better than the general expectation.
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Declan Carlile
It isn’t going out on a huge limb to point out that Carlile will have the opportunity to make a big impact, but this is the showcase example of probably the casual fan looking up in the middle of the year and thinking ‘wow who is this guy’. The Penguins have a history of success when it comes to plucking defenders out of obscurity and see their stocks rise as a result, with Wotherspoon and Shea being prime recent examples. Carlile, as one of the few NHL caliber left defenders with the organization, should be in-line for as big of a role as he can handle. His underlying metrics show that he just might have some potential for a Wotherspoon-esque glow up. For a surprise, Carlile would have to slot in as a top-four matchup defender and handle it pretty well. There’s no guarantee that will happen (even though he’s carrying a decent amount of excitement and hope), Carlile has only 46 career games under his belt and has never spent a full season in the NHL at this point. Then again, like Wotherspoon, Carlile could find himself practicing in September with Erik Karlsson – possibly never to surrender that spot for the balance of the season.
Hendrix Lapierre
It seems like Lapierre is very tertiary in the eyes of many right now, nearly forgotten given all the other, flashier acquisitions of the summer. A surprise for him would be getting a jersey consistently and making a positive impact. He’s done that at times in his career already, and he can also play center – a position that isn’t exactly very impressive or settled on the team right now. Not sure this will be a surprise in the vain of finding a 50-point player this season, but considering expectations are pretty low for this player this is more of a ‘buy low’ guess that it won’t be too hard to clear the bar of what most have in mind at the moment. I could see Lapierre being a guy that suddenly you see has played 60+ games and made a couple plays along the way. (Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but it’s not like he’ll have to be Kucherov to be a surprise, given the manner he’s mostly thought of on the internet).
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Nick Robertson
The Penguins might not get the NHL star Robertson brother, but similar to Lapierre’s case, I think expectations and excitement for the Robertson they did get recently is too far on the low end for where it should be. Despite a lack of ice time and steady progression in Toronto, Nick Robertson has been a productive player. He’s scored 31 goals in the last two seasons, he’s figured a little something out. The Pens are a bit overstocked (for the moment anyways) with a ton of scoring-line wingers like Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell to presumably go with Chinakhov and Evgeni Malkin, so it’s also a case of wondering just how and where Robertson fits in at the moment. Be it through injury, performance, a trade or some other variable that hasn’t happened yet, here’s to guessing Nick Robertson has a big year for the Penguins. It’s within reason that he scores 20 goals and gets over 40 points without the benefit of a ton of power play time, which just might be surprising the fan base at-large when they look up in January or February and realize that this has become a key player on the squad.
Bill Zonnon
Gotta dare to dream on this one, since Zonnon, 20 in October, will just be in his first pro season next year. This could be premature, he’s probably better off being a solid candidate for a surprise in 2027-28. But hey, summer’s the time to live a little. It’s going to be a long season of now 84 games, and the Penguins dressed 25 different forwards last season for one reason or another. For whatever you want to say about them, Pittsburgh is a team that isn’t afraid to call a player up from the AHL and see what he’s got for a game or two. Zonnon took to the AHL like a fish to water by scoring a goal in each of the first three playoff games he played as a pro this spring. He’s got great wheels and a knack for going to the net, and is also a center. Zonnon will have to prove himself in Wilkes and then have the door opened (probably by injuries at the position, stay the thought!) so maybe in some ways it would be nice enough if he’s not seeing NHL action in 2026-27. But as Ben Kindel showed last year, if a player can make a good enough impression and keep making things happen, an NHL look isn’t out of the question.
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Mikhail Ilyin
Similar to the Zonnon case, it might be a stretch to figure too strongly on Ilyin getting an opportunity in 2026-27. Like Zonnon, Ilyin also flashed in the AHL playoffs (nine points in 15 games) in basically his first taste of North American hockey after playing five AHL regular season games. The 21-year old was a historically good point-producer at a young age in the KHL, he’s succeeded at every level by showing the playmaking and hockey IQ chops that can’t be denied. It won’t be a surprise to see Ilyin blossom into a pretty good AHL player in 2026-27, it can be easy to try and hope that gets accelerated into some sort of NHL impact. We’ll see, but it’s a name to keep in mind somewhere as a potential candidate for a player that might be able to step up and make a name for himself if the conditions are just right.
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