Given that we are in the dog days of August, there is a whole lot of discussion regarding prospects and the best up-and-coming players in the NHL, as there is not much else to talk about right now.
Last week, The Athletic’s Corey Pronman released both prospect pool rankings and a ranking of the best players under the age of 23. The highest-ranked Pittsburgh Penguins’ young player was winger Rutger McGroarty at 80, but one of the biggest surprises on the list was center Ben Kindel being ranked 92nd on the list in Tier 6, which he deems a “middle of the lineup player.”
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On this list, 46 players above Kindel have not yet played an NHL game. Meanwhile, Kindel spent the vast majority of the season as an 18-year-old – he didn’t turn 19 until Apr. 19 – holding down the third-line center position, playing solid two-way hockey, contributing on the power play, recording 17 goals and 35 points in 77 games, and showing off his hockey IQ and higher-ceiling puck distribution and playmaking skills. He also showed off a pretty nasty shot on several occasions, too.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time Kindel has been overlooked. When the Penguins selected him 11th overall in 2025, many thought it was a reach. He was not designated by most as a legitimate candidate to make the NHL team out of training camp as a young 18-year-old, either, but he did. He was not expected to last beyond his nine-game NHL trial run, but he did because his body of work in those nine games was impressive and transcended his age.
During the season, he was rarely talked about in national circles despite being one of three newly drafted players to stick in the NHL beyond nine games – the others being New York Islanders star defenseman Matthew Schaefer and San Jose Sharks rising star center Michael Misa. After the season concluded, most still weren’t talking about Kindel even though he ended up with a few Calder Trophy votes.
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Pronman wrote that Kindel profiles more as “a long-term third-liner, but he could be a top-six winger.”
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But anyone with eyes who watched Kindel all season – and, particularly, kept tabs on his work at the center position – would probably come out with a different outlook.
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For starters, Kindel won 43.6 percent of his draws last season, which isn’t a bad number for a rookie. For perspective, Penguins’ captain and NHL legend Sidney Crosby had a 45.5 win percentage in the dot during his rookie season. He also, almost immediately, flashed keen two-way awareness and used the middle of the ice comfortably, something that doesn’t happen right away for most rookie centers.
He was trusted enough by the coaching staff to man the third-line center position for the entire 2025-26 season – aside from a few games as second-line center and a handful on Crosby’s wing – even though the Penguins had different options for that role at different times throughout the season. Kindel showed on many occasions his offensive upside, showcasing shootout prowess, being a one-time weapon on the power play, acting as an effective playmaker down low, and exposing the soft areas of the ice. He also won a fair amount of puck battles and added on size throughout the season.
In other words, it seems many are underestimating and underscoring Kindel’s NHL ceiling as a center and as a player in general. He may not ever be a first-line center, but to suggest his ceiling was, essentially, already met during his rookie season at age 18 borders on preposterous.
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Kindel will continue to progress and grow, and so will his two-way game. Maybe he could have a higher ceiling on the wing, but his maturity as a center at this stage already suggests that being a career third-liner is a low bar to set for him.
In fact, there is a good chance that Kindel may just be the most underrated young player in the NHL. While others in his class – and many in this year’s class – are already being showered with praise and projected as crucial parts of their respective organization’s future, Kindel remains in the background, just as he had in his draft year, just as he had during last year’s training camp, and just as he had over the course of the season.
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Even if he’s not a superstar, Kindel very well could be an All-Star caliber player in a few years, and he’s the most untouchable young player in a Penguins’ organization that has seen a nice pool of young players and prospects come into the fold over the last three years. His body of work speaks for itself so far, and the way he consistently outperforms expectations should almost, in turn, be an expectation until the day that he doesn’t.
And, maybe a few years from now, Kindel’s name won’t be neglected and forgotten when the league’s best young players are recognized.
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