Penguins Slot At 16 In Latest Prospect Pool Rankings

Throughout the summer, one of the hottest NHL topics is prospects, which is understandable given that the draft takes place in June and that, following the initial onset of free agency, things die down quite a bit until September.

On Tuesday, another major rankings list was released. And the results were a bit perplexing for Pittsburgh Penguins fans.

NHL Prospect Writer Corey Pronman of The Athletic released his annual prospect pool rankings for each NHL team, which included rankings per team as well as rankings for prospects within each respective organization. The Penguins were ranked 16th – a tick lower than most lists have them nowadays, but nothing outrageous.

What was a bit harder to wrap the head around was the prospect rankings within.

For Pronman’s parameters, players had to be under the age of 23, disqualifying players like Ville Koivunen, Tristan Broz, and Avery Hayes but qualifying younger players like Ben Kindel, even if he has a full NHL season under his belt.

Here were the three biggest surprises – and, frankly, head-scratchers – on the list:

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1. McGroarty at No. 1 over Kindel

Let’s set the record straight here: Despite dealing with some major injury setbacks to start the 2025-26 campaign, McGroarty had an excellent AHL season. He put up 10 goals and 34 points in 30 games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (WBS) and was a factor for them in the playoffs, and even if his 24-game NHL sample last season was somewhat unremarkable, his progress over the course of the 2025-26 campaign was tangible. He still projects as an effective middle-six NHL player.

But the fact that Kindel, at 18, played a full NHL season as a legitimate third-line center for a playoff-contending team and scored at nearly a 20-goal pace should automatically put him at the top of this list and any list he’s included on. Kindel is only going to progress and get better, and his top-six ceiling is nearly a given. The Penguins like his two-way ability at center, and he is their best young player at this time.

As a matter of fact, it could be argued that a few other prospects such as defenseman Harrison Brunicke, goaltender Sergei Murashov, and forward Bill Zonnon should be ranked above McGroarty, even if he is still a top-five organizational prospect.

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2. Speaking of Murashov…

Perhaps the most jarring bit to come from this list was the fact that Sergei Murashov – the consensus best goaltending prospect by pretty much every writer and prospects guru who covers the Penguins – was ranked the organization’s 17th-best prospect.

Look, it’s reasonable to have some reservations about goaltending prospects in general. Goalies are volatile, and even the best prospects at the position can end up busts. And, more often than is the case for the other two positions, goaltenders drafted later frequently still experience long NHL careers.

But Murashov – at least, in the Pittsburgh media circle – is a consensus top-five prospect within the organization, and in most cases, he is considered top-three. He has dominated every level of professional hockey up to this point, was one of the AHL’s best goaltenders last season, and had an absurd playoff run with WBS that included a .931 save percentage in 15 games.

Maybe Murashov is a boom, maybe he’s a bust. But it’s pretty wild that 16 Penguins’ prospects were ranked ahead of him on this list.

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3. Missing the mark on Brunicke

The issue with Brunicke on this list wasn’t really the ranking, as he was placed No. 3, and he is typically regarded as a top-three prospect in the organization.

However, it’s something in the analysis that stood out.

Pronman uses six levels of tiers in four categories of critique, which include skating, puck skills, hockey sense, and compete. He projected Brunicke as “NHL average” in all four.

In all fairness, NHL average means he is a middle-of-the-pack NHL player, by Pronman’s standard. NHL average hockey sense? Sure. Puck skills? Why not? However, rating Brunicke’s skating and compete as “NHL average” seems to miss the mark, and he goes on to say that Brunicke “isn’t a dynamic player by any means offensively.”

If anyone watched Brunicke’s run in the AHL playoffs – and even in his short, uneven nine-game NHL sample last season as a 19-year-old blueliner at the highest level of hockey – it’s quite easy to see that his skating is well above average, the compete level is there, and the offensive dynamic exists, too. In fact, those three attributes are, perhaps, the three biggest differentiating pillars of Brunicke’s game, which has been stated many times over by members of the front office.

Again, Brunicke may not end up being a full-time top-four NHL defenseman. But erasing the biggest strengths in his game that are clearly at least a notch above NHL average seems a bit disingenuous.

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