One of the prospects that turned heads at the Penguins’ summer development camp for his standout play on the ice was 2026 third round pick Pierce Mbuyi. Mbuyi was all over the place creating offense at the 3v3 scrimmages, the perfect venue for a player with his creativity and skill to stand out. It was a great first impression from a player drafted 86th overall at the 2026 draft.
“Pierce is an underdog. He had 74 points this year, and we did a lot of work on him in the past couple of weeks. He’s dealt with some things in his lifetime that you don’t want people at that age to deal with. So, we see the look in his eyes, and we’ve got a lot of belief in the person.” —Wes Clark
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Clark was referencing Mbuyi’s mother passing away from cancer in 2021.
“If I had a bad game I could just talk to her about the game . . . my mom would just let me tell her what I think. She didn’t know much about hockey, she just always wanted to help out and do her thing,” Mbuyi said. “Everything I do is for my mom. With everything I do, I try to make her proud.”
Mbuyi made himself into a pro prospect despite the immeasurable personal loss. He was drafted seventh overall in the OHL draft and has continued on his journey with the most recent step of being selected by an NHL team. After two successful seasons in the OHL, Mbuyi is off to State College in 2026-27 to continue the next step of his career in Pennsylvania.
“I was always just a hard worker. A grinder. When I dropped down to my age group I had a pretty good year, but it was my bantam year when I kind of took off and started scoring,” Mbuyi said. “I don’t know what happened. I got some hands overnight.”
“I was just really determined. For me it wasn’t even about the points, it was just about working my ass off and getting seen, you know? Make an impact,” Mbuyi said.
There were plenty of scouting eyes and models that liked Mbuyi higher than the 86th overall pick that he ended up being drafted at. Here’s a smattering of the input they found and shared about the player.
One reason Mbuyi stuck around until the third round was his size. At only 163 pounds, he’s got a long way to go physically to mold himself into a pro level player. His upside, as seen above, is evident. The reason the Penguins liked him was on display at prospects camp for the way he thinks the game and the skill he has to pull it off.
From Josh Yohe at The Athletic:
There is one other person that everyone I speak with in the organization is excited about. His name is Pierce Mbuyi.
The Penguins genuinely did not expect him to still be available in the third round. Though Mbuyi is undersized, the Penguins love his skill, hockey IQ and competitive spirit. They think they got a steal.
Time will tell, of course. But this is as excited as I’ve heard people about a third-round pick in a long time.
To that, some of us are old enough to remember 2019 third round pick Nathan Legare, who carried even more hype early after draft day, though we digress.
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Pal Jesse Marshall did a wonderful deep dive into Mbuyi, complete with a 13-minute video package breaking down some highlights that make this a special prospect.
Mbuyi’s best asset and his calling card are his one-timers. As a rookie last season, he led the entire OHL in power-play goals, scoring 19 from his favorite spot on the ice: the half-wall. As an opponent, when you see Mbuyi sitting in that spot with his stick loaded up over his head, you had better close on him immediately. Mbuyi scored many brute-force goals this year and did a great job opening space for himself, stalking open ice, and finding the right space for his teammates to get him the puck. He generates great velocity and accuracy from that position.
This isn’t just standing around in the same spot with his stick loaded, waiting to strike. Mbuyi manipulates opponents with his decision making. Most of the time, he does this via deferential passing. Mbuyi will pick his spot, load his stick up, and get ready to rip his lethal one-timer. Upon receiving the puck, if Mbuyi doesn’t have a lane, he just makes a touch-pass. The touch-pass inherently forces the defenseman to re-position himself to account for the puck movement. As the defenseman re-positions himself, so does Mbuyi. He re-loads his stick in a slightly different spot than the one he was just in, and when his teammate passes back to him, he has more time and space than he had on the initial retrieval.
Much of Jesse’s scouting report about Mbuyi was on full display in Pittsburgh last week. He is a shifty skater, strong at controlling the puck and has a knack for scoring goals and setting them up, making things happen nearly every time he went out on the ice. A successful debut at his first pro development camp will make Mbuyi a player to monitor for how he develops moving into a new realm in the NCAA ranks.
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