How did the Penguins do?
The 2025 NHL draft is done, and what a 24 hours it was for the Penguins! Pittsburgh ended up making three first round picks, a handful of trades and 13 selections. It was a flurry of activity for the team and stocks them up for the future.
Some Sunday thoughts on the event, in fast-paced bullet form.
- The sheer number of picks was a doozy for the Pens. Pittsburgh had only made between 4-6 picks each year from 2013-24. Taking 13 players this year more than doubles the typical yield. The Pens hadn’t drafted 10+ players since 1994.
- The quality was high too, the Pens had four picks in the top-40 and seven in the top-100. Pittsburgh made four top-40 picks in 2013-24 – combined! Matching the quality (via pick area, at least) of the last 12 drafts in totality is mind boggling. That’s a crazy swing towards building through draft picks once again.
- Dubas definitely did things his way with this draft. All three first round picks in Ben Kindel, Bill Zonnon and Will Horcoff were picked by the Pens at least a few spots earlier than expected. Time will tell if the Pens’ were right in valuing the players that they went with.
- The “what could have been” factor will be highly-tracked in the years to come, being as the New York Islanders ended up with both Kashawn Aitcheson and Victor Eklund. Not many would have blinked if the Pens had made those two their own first round picks. The fact those two players ended up on the same team — and a division rival at that — is going to be fascinating to monitor how it goes. That could have been the Pens!
- But it wasn’t them, since Dubas decided to trade out of pick No. 12 and get two late first round picks. It was a curious move being as the conventional wisdom coming into this draft was that there was a very real talent shelf in the middle of the first round. Again, these are the things that only time will tell — the conventional wisdom doesn’t always hold up in the long run.
- Still an interesting idea to trade there, and not just trade but trade to the FLYERS! Did we mention crazy times?
- Much like the NYI situation with Aitcheson/Eklund, the unavoidable comparisons with Philadelphia will be a juicy story to follow. As mentioned, it’s even better since the player the Flyers drafted with the Pens’ pick at 12 (Jack Nesbitt) is a very similar prospect to the one that the Pens got later on in William Horcoff. Both are very big centers that have work to do. Which one pans out, or how both pan out will be incredibly fascinating. (Of course, Pittsburgh also got Bill Zonnon out of that trade, so all their eggs aren’t in this basket…But for the Flyers, they are more committed with Nesbitt, at least for the purposes of this trade).
- Dubas has shared a vision for the Pens being bigger and harder to play against in the future. Every GM is going to say something to that effect, but Dubas wasn’t just paying lip service. Zonnon (6’2”, 185 pounds) and Horcoff (6’5”, 203 pounds) fit that bill. Peyton Kettles (6’6”, 194 pounds) and Brady Peddle (6’3”, 203) are monstrous defenders with an edge that aren’t around for their puck skills. Charlie Trethewey (6’2”, 201) isn’t far behind. Even the goalie (Gabriel D’Aigle) checks in at 6’4” and 211 pounds. That’s a lot of beef.
- But is it odd to be more enamored with some of the later picks? Fourth rounder Travis Hayes and fifth rounder Quinn Beauchesne could well have higher upside and more skills/quality than many of the team’s second/third round picks. A lot of defenders in the Kettles/Peddle/Trethewey range on draft day look like third pair NHL guys. Maybe they can develop further and exceed expectations, but more toolsy prospects like Hayes and Beauchesne arguably have that “lower floor but possibly higher ceiling if they hit” type of quality.
- It’s also interesting the split went three forwards in the first round, then the next four picks across Rounds 2-3 included three defensemen (and a goalie). That might have been somewhat circumstantial for how the draft broke but stood out that Dubas was able to address the forward group early and often at the top of the draft and then ended up switching gears to focus on the blueline.
- As far as Dubas draft tendencies go, will dig in more on this later but there were no major surprises. WHL, OHL and American players dominated, with multiple connections to the Soo. There were some alterations from past plans, it wasn’t a great year for Finns and that was reflected. In fact, Pittsburgh didn’t take any Europeans at all. No overage players either, surprisingly enough.
- On that last point though, it’s been reported the Pens were close to drafting Penn State center Charlie Cerrato, an overage player high on their list. They got outmanuevered by Carolina in this instance, who draft Cerrato 49th overall. There’s gotta be a million stories like that of teams angling for certain players and watching them get plucked ahead of them, but so it happens.
- On those lines. the Pens had four real chances from pick 73 – 105 to step up and take LJ Mooney, and went different directions. That’s not completely shocking since going with a 5’7” all skill player doesn’t exactly fit the mold or tone of this year’s draft in Pittsburgh but it makes you wonder how or when Pittsburgh would have ever had Mooney on their list.
- The thing about the NHL draft is whether it looks good or not the day after it’s over doesn’t really matter, unless a team walks out with like Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid or something. That wasn’t the case so patience and time is the only thing that will truly tell just how well or poorly the Penguins did. From the surface, if they can turn their 13 picks into a handful of decent NHL players then they will have done their part to stock the organization. This draft looks like a “building block” type of compilation for the Pens. They didn’t get any surefire All-Stars or high-end talent — maybe that will come next year. They might have started on a good foundation for that future stars with a healthy amount of a supporting cast, if all goes well.
The only thing sure and certain for now is that the upcoming development camp on July 3-7 is going to be as important and interesting of a summer week of hockey that the UPMC Lemieux building has ever hosted. There sure will be a ton of new faces as the Pens shift gears into starting to develop the players that they just brought into the organization.