The Pittsburgh Penguins are today’s focus in the NHL prospect pool overview series. Tony Ferrari examines the Penguins’ strengths and weaknesses, gives a quick overview of their latest draft class, shows their positional depth chart and examines who could be next in line for an NHL chance. A player who no longer holds rookie eligibility in the NHL is considered graduated and no longer considered a prospect for these exercises, except in very specific cases. FIRST THOUGHTS When GM Kyle Dubas joined the Pittsburgh Penguins last summer, he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
The team was not a legitimate contender and didn’t have the juice to compete behind Sidney Crosby and Co., and their future outlook wasn’t great considering their prospect pool was as poor as anyone’s in the NHL.
A trade for Erik Karlsson that cost them their first-round pick and a few other moves later left them in just as bad a spot without a first-round pick in the 2024 draft. They did a good job of recouping some assets and filling out their prospect pool when they moved on from Jake Guentzel at the trade deadline, but overall, the Penguins are in a bit of an awkward spot.
Their future is bleak, and the present is centered around Crosby and keeping the team competitive while he finishes his career in Pittsburgh as one of hockey’s all-time greats.
Speaking of that Guentzel trade, the Penguins acquired the 44th- and 157th-overall picks in the 2024 NHL draft, prospects Ville Koivunen and Vasily Ponomarev and the rights to NCAA project prospect Cruz Lucius.
The second-round pick would have been a first-rounder had the Carolina Hurricanes made the Stanley Cup final, but that didn’t happen. They also got Michael Bunting as immediate help. While they didn’t get one of Carolina’s premier prospects, Koivunen is the most interesting of the youngsters they acquired in the trade.
His intelligence and skill are an intriguing combination. He was nearly a point-per-game player at the Liiga level last year, and he joined the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for a couple of playoff games, collecting a point in each contest.
With a full AHL season ahead of him, Koivunen could assert himself as one of the Penguins’ best prospects. He always looks to create offensively, drive play up ice and put his team in advantageous positions with his passing. It’s not out of the question to see him get a few NHL games this season.