Penguins Draft Targets: Big Radim Mrtka, Quickly Rising Ranks

A 17-year-old big Czech defenseman is rising quickly in rankings and mock drafts. Radim Mrtka towered above most of his fellow draftees at the NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo last month, and didn’t know that he actually had dinner with Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas.

But the 6-foot-6 right-handed defenseman who sports an all-around game has risen above the other defensemen jockeying for the position of second D-man taken behind likely first overall pick Matthew Schaefer. After ranking in the teens last month, Mrtka could now be selected in the top 10.

Of course, the Penguins now own the 11th and 12th overall picks after the New York Rangers made their awaited decision and forfeited their 2025 pick to complete their trade with the Vancouver Canucks, who flipped the pick to the Penguins in the Marcus Pettersson/Drew O’Connor trade.

With two picks, the Penguins can be expected to snag at least one defenseman as general manager Kyle Dubas admitted following the season that his organization was thin at that position.

Ironically, if there were a defenseman to compare Mrtka to, a fair comparison would be Pettersson. Mrtka just keeps it simple, steady, and looks for the right play.

It might be one of the most important but mundane highlight and scouting videos that Matt Meagher has made for Pittsburgh Hockey Now. Mrtka is only 17, but is years ahead of his age. He knows how to use his size to take away space in the offensive zone, his stick to take away passing lanes, and he likes a quick outlet pass.

However, he’s also quite a bit heavier than Pettersson. Mrtka is 218 pounds and figures to fill out more as he ages. He doesn’t have an exceptional facet to his game, but is instead good at most everything, though his offensive contributions might be minimal at the NHL level.