Penguins Notebook: First Round Pick Looks Good; Stothers New Philosophy

CRANBERRY — After a few days of going through the motions and educational skating drills, the Pittsburgh Penguins Development Camp finally turned serious Sunday.

Development coaches turned the boys loose against each other with full-contact competitive drills.

Of course, development camps are generally one of the more misleading indicators of a prospect pool, as the older players with some college or even pro experience often shine a little brighter than the fresh-faced 18-year-old prospects who most heard their names called in the most recent NHL draft.

Yes, the Penguins have a couple of those players who have worked hard over the past week in the hopes of securing a contract to play professional hockey. One of those is Brent Johnson, who played two years at the University of North Dakota before playing two more years at Ohio State. He was the Washington Capitals’ third-round pick in 2021 but did not sign.

Johnson, 22, played one game with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and another two with the Wheeling Nailers at the end of last season. He’s a spirited defenseman who has stood out in the crowd at camp.

However, more importantly for the Penguins’ future, another player who shone Sunday was 2025 first-round pick Ben Kindel. Selected 11th overall, there is no denying that most scouts rated him several, if not 10 or more, spots lower. Kindel has a unique situation of simultaneously earning the pressure to prove himself, but also somewhat lower expectations because of his lower draft ranking.

Kindel was scrappy and elusive in the one-third ice contact drills that resemble playing half-court basketball. He could only laugh when Pittsburgh Hockey Now asked him, besides himself, who was the best player on his team.

He wisely chose diplomacy on that question and deferred to his teammates, who were laughing along when we also asked if he kept track of the number of goals he scored in the hour-long drill. We think he scored three, but he thought only two, though some teammates estimated at least 10.

It wasn’t that Kindel scored a few goals, or a couple, or close to a dozen; it was his ability to slip away from hard contact on the wall, find space in the overcrowded zones near the net, and stay ahead of the chaotic plays.

Monday will be the big test as the prospects play full-ice games. In the past, the games have been three-on-three, which benefits zippy players like Kindel and puts bigger players like fellow first-rounders Bill Zonnon and Will Horcoff at a disadvantage. (The team hasn’t specified if the scrimmage will be 5v5 or 3v3).

Kindel is listed as a smaller player, at 5-foot-11, 181 pounds, and in street clothes, that tale-of-the-tape seems accurate. However, he seems a little bigger on the ice. Even better for the Penguins, he plays bigger, too.

Kindel is clearly a veteran of some hard games with the Calgary Hitmen in the WHL.

Also, the Calgary Hitmen might be the best team name in hockey.

Penguins Assistant Coaches

It was Mike Stothers’s turn on Sunday to face the Pittsburgh media for the first time. Very much like Todd Nelson a day before him, Stothers aced his media scrum.

He was not only quickly relatable and affable, joking with media about using superlatives, but he brought a contagious energy, too.

After speaking with all four assistant coaches and the head coach over the last few days, from Nick Bonino to Stothers, there were common themes of personality. The Penguins’ coaches, including Muse, are quickly personable and optimistic; they’ve been humourous and spoke in depth about their philosophy and stories.

Stothers’s story is connected to the rest of the Penguins staff. He coached Nelson as a player in the 1990s and played with Rich Clune’s father. He also overcame stage three melanoma of the lymph node in 2023 while an assistant coach with the Anaheim Ducks.

Stothers will run the Penguins’ penalty kill, a job previously held by Mike Vellucci with varying degrees of success. Muse ran the PK with the New York Rangers and, before that, with the Nashville Predators.

The PK will be a major focus of the transitional roster. And it seems there will be a new philosophy.

“Yeah, if you look at some of the PKs over the years that have had success, there are always some teams that always seem to rise to the top … I think if you look at the teams like Carolina, year after year, they’re up there near the top. It’s because of their aggression. They just work. And they tend to outwork the PP,” Said Stothers. “(Pressure), it just doesn’t give those special, creative players the time to make the plays that they want to make. So, if you can get them under a little bit of duress or get them out of their rhythm, I think you can have some real success with that, and I don’t think that’s going to change. I think Dan and I are in full agreement with that.”

After a year out of hockey, he’s back. He was celebrating his 40th wedding anniversary and didn’t have his phone with him when Muse first called. A day later, the pair spoke. A few days later, Muse offered him the job and a chance to think about it.

“I haven’t stopped thinking about it,” he quipped and accepted the opportunity on the spot.