Uh Oh? Penguins Prospects Outside Top 50, Surpassed by Lower Picks

The latest top 50 prospects released by EliteProspects specialists have some bad news for the Pittsburgh Penguins, at least as EliteProspects ranked the Penguins’ prospects.

None of the Penguins’ prospects rank in the top 50 of the Top 100 Affiliated Prospects list, and several players drafted behind the Penguins’ two most recent first-round picks, Owen Pickering and Brayden Yager, have surpassed the duo. And EliteProspects’s evaluation (or lack thereof) is similar to that of TSN analyst Craig Button’s work last season.

Despite the Penguins selecting Pickering with the 21st overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, he does not appear on the top 50 list. However, players drafted soon after him made the list, including Jimmy Snuggerud from the US national team who was selected 23rd overall, Danil Yurov taken 24th, and Lane Hutson selected 62nd.

EPRinkside Top 100 Affiliated Prospects for the 2024-25 Season.

Snuggerud ranks 29th on the prospects list, Yurov 46th, and Hutson, who is set to establish himself as an NHL regular this season, ranks 27th.

Pickering ranks 63rd.

Yager suffered a steeper fall. He ranks 85th despite leading his Moose Jaw Warriors to a WHL championship and the Memorial Cup. He scored 35 goals with 95 points in the process and was selected 14th overall in 2023. However, more than a handful of players selected behind him appear in the top 50.

Matthew Wood was selected 15th overall in 2023 and ranks 49th. Axel Sandin-Pellika was the 17th pick and slotted at 37, and Gabriel Perrault was selected 23rd overall and ranked 30th. Several players who were drafted later in the first round made the top 50, including Quentin Musty (26th overall by the San Jose Sharks), Calum Ritchie (27th overall by the Colorado Avalanche), and Easton Cowan (28th overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs). In fact, they appear in the top 30.

Musty ranks 15th, Ritchie is 20th, and Cowan is 28th.

Perhaps it should be noted that Toronto selected Cowan shortly after the organization refused to renew former general manager Kyle Dubas’s contract. Wes Clarke ran Toronto’s draft, and Clarke is now the Penguins’ vice president of player personnel under Dubas.

While the list is heavy with prospects from rebuilding teams, several prospects in the top 50 are also from recently successful teams. The Dallas Stars have a pair on the list, as do the Penguins’ rival New York Rangers.

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The Penguins placed three prospects in the top 100. In addition to Pickering and Yager, 2024 second-round pick Harrison Brunicke ranked 79th. Brunicke flashed flawless skating and a smooth game at the recent Penguins Development Camp in early July.

Brunicke made the list, and Team Canada invited fellow 2024 Penguins second-round pick Tanner Howe to the Summer Showcase to begin tryouts for the 2025 World Junior Championships. Yager is presumed to be part of that team unless he is in the NHL.

To no surprise, the prospects website ranked Morgan Celebrini and Matvei Michkov first and second, respectively.