The scene on the ice in Nashville was one of the most emotional moments in hockey history as the Pittsburgh Penguins were hoisting their second consecutive Stanley Cup but also trying to avoid thinking about the unspoken reality that beloved goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was soon after leaving the organization.
The Penguins sat atop the hockey world for two years running and were even poised for a third run before tired legs and perhaps a better Washington Capitals team ended their reign in 2018. Both that season and over the next few, the Penguins chased that Cup feeling as general manager Jim Rutherford hurled assets and draft picks at the mission, trying to reconstruct the magic.
They haven’t won a playoff since and traded most of their first-round picks away. Others washed out.
Consequently, the organization’s focus has finally shifted to future Cups, rather than desperately chasing the immediacy of next season. To wit, the Penguins will likely make a first-round selection in the 2026 NHL Draft, which means they will have kept their first-rounder in four of five seasons for the first time since 2009-2014.
There have been slim pickin’ from the prospect pool for nearly a decade, but the organization finally accepted the harsh reality that even Sidney Crosby has birthdays. Over the last couple of years, the pool has grown exponentially, and carries with it more hope and promise than any group without lottery picks since a special run from 2010 to 2013 produced such players as Bryan Rust, Olli Maatta, Matt Murray, and Jake Guentzel.
While the current crop doesn’t project to equal that group of overachieving top-liners, there is NHL talent amongst them. As NHL Draft week begins, we can rank the top five Penguins picks since winning that Stanley Cup, and the five worst.
In fact, the first of the 10 drafts since Cup was a bad moon rising when Rutherford traded out of the first round to acquire heavyweight enforcer Ryan Reaves, who wasn’t a good fit, and selected defenseman Zachary Lauzon, whose career was over within 18 months due to concussion issues.
In fact, that 2017 class will take a prominent spot on the list of worsts (publishing Monday), as it is statistically the worst draft class in team history and the depth of its futility cannot be exceeded. However, the best picks list is also a matter of projections and potential because the only Penguins draft pick in the last 10 entry drafts to play more than 70 games for the team is … Ben Kindel, the 2025 first-round pick.
Let that sink in.
5 Best Penguins Draft Picks
5. Valtteri Puustinen
Puustinen played 66 NHL games for the team before being traded to the Colorado Avalanche last season for Ilya Solovyov. On the surface, 66 NHL games is not a feat for exaltation, but for a seventh-round pick, that’s an unexpected total that reads more like a cherry on the sundae.
In his Penguins career, he had seven goals and 24 points.
4. Mikhail Ilyin
After an adrenaline fueled start when he landed from Mother Russia, he settled into learning the North American game through the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins playoff run. He might become one of the steals of the 2023 NHL Draft, in which the Penguins selected him in the fifth round (142nd overall).
Ilyin, 21, is slick. He’s a magician with the puck and will only get better as he learns how to create space on the smaller NA rinks. In 15 playoff games, Ilyin had nine points, including seven assists. Nothing is guaranteed, but it seems to be a matter of when, not if he will make it to the NHL.
3. Harrison Brunicke
Brunicke, 19, did not have a great start to his NHL career, getting only his nine-game tryout in 2025-26 before embarking on a development odyssey that went from Pittsburgh to a conditioning assignment in Wilkes-Barre, to Team Canada for the World Juniors, to Kamloops of the WHL, and back to Wilkes-Barre for the playoff run.
Through earning platinum status on his frequent flyers miles, Brunicke arrived back with WBS like a new player. His skating wasn’t just fast, it was decisive. His defensive work had a little grit, and his offensive push was superior.
Brunicke played like a lottery pick, not a second-rounder (44th overall), in the 2024 draft.
2. Sergei Murashov
A potential No. 1 goalie in the fourth round. That’s the potential diamond-in-the-rough find the Penguins have with Murashov, 22, who is poised to claim an NHL spot ahead of 2020 second-rounder Joel Blomqvist.
Murashov posted a .931 save percentage in the AHL playoffs and backstopped what was an impressive run. All signs points to the athletic and deep-thinking Murashov being ready to assume a net-share with Arturs Silovs in 2026-27.
1. Ben Kindel
An 11th overall pick is supposed to land in the NHL and make some impact, eventually. But Kindel didn’t wait, and he didn’t demur to lower expectations when his play last season demanded a spot in the NHL.
He started slowly with a lackluster development camp in July, just days after being selected, but had quickly improved his skating and thus his ability to compete by September. Kindel recently turned 19, but had one of the best seasons for an 18-year-old in Penguins history, scoring 18 goals and 35 points.
With 77 games played, he has played more games than most of the Penguins’ picks over the last 10 drafts combined.
Honorable Mention: Bill Zonnon, taken 22nd overall in the 2025 NHL Draft. After landing in WBS for the playoff run, he showed he has the physical tools to quickly reach the big show.
Tags: 2026 NHL draft harrison brunicke penguin draft Pittsburgh Penguins sergei murashov
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