Top-20 Penguins' Prospects 2025: First-Round Pick Has Star Potential

Heading into the 2025-26 season, the Pittsburgh Penguins have shifted the focus to youth and development.

With more talent in the system than Pittsburgh has had in years – and 13 picks in the 2025 NHL Draft – top prospects lists are becoming more competitive and more difficult to discern. Since the prospect pool is deepening, The Hockey News – Pittsburgh Penguins takes a look at the top-20 prospects in the organization.

At No. 4, we tackle the final of the three 2025 first-round picks by the Penguins in Ben Kindel, who, arguably, has a higher ceiling than any other prospect in the organization.

When Ben Kindel’s name was called to the podium as the Penguins’ 11th overall selection at the 2025 NHL Draft, it came as a bit of a surprise to many. Several draft boards and fan predictions had the Penguins selecting players like Victor Eklund, Kashawn Aitcheson, and Justin Carbonneau, all of whom were ahead of Kindel in most mock drafts.

But after the selection, a little bit more digging by the hockey masses begged the question of why Kindel wasn’t rated top-10 to begin with.

One of the first reasons that might stand out is his size. At 5-foot-10, 176-pounds, he is a bit undersized and could stand to add a bit more weight as he develops. There is also the factor of whether or not his game will translate to the NHL level.

But everything else? The talent, skills, smarts, and production are hard to ignore.

Kindel, now 18, finished the 2024-25 his WHL season with the Calgary Hitmen with 35 goals and 99 points in 65 games, which was good enough for seventh in league scoring – just one point behind teammate Oliver Tulk. He also played with fellow Penguins’ prospect Tanner Howe, who tore his ACL in April and will be out through the end of the calendar year.

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Heading into the 2025-26 season, the Pittsburgh Penguins have shifted the focus to youth and development.

He is most known for his vision and playmaking ability, and he knows how to create offense and drive chance generation. He can feed teammates with perfect seam passes, he can generate from along the walls by winning a ton of puck battles, and he has versatility in terms of his two-way game.

Kindel also knows how to exploit the offensive zone and force defenders into mistakes. His anticipation is at a high level, he creates space, and he has a sneaky good shot that could translate to the NHL level.

But perhaps his best attributes are flaunted in transition and in his pace of play. His skating is an underrated aspect of his game, as he can carry the puck for days and has the hockey sense to find teammates with precision. His ability to play center and wing is also a plus, and whether he can be a center at the NHL level – obviously – remains to be seen.

At the end of the day, however, this guy’s ceiling is pretty high, and his floor isn’t low, either. Kindel already excels at some of the details and “threads” of the game, and his strong all-around toolset makes it hard to see him failing to fit into at least an effective middle-six NHL player.

And that is what makes him intriguing as a prospect. Sure, the Penguins have two NHL-ready forwards in Rutger McGroarty and Ville Koivunen, and they both have the potential to be high-end complementary players as part of the Penguins’ future.

But Kindel is, really, the only Penguins’ forward prospect with star potential. If he reaches his peak potential, he’s someone who could be hovering right around or just below point-per-game, and – paired with an elite player – could perhaps elevate even further.

It is too early to tell exactly what kind of NHL future Kindel will have with Pittsburgh. But, by all accounts, there is a lot to look forward to in terms of his development and his potential to be a core piece of the Penguins’ future.

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Heading into the 2025-26 season, the Pittsburgh Penguins have shifted the focus to youth and development.