The Pittsburgh Penguins haven't had the greatest group of prospects in recent years, but things could improve soon.
For the past 16 seasons or so, the Pittsburgh Penguins have been focused on a “win-now” mode rather than building a prospect pool for the future.
While the Penguins have had great players come from the farm system, the turn of the decade brought the team an extremely thin group of future stars.
The Athletic has been ranking each NHL teams pipeline, and the Penguins clocked in at a disappointing 30th out of 32 teams.
It’s an improvement from the 2021 rankings, but only by one place as they finished in 31st last year.
According to the Athletic, the Penguins top three prospects are new comer Ty Smith, recent first round draft pick Owen Pickering, and budding forward Sam Poulin.
Despite having played around 100 games fewer than Ty Smith, PO Joseph was listed by the Athletic as a “recent graduate.”
The Athletic rounded out the Penguins top five prospect rankings with goalie Joel Blomqvist at four and forward Tristan Broz at five.
When the Penguins brought in general manager Ron Hextall and president of hockey operations Brian Burke, they were given the difficult duty of attempting to stay competitive now, but also begin building for the future.
Pickering, Smith, and Joseph are all great stepping stones in building the Penguins defense of the future.
Much like the defensive players, Broz and Poulin can be game changers, but more needs to be done to build a bright future in Pittsburgh.
It’s not a problem that can be fixed overnight, but so far Hextall and Burke have gotten off to a solid start in building for the future.
If the right moves are being made for young players, the Penguins should begin raising these pipeline rankings much higher than 30th.
The only two teams that ranked behind the Penguins in the Athletic’s pipeline rankings were the Tampa Bay Lightning at 31 and Boston Bruins at 32.
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