Top-20 Penguins' Prospects 2026, No. 13: Defenseman's Growth A Revelation For Pittsburgh
Next up on THN's Top-20 Penguins' Prospects list is a defenseman who continues to raise his own stock despite his late draft selection - and who is beginning to look more and more like an NHL-wired blueliner.
It's officially another season, another prospects ranking for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In years past, this has been a bit easier of an exercise, as there used to be a more clear-cut line between prospects with NHL upside and longshots. However, because of the work that general manager and president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas and his staff have put in during the last several years, the line is blurring a whole lot more - and there is a substantially higher volume of talent in the system.
This time around, making a top-20 list was challenging. So, a few criteria were put into place: To make our list, prospects must be under the age of 26 and have played less than 50 NHL games. This excludes names such as Ben Kindel, Filip Hallander, Oliver Okuliar, and Alexander Alexeyev.
At No. 14, we covered Tanner Howe, whose translatable skillset could just render him a fast-lane ticket to the NHL. At No. 13, we spotlight another seventh-rounder - the other being forward Kale Dach at No. 19 - whose substantial growth may come as a bit of a surprise, but it's a pretty big development for the Penguins and their future on the blue line.
No. 13: D Finn Harding
If there is a position of weakness in the Penguins' prospect pool, it is probably on the blue line, as they have a whole lot of unknowns and lower-ceiling prospects in that department but not a whole lot of surefire NHL bets.
But even if Harrison Brunicke is, by far, the most promising defenseman in the system, that doesn't mean he's the only one looking like a future NHL mainstay.
Harding, 21, just completed his first full year of professional hockey within the Penguins' organization, primarily with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (WBS) Penguins. This was after a 2024-25 OHL season with the Brampton Steelheads when he registered seven goals and 57 points in 67 games to go along with a whopping plus-46.
That plus-46 followed a plus-39 season, and it was succeeded in the pros during the 2025-26 season with a combined plus-39 between the Wheeling Nailers - former ECHL affiliate of the Penguins - and WBS. Even if plus-minus is a largely arbitrary stat nowadays, that's not necessarily the case with Harding in particular.
The number speaks not just to how much he's been contributing on offense - he did have four goals and 26 points in 61 games last season, with all but seven of them played in the AHL - but also to how sound and reliable he has been defensively. Harding is quickly putting himself in the same conversation as NHL-upside defensemen in Brunicke, Owen Pickering, and Tomas Galvas, and it's because of how his two-way game is blossoming.
And, quite frankly, that's not bad for a guy who was selected 223rd overall in 2024.
Harding's combination of hockey smarts, defensive instincts, reliability, physicality, and offensive upside make him an intriguing option on the right side. He has excellent gap control, his stick work is impressive, and he has the ability to establish positioning and push attacking players to the outside, making him an effective defender against the rush and one-on-one. He has enough offensive ability to be an effective secondary option on the power play and in a lineup, and he is skilled with the puck on his stick in the offensive zone and in transition.
Harding could stand to improve his skating and mobility a bit more, and that's the biggest knock on his game. But he is an astute pupil, and the organization is impressed with his ability to apply what he has learned.
"He's a spectacular kid," director of player development Tom Kostopoulos said during development camp. "He's intelligent, he's open to learning, and he absorbs information and direction maybe better than any kid we have in our organization. Anything you tell him, you can tell he learns it and he works at it.
"So, he had a good year for his rookie year. He defends hard, he's physical, he's got an undercover little snarl and edge to him, which I like. And he brings some offense. He's plus-30-something in Wilkes-Barre. That doesn't happen by accident. Coaches love him, teammates love him, he's a hockey nerd, and he's got a bright future."
It seems Harding is very much dictating the terms of his future, which looks a whole lot bigger and better than it did two years ago, when he was one of the three final selections in the 2024 draft. If he continues to push his ceiling and heighten expectations, the Penguins may very well have themselves a solid, reliable, two-way bottom-four defender in the near future.
Harding has been, perhaps, the shining example of a successful story in development within the system, and things can only go up from here for him and the Penguins.
The list so far:
- No. 20: D Chase Pietila
- No. 19: C Kale Dach
- No. 18: LW/C Ryan Miller
- No. 17: C Zam Plante
- No. 16: G Joel Blomqvist
- No. 15: C Markus Ruck
- No. 14: LW Tanner Howe
- No. 13: D Finn Harding
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