The NHL draft has come and gone and the Ruck twins are headed to Pittsburgh, but almost everything else about the Penguins roster for next season has likely not changed at all.. For the first time in years, there was a considerable amount of trade action throughout the league, but the Penguins did not participate. The only trade the Penguins made was similar to moves they made last year when they traded two later round picks for a 1st round pick change of scenery type, Hendrix Lapierre. Lapierre was an interesting acquisition. He’s a guy who has dominated the AHL playoffs but hasn’t put it all together in the NHL. His shortcomings in the NHL could mostly be due to offensive depth in Washington. However, he might run into a similar problem in Pittsburgh. The Penguins boast roughly 10 players who can conceivably play in the bottom six, Lapierre was added to that group. Lapierre does possess elite speed that might allow him to grab a roster spot over one of those ten players, but it does further create a logjam for players like McGroarty to get full-time NHL minutes.
Dubas realized the prices were too extreme to continue to reshape this roster. Sure, he likely would have loved to get a Will Smith, Brady Tkachuk, Michael Kesselring, Jordan Kyrou, or any other player who was moved but for various reasons those trades wouldn’t have made sense for the Penguins. The Penguins aren’t in a position to move multiple first round picks for a single player especially for the caliber of players who were moved. Only two players who are currently on the trade market make sense for the Penguins to move off multiple first rounders and that would be Jason Robertson and Zach Werenski. Those two players are true upper echelon players in the league and could help the Penguins compete after Sid and Geno retire. All of the other players would be nice complementary pieces, but not players that would continue moving the franchise forward after the two headed monster finally hangs them up. Therefore, I am completely okay with what transpired throughout last week/weekend.
One thing that I am surprised about is the apparent trade value of Rickard Rakell. I know Rakell is older than all of the players that were moved throughout the past week, but statistically he is simply better than most of the players moved. Not only are his stats better, but he provides versatility. Rakell can play wing and center, can kill penalties, and has the ability to play with (and without) superstars. When you couple those traits with his cap hit it seems like a player who should have damn good value across the league. With the exploding salary cap, Rakell is basically making the going rate for a third liner. Any team that would acquire him would immediately help their balance sheet because Rakell is so underpaid. While Rakell isn’t going to help a rebuilding, team make the next step, he sure could help any team in the contending phase. In my opinion, Rakell is the best trade asset available to the Penguins but that doesn’t mean you sell him off if you aren’t getting appropriate value. So once again, I am okay with Dubas resisting the urge to move the Swede.
Who Are the Ruck Twins and Why Did Pittsburgh Take Both?
Dubas did alert fans that he tried to move up in the draft, but no deal made sense. Once the draft came around, he aborted his attempts to move up and decided to stay at pick 22. The Penguins were likely to select defenseman Ryan Lin with their pick, but Buffalo moved up a few spots to select him at pick 21. This is a shame because Lin was the exact type of prospect the Penguins pipeline needed. However, the Penguins pivoted beautifully and selected Liam Ruck. Ruck dominated the WHL this season for Medicine Hat. Ruck was always flanked by his twin brother, Markus, and the two of them have an incredible on-ice connection. Once the Penguins selected Liam it was all but certain they would select Markus, which they did with their first pick in the second round. I love the idea of selecting twins. You have essentially drafted 2/3rds of a line that you know will have instant chemistry. Neither Ruck brother will see the NHL for a couple of seasons, but the Penguins can afford to wait for them. Each player needs to work on building out their frames and increasing their skating speed/strength. However, one thing they don’t need to work on is their hockey IQ. We have seen that Dubas and Wes Clarke prioritize hockey IQ, and competitiveness more than any other trait. While you can teach a player how to gain muscle, how to skate faster, or shoot faster you cannot teach a player how to think the game better. We saw this approach work wonderfully with Ben Kindel last year, and there was no reason to change that approach coming into this draft.
Liam Ruck has an incredible shot. His ability to fire the puck is what made him the better of the two brothers. He has a true NHL release and could conceivably score a lot of goals at the NHL level. Markus is the distributor and while he thinks the game at a high level, he doesn’t possess the same scoring touch as his brother. There’s potential that these twins could form an excellent second line centered by Ben Kindel or Bill Zonnon in a few years. I am really excited by these picks, and I love the story of getting the twins.
For the rest of the draft, the Penguins appeared to prioritize hockey IQ with the added trait of being closer to NHL ready. The following two picks after the Rucks were Tomas Galvas and Pierce Mbuyi. Each of these two players were not selected in the NHL draft the previous two years. Each player continued to show great development despite missing out on being draft. Had either of these players been drafted in 2024, or 2025, fans would be ecstatic at the development they have made. Wes Clarke basically echoed that statement when he spoke to the media. Clarke said that he looks at not selecting either of these players in years prior as a mistake. Luckily, the Penguins were able to select them in this draft and since they’ve been passed over their timelines allow them to come over to the AHL, or NHL, significantly faster than most prospects selected during the draft process. If you cannot make groundbreaking trades to improve the roster, it seems prudent to select players that can help you sooner rather than later.
Last year, the Penguins draft seemed to be completely predicated on size. Every player, with the exception of Kindel, was over 6’2″ but this year was quite the opposite. Nearly every player drafted for the Penguins had their size listed as a detriment. However, each player excelled in the skill category. To build out a good team, and a good pipeline, you need to have a blend of size and skill. The Penguins put themselves in a position after last year’s draft to really prioritize the skill-based prospects. I am very bullish on the drafting acumen of Dubas and Clarke, and their track record backs that up. Therefore, I am very happy with the class because I trust the men in charge of the selections. As always, draft grades in the NHL really don’t matter. The Penguins were slaughtered by draft pundit’s last season and were one of only two teams to have their first selection play the entire year in the NHL. So, we really don’t know how to grade out a draft class but using history as a marker I feel like Dubas and Clarke did well.
With the draft concluding, next up is free agency. Dubas has warned that he doesn’t expect to spend much money, if any. The free agency market is horrible this year, we all know that. So, it wouldn’t be prudent for the Penguins to spend big money on Wednesday. However, the trade market should remain relatively active. It’s possible trade prices begin to fall back to normal and Dubas gets active via trade rather than free agency. Several players are seemingly still available that the Pens would love to acquire. We should have more clarity on what the roster will look like by this time next week. It will be interesting to see what occurs throughout the next seven days. No matter what happens, we trust Dubas to do right by the organization.
