They were: hockey sense, speed, compete and character. Stop me if you’re feeling déjà vu- the Penguins spent the 2013 offseason working on contract extensions for Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang.īut the summer of 2013 is most memorable because of the selection of Guentzel, who may go down as one of the best draft steals in franchise history, in the third round.įrom former Penguins GM Ray Shero, via The Athletic’s Rob Rossi: Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty ImagesĢ013: G Tristan Jarry (Round 2, Pick 44, 159 GP), LW Jake Guentzel (Round 3, Pick 77, 375 GP) (Players still waiting for their names to be called when the Penguins selected Pouliot: Filip Forsberg, Teuvo Teravainen and Jacob Trouba.) Derrick Pouliot dons a Penguins hat at the 2012 NHL Entry Draft in Pittsburgh.

The Penguins used the selection to pick Derrick Pouliot. On the first day of the draft, the Penguins dealt Jordan Staal ( during his wedding) for Brandon Sutter, Brian Dumoulin and the No. The Penguins used nine picks in the 2012 NHL draft, the most they’ve used in a single draft since the start of the seven-round draft in 2005. Photo by Nick Laham/Getty ImagesĢ012: D Derrick Pouliot (Round 1, Pick 8, 213 GP), D Olli Maatta (Round 1, Pick 22, 534 GP), C Teddy Blueger (Round 2, Pick 52, 205 GP), C Oskar Sundqvist (Round 3, Pick 81, 288 GP), G Matt Murray (Round 3, Pick 83, 246 GP) Joe Morrow at the 2011 NHL Entry Draft in St. So you could say the 2011 draft paid off in a big way. Scott Harrington skated in 10 Penguins games in 2014-15, then was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Phil Kessel that summer. Joe Morrow had not yet played an NHL game when he was traded in 2013 to the Dallas Stars for the pick which would eventually become Jake Guentzel. With seven years having passed since the Penguins added a draft pick to their regular roster, let’s take a look at the 16 Penguins draft picks who became legitimate NHL players during some of the strongest drafts in recent memory, between 20.Ģ011: D Joe Morrow (Round 1, Pick 23, 162 GP), D Scott Harrington (Round 2, Pick 54, 210 GP), RW Josh Archibald (Round 6, Pick 174, 243 GP), C Scott Wilson (Round 7, Pick 209, 193 GP) If anything, the surprise is that the Penguins actually used their first-round selection this year. This low draft turnout isn’t surprising for a perennially competitive team, which had only selected in the first round five times in the decade before 2022. Only five Penguins picks over these last seven years have made their NHL debuts.

No Penguins draft selections since 2015- when Dominik Simon’s name was called in the fifth round- has skated more than 30 NHL games. It’s been seven years since the Penguins saw one of their draft picks graduate to a full-time role in the NHL.

Pock the penguin