{"id":866992,"date":"2026-08-22T04:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T04:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/866992\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T04:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T04:32:08","slug":"top-prospects-for-pittsburgh-penguins-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/866992\/","title":{"rendered":"Top prospects for Pittsburgh Penguins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How acquired: Selected with No. 24 pick in 2025 NHL Draft<br \/>2025-26 season: Michigan (NCAA): 40 GP, 25-14-39<\/p>\n<p>Horcoff (6-5, 190) had a successful sophomore season at Michigan with 25 goals, tied for the second-most in college hockey last season. That was despite playing a chunk of it with an injured right shoulder that required offseason surgery.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was able to play through it,&#8221;\u00a0Horcoff said. &#8220;It bothered me a little bit, but at the end of the day, it&#8217;s part of the game. Guys play through that stuff all the time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The 19-year-old should be ready for another potential jump as a junior at Michigan.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think, at times, he lost his rhythm a little bit,&#8221; Pittsburgh director of player development Tom\u00a0Kostopoulos said. &#8220;But that&#8217;s something that he knows, he understands and he&#8217;s working on.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Projected\u00a0NHL arrival: 2028-29 season<\/p>\n<p>How acquired: Acquired in trade with Winnipeg Jets on\u00a0Aug. 22, 2024<br \/>2025-26 season: Pittsburgh (NHL): 24 GP, 3-3-6; Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton (AHL): 30 GP, 10-24-34<\/p>\n<p>McGroarty (6-1, 212) was the clear top prospect in the Penguins&#8217; system after being traded from the Jets for fellow forward prospect <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/brayden-yager-8484242\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brayden Yager<\/a>. His stock has taken a hit since.<\/p>\n<p>The 22-year-old has nine points (four goals, five assists) in 32 games with Pittsburgh the past two seasons. His skating is a primary concern, but\u00a0Dubas said McGroarty has made strides recently.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s put in the work and improved on it,&#8221;\u00a0Dubas said. &#8220;So we expect next year that he&#8217;ll have every opportunity to earn a spot here. How high in the lineup that is will be up to him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Projected\u00a0NHL arrival: This season<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How acquired: Selected with No. 24 pick in 2025 NHL Draft2025-26 season: Michigan (NCAA): 40 GP, 25-14-39 Horcoff&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":866993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-866992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}