SAN JOSE – Pittsburgh Penguins rookie Ben Kindel had an opportunity this summer to skate and practice with, among others, fellow centers Macklin Celebrini of the San Jose Sharks and Connor Bedard of the Chicago Blackhawks.

That work on the ice, and his conversations with them off of it, boosted Kindel’s confidence, and perhaps played a small role in helping him crack the Penguins’ roster to start the regular season.

“It was a great experience getting to train with some very high-level NHL players,” Kindel told Bay Area News Group at SAP Center. “So I think it really helped prepare me coming into my first training camp, getting to skate with those guys. It was a great training environment.”

Kindel took that experience into the Penguins’ training camp, and he had a goal and two assists in six preseason games.

Saturday, Kindel, who was drafted 11th overall in June, will play in his fifth NHL game as the Penguins face the still-winless Sharks at SAP Center to close their California swing. Kindel, 18, scored his first NHL goal on Oct. 11 against the New York Rangers and has so far averaged 14:20 in ice time per game.

Bedard, now 20, won the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s best rookie after the 2023-24 season when he had 61 points in 68 games. Celebrini was third in Calder voting last season when he led the Sharks with 63 points in 70 games.

Not every 18-year-old who comes into the NHL can put up those kinds of numbers, and there’s no guarantee Kindel will be with the Penguins all season. But seeing players around his age from the Metro Vancouver area make their mark in the league so quickly was a source of inspiration for Kindel.

“Just hearing them talk. I mean, they’re both young players who’ve gone through it recently,” said Kindel, a native of Coquitlam, British Columbia. “So I think I just took a lot of what they were doing, what they were saying, into my training camp.

“There’s been a lot of elite players that have made it at 18 from Vancouver, so it gives me a lot of examples and a lot of confidence that guys that have done it before, even a guy like Zach Benson, who was a later pick, I trained with him,” Kindel said of the Buffalo Sabres forward, who is from Chilliwack, B.C. “But obviously, Mack and Connor did it on a very high level in their first year. So it helped build confidence for sure.”

Kindel remembers playing against Celebrini, 19, in minor hockey in the Vancouver area as a young kid, but didn’t really get to know him until this summer.

“He was always a very high-end player, a very hard worker,” Kindel said of Celebrini. “You kind of knew he was a special player right from when he was at a young age.”

PLANS FOR THE KIDS

Like the Sharks, the Penguins have multiple teenagers on the roster with Kindel and 19-year-old defenseman Harrison Brunicke. Both players, Penguins coach Dan Muse said, have earned the right to stay with the big club, at least for now.

The Sharks have their own plan for center Michael Misa, 18, and defenseman Sam Dickinson, 19, who could be teammates with Kindel on Canada’s roster at the IIHF World Junior championships in Minnesota in December.

What’s the Penguins’ plan for Kindel and Brunicke?

“I think it goes back to the preseason,” Muse said. “We did put a lot on their plate, and they continued to show that they could handle it. … They’ve earned opportunities to be in some situations that we wanted to see how they’d handle. They’ve handled them well.

“In terms of the plan, we are factoring in things specific to their age and to their needs, so that they’re able to have success now, but also setting them up for success in the future. And so there have been a lot of internal conversations as an organization about what’s going to be best for them.”

Originally Published: October 18, 2025 at 2:00 PM PDT