The Pittsburgh Penguins got a little help from the agent who represents their first-round pick Liam Ruck, but largely stood firm with their existing draft picks without the dramatic moves general manager Kyle Dubas ultimately wanted.
After a week of jaw-dropping and headline-grabbing trades around the NHL in which the Penguins were reduced to spectators, the finality of the 2026 NHL Draft showed the team is on course to essentially return the same team for 2026-27.
The status quo is not ideal, but not a terrible thing. Standing pat now is better than crippling the rebuild with an overspend. The Penguins added talent and will live to fight another day.
In fact, the Penguins got one of the more interesting stories of the top of the draft after they selected high-scoring winger Ruck with the 22nd overall pick, then nabbed Ruck’s twin brother Markus, who is his linemate with the Medicine Hat Tigers.
The pair are inseparable, and Markus Ruck told reporters at the media podium in Buffalo that the pair weren’t being pushy, but let teams know they wanted to play together.
“We tried to not think about it, and just tried to let it play out,” said Markus Ruck. “Our agents did a great job of telling teams that we wanted to play together, but yeah, we would have been good apart, but it’s better together.”
The Rucks: Grade B
The Penguins played the angles, and vice president of player personnel Wes Clark admitted that when they selected Liam, it was essentially a done deal that they would pick Markus. Clark nonchalantly highlighted what the pair brought to the table.
“I mean, over 100 points,” he quipped.
Indeed, Liam Ruck had 45 goals and 104 points. Markus Ruck had 87 assists and 108 points.
Clark is on an epic heater. His top picks in the last handful of drafts, including during his time in Toronto, have shattered expectations and charged to the NHL much faster than players selected in their vicinity.
But unquestionably, the Rucks are a gamble. They are slight, as Liam weighs 176 pounds and Markus is 166, and their wispy statures are not offset by speed. Each is below average skaters, and Dubas smirked as he told reporters, “You’ll see” regarding how much work the Rucks need to do in the weight room.
However, what they are is undeniably successful. The Rucks’ on-ice chemistry is seemingly telepathic, and Liam’s shot is wicked with a quick release. Markus is a slick playmaker.
“Teams would ask if we can play a part, and yeah, for sure, but why not together,” said Markus Ruck. “I think we are better together.”
Finally, the Rucks can thank Luke Schenn for the gift of sticking together. Schenn’s refusal to play for the Penguins after they acquired him near the 2024-25 trade deadline netted the second-round pick from the Winnipeg Jets, which the Penguins used to select Markus.
Rest of the Draft
The Sleeper: Tomas Galvas
The Penguins took a pair of defensemen who had been passed over in the previous TWO drafts. With their second of two second-round picks, the Penguins took Czech defenseman Tomas Galvas.
Clark was effusive about Galvas’s growth.
“With Tommy Galvas, a lot of work has been done there, especially with our Czech scout, Brian Ihnacak. Listen, (Galvas was) the Czech D of the year. He was making a lot of noise in that league,” said Clark. “(He had a) great World Juniors. Played with the men at the end of the year. We make mistakes; we all are going to continue making mistakes. We slept through two drafts, but he was too good to pass up there.
“So, we believe in the impact that he can provide, and we’ll help him develop properly. He’ll go back to Czech next year, and we’ll see where it goes after that.”
It’s not where you start, it’s where you are and where you’re going. The Penguins spent a high pick on Galvas, believing he has more to give. The defenseman had a healthy nine points in Czechia’s run to the World Junior gold medal game. The World Juniors just count for me–high pressure, top competition–and he performed.
Grade: This could be an A+ pick.
Swing Big: Matvei Nikonovich
The Penguins went to the new cradle of goaltending, Russia, for a netminder who is probably a few years away from the NHL, and possibly at least two years away from coming to North America.
Saturday, there was a run on goalies, and 32 were selected.
Humorously, Clark likes to refer to Penguins director of goaltending Jon Elkin as “Sir Jon Elkin” because of Elkin’s guru status. At the 2025 NHL Draft, the mid-round project that Elkin advocated was Gabriel D’Aigle. This season, it’s Nikonovich.
There’s no grade possible, but this pick is worth watching unfold, albeit over the next two or three years.
Curious: Parker Von Richter
The second defenseman the Penguins selected who had been passed over in the last two drafts. Clark said a couple of the Penguins scouts were passionate about Von Richter, who is 6-foot-1, 205 pounds, but this pick looks more like organizational depth rather than a player with a shot to get to the NHL.
Could they have cast their lot by gambling on a forward with big offensive instincts, or a raw defenseman instead?
Undervalued: Pierce Mbuyi
Mbuyi, 18, lost his mother to cancer when he was 13, and Clark directly referenced his scrappy mentality.
“Pierce is an underdog. He had 74 points this year. We did a lot of work on him in the last couple of weeks,” said Clark. “He’s dealt with some things in his lifetime that you don’t want people at that age to deal with. So, see the look in his eye. It’s got a lot of belief in the person. His makeup.”
Grade A+
Mbuyi is the type of player with whom the Penguins have found success in recent years. He is a speedy, tenacious winger with productive hands. He, too, needs to add bulk for the pro game, but has all of the other tools, including a hungry work ethic in the weight room.
He had 29 and 32 goals in the OHL over the last two seasons, respectively.
No Big Trades: A+
To compare Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas’s performance to the game on the ice, he took what the game gave him.
Some of the hardheaded social media outcry was so absurd as to be funny. The Penguins did not have a top-10 pick to acquire the big names who were traded in the days leading up to the draft, nor at this point in their rebuilding can they give away their next two or three drafts for one player.
To give away their next couple of drafts would have been lunacy. By all accounts, Dubas went to market with what he thought were good offers based on historical context, but he found the prices had changed, and he didn’t have the trade capital to compete.
Rather than acting impulsively or desperately–which we have certainly seen other Penguins GMs do–Dubas held firm and will continue building and looking for the trades that make sense.
“Keep building, brick by brick,” is how Dubas described it Friday night.
Punting on the big trades might be absolutely boring for fans, but given the prices for the players he wanted, it was the only play.
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