{"id":6608,"date":"2025-10-18T02:51:30","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T02:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/6608\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T02:51:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T02:51:30","slug":"pittsburgh-penguins-prospect-update-mid-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/6608\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Penguins Prospect Update: Mid-October"},"content":{"rendered":"

Optimism is growing and interest is raising for the players the Pittsburgh Penguins have in their organization who aren\u2019t playing with their professional teams this season. The Pens made a bevy of draft picks this past June and have plenty other young players acquired that are worth tracking all across Europe and North America. Now that the season is off the ground all across the world now is a good time to set the stage and check in on the more notable performers.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll break things down by region and go from there, touching on the prospects who are deserving a mention for positive reasons (or sometimes unfortunately not so positive reasons) at this point of the year. We\u2019ll also at least touch base with the absolute most notable and important names within the system. This topic is narrow enough to be separate from the weekly update of the WBS Penguins<\/a> feature, so keep that in mind that we\u2019re not thinking about a complete view for the players like Sergei Murashov, Owen Pickering and Tristan Broz that get tracked regularly. And while Ben Kindel and Harrison Brunicke certainly are the team\u2019s top prospects, their work is easily accessible on the NHL stage. This update is for the players spread far and wide who are playing outside of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Mikhail Ilyin: Cherepovets Severstal, 13 games, 2 goals, 6 assists<\/p>\n

Ilyin, a fifth round pick in 2023 and No. 14<\/a> in our 2025 Pensburgh Top 25 Under 25, is off to another great start in the KHL. He was exceptionally productive in that league as a teenager and is performing well again in what could be his final season in Russia. Ilyin signed an entry level contract with Pittsburgh, but through mutual agreement was assigned back to Cherepovets for 2025-26.<\/p>\n

Ilyin is an electric player with his puck handling skills and playmaking ability. He\u2019s got some special qualities and has that knack of standing out on the ice. His skating will need some work and how effective he will be fighting for space towards the net in America remains to be seen, but there\u2019s always time for a dynamic and skilled forward like this. Check out Jesse\u2019s write-up for more highlights and analysis, Ilyin started out a little slow but has come to life in recent games and is back to doing his usual thing of putting up offense in the KHL.<\/p>\n

Melvin Fernstrom: Orebro HK (SHL) 11 games, 0 goals, 0 assists<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a big goose egg statistically so far for last year\u2019s SHL rookie of the year. No time to panic yet, but we\u2019ll see how this impacts his season and placement on or within Sweden\u2019s World Junior team.<\/p>\n

Kale Dach: Calgary Hitmen, 7 games, 3 goals, 3 assists<\/p>\n

The Calgary Hitmen were supposed to have a big time Pittsburgh Penguin prospect this year in Ben Kindel. That\u2019s been put to the side, for now at least but it turns out they have a pretty decent consolation prize in Pittsburgh\u2019s seventh round pick this year in Kale Dach. Dach is tied for the team lead in goals and tied for second in points so far this season. This season is Dach\u2019s first in the WHL (he played in the lower BCHL the prior two years), it\u2019s been a nice debut to put himself on the map as a little more of a prospect with performances like he\u2019s had at prospect camp and so far in October.<\/p>\n

Ryan Miller: Portland Winterhawks, 8 games, 2 goals, 6 assists<\/p>\n

Miller was a player several times who carried an optimistic note that his 2025-26 production might be well increased from the 31 points in 50 WHL games he scored last season. That\u2019s come to pass in the early going with a point per game rate, which has had him as the leading assist getter and point scorer for Portland so far, as their captain. Miller, a fifth round pick in 2025, isn\u2019t the most skilled player in the world, but he\u2019s got a great motor and has that knack to stand out while being solid all-around. Perfect type of late round flyer to track in the next little bit to come.<\/p>\n

Peyton Kettles: Swift Current Broncos, 0 games played<\/p>\n

Kettles remains out from an injury, though he was skating towards the tail end of NHL camp.<\/p>\n

Gabriel D\u2019Aigle: Victoriaville Tigers 3-2 record, .874 save%, 4.48 GAA<\/p>\n

D\u2019Aigle ranks 22nd in both save percentage and GAA in the early going in the Q. Game-by-game<\/a> goals allowed: 4, 8, 4, 4, 3. His last outing (36 saves on 39 shots) was his best of the season, so I guess at least he\u2019s trending up, but this is a league where plenty of goalies have .900 or even .910 save percentages, and D\u2019Aigle isn\u2019t one of them. He\u2019s big, he\u2019s athletic but he\u2019s had a lot of trouble keeping the puck out of the net so far in his career and blaming team or league can only go so far.<\/p>\n

Bill Zonnon: Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, 0 games<\/p>\n

Zonnon was injured in a preseason QMJHL game and missed NHL training camp as a result. He\u2019s still yet to make his return but reportedly isn\u2019t too far out.<\/p>\n

Quinn Beauchesne: Guelph Storm, 6 games 0 goals, 2 assists, 4 penalty minutes<\/p>\n

This one surprises me to see Beauchesne off to a quiet start. He was anything but a quiet player in the prospects portion of camp where he was scoring goals and getting into fights left and right. Still a long way to go, but curious by the lack of much going on so far.<\/p>\n

Jordan Charron: Soo Greyhounds, 11 games 9 goals, 4 assists<\/p>\n

Charron is off to a red hot start, he scored seven goals in his first six games! The fifth round pick from 2025 has been putting on a show at the beginning of the season in the OHL. We\u2019ll see how long it lasts and how far it takes him but for now Charron has to be the biggest pleasant surprise of the Pittsburgh prospects in the early going of the season.<\/p>\n

Will Horcoff: University of Michigan, 4 games, 5 goals, 1 assist<\/p>\n

Horcoff went absolutely crazy at the beginning of the season by scoring a hat trick in his first game and two more goals the next night. Michigan was playing Mercyhurst (UM defeated them 18-1 in aggregate over the two games they played) so take that with a grain of salt and his production has settled down since then. That said, Horcoff scored four goals in 18 games last season as a very young freshman. It\u2019s nice to see he already has exceeded that level and is playing top line on Michigan\u2019s left wing to start the season in a great position to keep growing. One thing noticed in Pittsburgh at summer camp and already on some highlights is that Horcoff is effective at scoring goals from in tight. He has a hard shot, big body, knack for going to the net. And when he gets the puck down low, he scores goals at high frequency.<\/p>\n

Cruz Lucius: Arizona State, 4 games, 4 goals, 0 assists<\/p>\n

Acquired in the Jake Guentzel trade, 2025-26 is a big season for Lucius. Suddenly in his senior season, at just 21 years old, Lucius is playing for an NHL contract. So far, so good. From summer camp in Pittsburgh it was evident Lucius is at his best when he\u2019s holding onto pucks in the offensive zone and letting his hands do the work. That was on full display in this highlight reel goal. Lucius has a lot on the line this season and he\u2019s off to a great start, the forward has a lot of skill and upside, it\u2019s now the time for him to put it together, stay healthy and show his stuff.<\/p>\n

Mac Swanson: North Dakota, 1 game, 1 goal, 1 assist<\/p>\n

As a 5\u20198\u201d seventh round pick (in 2024), Swanson can be easily overlooked within a prospect pool that is filling up rapidly with draft picks. He\u2019s a long-term type of player that needs more experience, but he popped in UND\u2019s first game. As with Horcoff above, take note the opposition isn\u2019t the strongest but it\u2019s nice to see Swanson get to show his stuff.<\/p>\n

Joona Vaisanen: Western Michigan, 2 games, 0 goals, 3 assists<\/p>\n

Vaisanen is a sleeper prospect that could surprise. Drafted in the sixth round of 2024, he was a prospect team captain this summer. Vaisanen played top pair minutes as a freshman on WMU\u2019s national championship team. He\u2019s such a smooth player in every zone; calm, collected, good skater, good puck skills, projectable frame at 6\u20191\u201d, 190, effective defender. At 21, he looks pretty polished and about ready to turn pro, hopefully he can keep it up and WMU should be a factor in the Frozen Four this spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Optimism is growing and interest is raising for the players the Pittsburgh Penguins have in their organization who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74,5961],"class_list":["post-6608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-penguins-prospects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}