For Tuesday’s “Breakfast With Benz” podcast, we caught up with Adam Kimelman of NHL.com to preview the upcoming NHL Draft. It’s in Buffalo on Friday and Saturday. The Penguins pick No. 22 in the first round. They have four other picks to use on top of that one (two in the second round, one in the third and one in the sixth).

Kimelman gave us his preferred choice for the Penguins, some options if that player is gone, a comparison between Penn State’s Gavin McKenna and Sweden’s Ivar Stenberg at the top of the draft and a rave review of one of the Pens’ choices from last year.

• Your most recent mock draft has Michigan State recruit Tommy Bleyl (D, Right, 6-foot, 170 pounds, Moncton, QMJHL) going to the Penguins at pick No. 22. Tell us about him.

“He’s kind of a late riser. Really didn’t have a lot of acclaim coming into his draft year, but with Moncton, he was the defenseman of the year in the Quebec League and Quebec League rookie of the year. Just a fantastic season (81 points in 63 regular-season games). Just a beautiful skater. High-end offensive game (28 points in 21 playoff games),” Kimelman said. “He projects to be a guy who can quarterback a power play. He needs a little bit of physical development. You’re going to have to have some patience there.”

Kimelman said, though, don’t expect an immediate injection of help from Bleyl if he is the pick, as we saw from Ben Kindel last year at No. 11 overall.

“He’s not a plug-and-play guy by any stretch of the imagination,” Kimelman cautioned. “I don’t envision what the Penguins did last year, when they were able to draft Ben Kindel and drop them right in the lineup.”

• If Bleyl is gone, who is another option for the Pens?

“Xavier Villeneuve, another Quebec League defenseman,” Kimelman said. “He brings another high-end, offensively dynamic element — a guy who could quarterback your power play.

Villeneuve is a Boston University commit. He’s a 5-foot-11, 180-pound lefty from Blainville-Boisbriand in the QMJHL. Between the regular season and the playoffs, he put up 52 points in 54 games.

“He’s also got a little bit of feistiness to him,” Kimelman added. “He patterned his game after Lane Hutson. If you watch Lane Hutson play, one of the things that stands out is not just the offensive skill. He plays like he’s got a burr under his saddle, and Villeneuve is sort of that same mold.”

Kimelman’s NHL.com mock draft partner, Mike G. Morreale, slotted Ryan Lin to Pittsburgh at No. 22.

He’s another college-bound defenseman (Denver) who shoots right-handed. He’s also 5-foot-11, 180 pounds and played with the Vancouver Giants of the WHL last year (57 points in 53 games). He also added six points in five World Junior games for Canada.

• Is Penn State’s Gavin McKenna still No. 1 on the board for Toronto or has Swedish winger Ivar Stenberg surpassed him?

“I think McKenna, because he has a year of college hockey experience, could be on that (NHL) track a little bit sooner, just because he already understands what it’s like to play bigger, harder, heavier hockey,” Kimelman said. “I think that little bit of playing at a higher ceiling, the play-making ability, the vision, the hockey IQ, it’s not a big difference, but I would take McKenna just by that little bit of margin ahead of Stenberg.”

Both Kimelman and Morreale have Stenberg going fourth to Chicago, unless San Jose trades the No. 2 pick to someone who badly wants him.

They think the Sharks want a defenseman, specifically Chase Reid of Sault Ste. Marie (OHL). And they feel that at No. 3, Vancouver will lean toward Brampton’s Caleb Malhotra because he is a center, and the son of new coach Manny Malhotra.

• Is this draft going to be as good as some people were projecting last year?

“Do I think this projects to be a very deep group? Yes,” Kimelman said. “Obviously, we talked about the top two wingers with McKenna and Stenberg. There are five defensemen — Chase Reid, Alberts Smits, Keaton Verhoeff, Daxon Rudolph and Carson Carels. Put those five guys in whatever order you want; they all project to be top-pair guys who will be foundational pieces of top-level Stanley Cup-contending teams for the duration of their NHL careers. I think they’re going to be that good.”

But Kimelman thinks there is some talent down the middle too.

“You’ve got a couple of top-end centers who look like they’re going to be top six guys — No. 1, No. 2 centers. Malhotra, Viggo Bjorck, Tynan Lawrence,” Kimelman said. “I think teams are going to leave Buffalo feeling really, really good about what they get, certainly early in the first round of this year’s draft.”

• Do you have a favorite of the 13 picks made by the Penguins during last year’s draft?

“I really like the Bill Zonnon pick. I think if we’re having this conversation five or six years from now, he’s a guy that I would watch. In the video clips I would see of him, I was just amazed that a guy who had not really had a lot of experience playing center was that good and that quick and that productive and that effective through the middle of the ice. He’s a guy that I think years from now Penguins fans are going to be really, really happy about.”