{"id":722717,"date":"2026-06-24T06:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T06:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/722717\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T06:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T06:48:08","slug":"nhl-draft-experts-have-penguins-targeting-defensemen-in-1st-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/722717\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Draft experts have Penguins targeting defensemen in 1st round"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Tuesday\u2019s \u201cBreakfast With Benz\u201d podcast<\/a>, we caught up with Adam Kimelman of NHL.com to preview the upcoming NHL Draft. It\u2019s in Buffalo on Friday and Saturday. The Penguins pick No. 22 in the first round. They have four other picks<\/a> to use on top of that one (two in the second round, one in the third and one in the sixth).<\/p>\n

Kimelman gave us his preferred choice for the Penguins, some options if that player is gone, a comparison between Penn State\u2019s Gavin McKenna and Sweden\u2019s Ivar Stenberg at the top of the draft and a rave review of one of the Pens\u2019 choices from last year.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Your most recent mock draft<\/a> has Michigan State recruit Tommy Bleyl<\/a> (D, Right, 6-foot, 170 pounds, Moncton, QMJHL) going to the Penguins at pick No. 22. Tell us about him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s kind of a late riser. Really didn\u2019t 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),\u201d Kimelman said. \u201cHe projects to be a guy who can quarterback a power play. He needs a little bit of physical development. You\u2019re going to have to have some patience there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Kimelman said, though, don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not a plug-and-play guy by any stretch of the imagination,\u201d Kimelman cautioned. \u201cI don\u2019t envision what the Penguins did last year, when they were able to draft Ben Kindel and drop them right in the lineup.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 If Bleyl is gone, who is another option for the Pens?<\/p>\n

\u201cXavier Villeneuve, another Quebec League defenseman,\u201d Kimelman said. \u201cHe brings another high-end, offensively dynamic element \u2014 a guy who could quarterback your power play.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Villeneuve is a Boston University commit. He\u2019s a 5-foot-11, 180-pound lefty<\/a> from Blainville-Boisbriand in the QMJHL. Between the regular season and the playoffs, he put up 52 points in 54 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s also got a little bit of feistiness to him,\u201d Kimelman added. \u201cHe 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\u2019s got a burr under his saddle, and Villeneuve is sort of that same mold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kimelman\u2019s NHL.com mock draft partner, Mike G. Morreale, slotted Ryan Lin<\/a> to Pittsburgh at No. 22.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

He\u2019s another college-bound defenseman (Denver) who shoots right-handed. He\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Is Penn State\u2019s Gavin McKenna still No. 1 on the board for Toronto or has Swedish winger Ivar Stenberg surpassed him?<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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\u2019s like to play bigger, harder, heavier hockey,\u201d Kimelman said. \u201cI think that little bit of playing at a higher ceiling, the play-making ability, the vision, the hockey IQ, it\u2019s not a big difference, but I would take McKenna just by that little bit of margin ahead of Stenberg.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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

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\u2019s Caleb Malhotra because he is a center, and the son of new coach Manny Malhotra.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Is this draft going to be as good as some people were projecting last year?<\/p>\n

\u201cDo I think this projects to be a very deep group? Yes,\u201d Kimelman said. \u201cObviously, we talked about the top two wingers with McKenna and Stenberg. There are five defensemen \u2014 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\u2019re going to be that good.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Kimelman thinks there is some talent down the middle too.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got a couple of top-end centers who look like they\u2019re going to be top six guys \u2014 No. 1, No. 2 centers. Malhotra, Viggo Bjorck, Tynan Lawrence,\u201d Kimelman said. \u201cI think teams are going to leave Buffalo feeling really, really good about what they get, certainly early in the first round of this year\u2019s draft.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Do you have a favorite of the 13 picks made by the Penguins during last year\u2019s draft?<\/p>\n

\u201cI really like the Bill Zonnon pick. I think if we\u2019re having this conversation five or six years from now, he\u2019s 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\u2019s a guy that I think years from now Penguins fans are going to be really, really happy about.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Tuesday\u2019s \u201cBreakfast With Benz\u201d podcast, we caught up with Adam Kimelman of NHL.com to preview the upcoming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-722717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}