It helped Horcoff get out to a scorching hot start, as nineteen of his goals came through the Dec. 5-6 series with rival Michigan State. But right before the holiday break, Horcoff hurt his shoulder.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just kind of knew that once the season was over, I’d probably have to get it done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
So, the Michigan native played through it while representing the United States at the 2026 World Junior Championship, where the Americans finished fifth. He played through it as the Wolverines made an impressive run, winning the Big Ten Tournament and advancing to the Frozen Four.<\/p>\n
Along the way, Horcoff\u2019s goal scoring tapered off, but he doesn\u2019t blame the injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, my shoulder affected me a little bit, but I would not say at all that’s the reason why I had that second half,\u201d Horcoff said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
When Penguins Director of Player Development Tom Kostopoulos looks at that stretch of Horcoff\u2019s season, he feels that at times, the 19-year-old forward simply lost his rhythm a bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that’s something that he knows, he understands, and he’s working on,\u201d Kostopoulos said. \u201cJust to build that consistency, and just be able to play. If the puck’s not going into the net, to have a B game. So, it’s all things he’s building in his game and working on. He’s a very intelligent kid and player.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the Wolverines lost to Denver in the NCAA semifinals, Horcoff had surgery to repair his shoulder. He was about nine weeks into his recovery during this year\u2019s Development Camp, which ran from June 29-July 3, as part of a summer of rehab and strength building.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knows he’s got to work on his skating. He wants to build his engine, just to last longer and be able to give more in his shifts,\u201d\u00a0Kostopoulos said. \u201cWhen you see him kind of overpower guys in the O-zone, and finding space in shooting areas in the slot, those are real talents. Now, can he beat guys with his feet? Can he beat guys out of the corner? Can he build that strength on the puck? And that’s what he’ll work on.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the fall, Horcoff will return to U of M for another season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think for my development, it’s the best decision, and a lot of the guys on that Michigan team are going back as well. I just think we have something to prove,\u201d\u00a0Horcoff said. \u201cObviously, coming up short last year, we’re super hungry for a national championship.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Ann Arbor, Horcoff will live off-campus with some of his teammates, including Dakoda Rheaume-Mullen, who was a free-agent invitee to Development Camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s awesome. He jumped in with us halfway through our freshman year, and we just had so much fun right away,\u201d Rheaume-Mullen said. \u201cWe were always hanging out in each other’s dorm rooms, and then this year, now we’re roommates in a house. So, kind of like going through that process with him again, like, learning to cook a bunch and take care of a house and all that fun stuff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think as you notice, I’m talking about off the ice stuff, just because I feel like even with him and our team, we just have so much fun away from the rink. But at the rink, like he’s just so competitive, and I think like for all of us, just like seeing that and watching that. All the stuff he does off the ice kind of trickles down to us too. So yeah, that’s fun to see.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It helped Horcoff get out to a scorching hot start, as nineteen of his goals came through the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-770173","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\/770173","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=770173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}