Penguins Prospects: What About the Kids?

In yesterday’s post, I detailed many of the extraordinary things that went right for our Penguins this season. However, there was one important area I didn’t touch on. Namely, how our Pens did when it came to developing the kids. Regarded as a Dan Muse strength.

On that count, I’d say the results were mixed at best.

Before I go into detail, it should be noted our youngsters certainly didn’t lack for opportunity. On the contrary, the Pens broke training camp with four rookies on the roster, including forwards Ben Kindel, Ville Koivunen and Filip Hållander. Nineteen-year-old defenseman Harrison Brunicke rounded out the quartet.

Following a couple of non-descript games, Koivunen was quickly dispatched to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, where he would average better than a point-per-game. With a sterling 5v5 goals for percentage of 63.64, the 25-year-old Hållander played well through the early going while slotting on different lines before a blood clot in his leg effectively ruined his season.

After scoring a goal against the Islanders in the second game of the season, Brunicke’s play quickly went south. This led to an odyssey of sorts that saw him bounce from the Pens to the Baby Pens for a conditioning assignment, then on to Team Canada for the World Juniors before returning to his junior team in Kamloops and, recently, back to the Baby Pens.

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