The 6'3" defenseman was a step away from cracking the roster in Pittsburgh this past fall. While he does have one year of junior eligibility left, he'll soon be getting his first taste of AHL action.
When speaking with Post-Gazette's Matt Vensel in an interview, Brunicke seemed excited at the chance to move up in his development.
"With how good that Wilkes-Barre team is doing, that is pretty special. Hopefully, I'm able to go there and reunite with those guys and have some fun," Brunicke told the PG. "As far as I know, that is the plan. I think it's as soon as we can, basically."
Since he was chosen 44th overall at the 2024 NHL Draft, which was a pick the Penguins received in exchange for Jake Guentzel to the Hurricanes, Brunicke's worth has increased incrementally, and has now really started to take off.
The Athletic's Jesse Marshall on Twitter/X posted a clip of the bag of tricks of Brunicke, a slick sequence involving him picking the puck up at the back end, using a spinaround to outplay the forecheck pressure that was on him, while cutting around one Kelowna defenceman through the middle, and then moving outside on release.
Brunicke's breaking into the AHL is now real, and fans of Pittsburgh sure hope to see him at the NHL level really soon.