Pittsburgh Hockey Insider has no direct affiliation to the Pittsburgh Penguins, NHL or NHLPA
Pittsburgh Penguins' Top Prospect Sees Soaring Value as Season Wraps Up
Photo credit: Joe Zak / Penguins
One of the top prospects of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Harrison Brunicke, has been having a phenomenal season, which has boosted his stock way up.
One of the Pittsburgh Penguins' top prospects, Harrison Brunicke, will head to their AHL affiliate, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, now that his WHL season with the Kamloops Blazers has concluded.
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.
| POLL | ||
MARS 26 | 108 ANSWERS Pittsburgh Penguins' Top Prospect Sees Soaring Value as Season Wraps Up Will Harrison Brunicke be a top player for the Pittsburgh Penguins one day? | ||
| Yes | 63 | 58.3 % |
| No | 45 | 41.7 % |
| List of polls | ||