Who Do You Want Our Penguins To Draft?

As long time Penguin Poop readers can attest, I love to give my unsolicited advice for our Pittsburgh Penguins to follow in the off-season. (Over the last eight or so seasons they have rarely followed it.) With the NHL 2026 Entry draft down to just being weeks away, it seems like a good time to continue my tradition of offering my wish list for the draft.

Before I go any further, I want to put a big thanks out there to Caleb for the yeoman’s job he did on listing many of the potential first round draft pick options that may be open to our Penguins – kudos.

I have been watching a lot of game videos of many of the prospects Caleb highlighted as well as others, all the way down to 3^rd round players. There are more prospects out there that may be taken in the first three rounds than I have had time to view. I was hoping to be more thorough for my wish but looking at the latest Mock Draft sites, I changed my plans.

For many weeks, the Mock Draft sites were relatively stable, that was not the case this morning. I saw a lot of changes up and down the lists. Therefore, before more changes occur and other prospects names bubble up or current names drop down, I want to post my current wish list for your edification – otherwise I may run out of time; which will disappoint my friend Rick Buker who keeps prodding me to finish my post.

Part of me thinks Rick B just wants to argue with me over this.

First Move

My first advice is to trade for at least one more pick. That trade could be for either trading backwards in the draft – our first pick to a team behind us in the draft for their later 1st round pick plus a 2^nd round pick; or trading one or more of our road block veterans and/or one or more under-performing prospects (ie Owen Pickering, Ville Koivunen, Rutger McGroarty) for at least one of the prizes I want.

Nikita Shcherbakov

Over the course of this off-season, I have read so many talking heads propose names like Ilya Morozov, J.P. Hurlbert, or Maddox Dagenais. Many of those players may do well in a Penguins’ uniform and had Kyle Dubas used his first pick last season to grab Kashawn Aitcheson, any one of those players would probably be the best choice for the team’s 1^st pick.

However, considering the pathetic list of Left-Handed Defensemen (LHD) in this organization, I would draft a LHD, and the player I would choose as my first pick would be Nikita Shcherbakov. I am not sure why the 6’-5”, 187lbs, Russian LHD is not listed as going higher, but he has been consistently ranked low enough for our favorite flightless fowl to draft – I hope he stays there.

The most impressive trait I witnessed when watching his in-game videos was this kid’s skating ability. Shcherbakov glades across the ice with real speed (and not just for a big man) and agility. He changes directions quickly and pivots to skate backwards as adroitly as a figure skater.

Next to his skating Shcherbakov’s transition game stands out; he didn’t have to spend much time in his own zone in any of the video I watched. Shcherbakov used his stick effectively to break up plays and his vision and passing accuracy go the puck going back the other way, rapidly.

If the Penguins do draft Shcherbakov, I will do a more detailed review.

Tobias Trejbal

Right now, there are only two Goalies under contract in the Penguins’ organization, both prospects and one played last season in the juniors (Gabriel D’Aigle). Even if Joel Blomqvist, Taylor Gauthier, and Arturs Silovs all re-sign with Pittsburgh, very few Goalies seem to stay on top of their game long; the Pens could easily find themselves in need of a new Goalie sooner rather than later.

My second draft pick would be Tobias Trejbal, a 6’-4” 196lbs, Czech Goalie who played last season with the Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL. This kid just may be better than any Goalie in this organization, maybe one of the better Goalies I have seen in quite a while. Trejbal is the first Goalie who seems to know how to protect his own crease. I counted at least five times when Trejbal either knocked the puck off an opponent’s stick or slapped a centering pass back into the corner. On a team that always seems to employ Defensemen that have no clue how to protect their own net, Trejbal could be a must.

The other outstanding behavior I noted in Trejbal was how similar his general positioning was to Sergei Murashov (crouching low) and how his puck tracking appears to be as good as Blomqvist.

Lars Steiner

With my third pick, I would draft Lars Steiner. Steiner is a Swiss Right-Handed forward; he is only 5’-10” and 176lbs, but he plays much larger. Steiner never fails to finish a hit on the forecheck, separates players from the puck, and at around 7:56 of the 2^nd period of a game against Shawinigan on April 10, 2026, Steiner flattened, absolutely flattened, an opponent trying to exit his own zone.

Steiner isn’t your typical milquetoast Forward that the Penguins have stockpiled over the last many seasons; he is a physical presence, even if he is under 6’-0” tall. Steiner isn’t really a pugilist type, but his I am sure physical play will make him a favorite of our friend Rick Buker.

Even though he is such a physical presence, Steiner is not one trick pony, only capable of hitting opponents; he is a good skater with an excellent shot and release. Perhaps he won’t develop, not all players do, but from what I have seen, I can picture him either book ending a high energy line with Bill Zonnon, or being a wrecking ball, potting 20 or more goals on a line with a play maker and a sniper (maybe Mikhail Ilyin and Egor Chinakhov?)

Egor Barabanov

A real sleeper in the draft may be Egor Barabanov. A couple of weeks back, I thought he would easily still be available for our Penguins to nab with their 3rd round pick, but recently I have seen him projected to go several slots before Dubas gets his pick. I hope they are wrong.

Barabanov is 6’-0”, 181lbs forward from St. Petersburg, Russia who scored 91 points in his first season in the OHL, teaming up with another top prospect Nikita Klepov and 2027 Draft Eligible Dimian Zhilkin, forming a most lethal line. Barabanov isn’t afraid to get physical at all, but his biggest strengths are his hockey sense, play making ability, and ability to find the back of the net when he is given an opportunity (I doubt you will ever see him miss an open net from between the circles, like I saw Dominik Simon do).

Maksim Sokolovskii

If I am able to pick up a third 2^nd round pick, I would take the 6’-8”, 238lbs, LHD, Maksim Sokolovskii. Sokolovskii is another player that wasn’t a focus of our Penguins during the Mike Sullivan era. He isn’t a tiny “puck moving” Defenseman that can’t protect his own Goalie. He isn’t going to challenge a Cale Makar for scoring as a Defenseman. However, he has shown the ability to flatten forecheckers and interlopers in his Goalies crease.

Defensively, Sokolovskii isn’t a great skater like Shcherbakov but he has a ridiculously long reach that is just as effective at shutting down opponents. From what I have seen, Sokolovskii’s biggest limitation is his single mindedness. He locks in on one opponent in his own zone, to the exclusion of all others, taking him out of position at times. Even though he has consistently been projected as being drafted in the 2^nd round, his limitation of focusing on one opponent is why I would only draft him if I could get a third 2^nd round pick. With three picks I would have the luxury of gambling on a player who could develop into a force of nature.

Recap

So, there you have it, the five players that were at least at one point within our Penguins’ chances of drafting, even though the volatility of draft rankings can change in a single day.

1. Nikita Shcherbakov LHD
2. Tobias Trejbal G
3. Lars Steiner RW
4. Egor Barabanov F
5. Maksim Sokolovskii LHD

Now that I put it out there, I can’t take it back. It will be interesting to see who Dubas does drafts and how my list compares with his. It will also be interesting to see how well I did in picking prospects.

Odds and Sods

Speaking of looking back to see how well I picked prospects, let’s look at how the players I wanted Dubas to draft last year are doing. To refresh your memories in order I wanted to draft 1A) Kashawn Aitcheson – LHD, 1B) Justin Carbonneau – RW, 1C) Bill Zonnon – LW, 2) Peyton Kettles – RHD, 3A) Tomas Poletin – LW, 3B) Mace’O Phillips LHD, 3C) Seymon Frolov – G, and 4) Shamar Moses -RW.

Dubas agreed with me on two of my picks, Zonnon and Kettles. Kettles was injured most of the season, so the jury is truly still out on him, but so far, most of the players I wanted the team to draft are tracking very well. The only player that seems to be struggling is Moses. Even Phillips was playing the way I had envisioned him, very physically. It does look like I would have drafted well for the team, had I been the one picking. Although, if I could change out any picks not only would I look for a replacement for Moses, but I would switch out Carbonneau for the guy Dubas picked with his third pick of the 1^st round last year, William Horcoff; that kid looks REAL special. I can’t wait to see if he can fulfill the promise he has shown thus far.