The Top-10 of the NHL draft went exactly how the bulk of NHL teams thought it was going to go. As expected a heavy run on forwards and absolutely zero surprise of who went where, along with defenseman Radim Mrtka jumping into the top-10 as the second defenseman selected of the day.

Kyle Dubas in Kyle Dubas fashion provided the first surprise of the night in going off the board in selecting Calgary Hitmen center Ben Kindel with the #11 overall selection. The way the board broke is the Penguins, an analytic driven organization, were determined to live by the value chart and turn the #12 selection into additional picks which they did, landing #22 and #31 from the Philadelphia Flyers. Pittsburgh after selecting rugged winger Bill Zonnon at #22, would move up seven spots shortly after, acquiring #24 from the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for the 31st & 59th pick that saw Pittsburgh select Michigan center Will Horcoff.

In the leadup to the draft, Pittsburgh mulled a significant move up for two particular targets and even on Friday tried to get in front of the Flyers;

Center Caleb Desnoyers (4th Overall, Utah) and winger Porter Martone (6th Overall, Philadelphia) were the targets.

“None of that came to fruition and that’s sometimes just the way it goes,” Dubas said. “Often times you look back and you’re thankful you held.”

As the draft unfolded, a best case scenario for the Penguins at #11 was the team hoping one of Radim Mrtka (9th overall, Buffalo) or center Roger McQueen (10th overall, Anaheim), two players Pittsburgh had clear top-10 grades on. That didn’t play out as both players went off the board in the previous two picks. That saw Pittsburgh, according to multiple sources, essentially go off their board a bit To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”! The decision wasn’t a crazy surprise to rival executives but the view outside of Pittsburgh was the team being locked in on hard hitting defenseman Kawshawn Aitcheson (17th overall, NYI), a favorite among Penguins scouts.

“We just didn’t want to look back on it and day, geez why did we pass on this guy that had 99 points and then stepped up his game in the playoffs. It had all the makings that we were going to kick ourselves about it later,” Dubas indicated on reasoning to go route then did.

Buzz is the Penguins believed the To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”! next team strongly considering Kindel at pick #18 and Kindel would not be available at #22 as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia had a deal worked out before Pittsburgh selected at 11.

“We understand he’s not the biggest guy, but To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

While Kindel went about 7-12 spots earlier than most of the league saw him, winger Bill Zonnon and center Will Horcoff went in expected spots and hard to complain about either pick where upside might not be high, both have the makings of having some type of NHL career. Still, it’s easy to see why prominent drafts analysts’ like a Scott Wheeler of the Athletic and others dubbed the Penguins a loser on Day 1 with the Kindel reach. Yes the chart said the Penguins got proper value on the initial trade with Philadelphia but was this the draft to do so? Was quantity over quality better? We won’t find that out for several years.

One easy way to evaluate the Penguins day 1 picks down the road will be looking at picks 12-17. The Islanders came out of the day with Victor Eklund and Kashawn Aitcheson in back-to-back picks. Eklund viewed as a tremendous value pick at 16, will be a great comparison to Kindel long-term in the evaluation process. Some see potential star upside in defenseman Jackson Smith (14th overall, Columbus), though, there continues to be a suspicion around the league Pittsburgh has a post July 1 trade they are strongly mulling that To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

Penguins Day 2 Selections

Round 3: (73) (84) (85)

Round 4: (105)

Round 5: (130) (148)

Round 6: (169)

Round 7: (201)

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