Over the last several years, the Pittsburgh Penguins have had one of the oldest rosters in the NHL, if not the oldest. In fact, per Hockey Reference, they did have the oldest team in the NHL this past season, a full half-year older than the next oldest team, the Edmonton Oilers. The Penguins will likely continue to have a relatively old roster so long as their key producers are over the age of 30. Their top seven scorers this past season were 31 or older, and all seven of those players are still under contract for next season. To sum this point up, until Pittsburgh has some younger players who are capable of producing on par with these productive veterans, the team will not start trending in a younger direction.

Consequently, the Penguins aren’t going to have any younger, productive players unless they draft or trade for them. This past season we started seeing the potential for some of those younger players in the system to make in impact on Pittsburgh, with the likes of Rutger McGroarty, Vasily Ponomarev, Ville Koivunen, and Sam Poulin making appearances for the Penguins, but none of those players had as meaningful an impact on the roster as the 23-year-old Philip Tomasino, acquired from the Nashville Predators in November for the pittance of a mere fourth-round draft pick. Tomasino churned out 11 goals and 12 assists in 50 games, which sounds modest but was good enough for the ninth-most points on the team this year, and certainly was more than anyone else in the under-23 category for Pittsburgh. The Penguins will need their young players to step up their production more and more over the coming years as their aging veterans really begin to produce less.

The upcoming Entry Draft will bring to Pittsburgh its highest draft pick since 2012 when they took defenseman Derrick Pouliot with the eighth overall pick. That draft saw the Penguins draft nine players in total, five of which played over 200 games in the NHL and a few (Olli Maatta, Teddy Blueger, and Matt Murray) played key roles for Pittsburgh in their two Stanley Cup championships in 2016 and 2017. As things stand right now, the Penguins have ten picks in June’s draft, which would also be the most since 2012. Pittsburgh may get another pick if the New York Rangers decide to give the Penguins their first-round pick, even though it is protected as it will be in the top thirteen, but I am not holding my breath for that.

The most valuable pick obviously will Pittsburgh’s first rounder. Although the odds overwhelmingly have them taking the ninth overall pick (64.4%) or tenth (23.5%), there is a 10.2% chance the Penguins could pick first or second overall. Pittsburgh has drafted ninth overall two other times: in 1980 when they took one-time All-Star Mike Bullard, and in 1984 when they took Doug Bodger, who would eventually be sent to Buffalo in a trade that would see the Penguins acquire the starting goaltender in their back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 1991 and 1992, Tom Barrasso. Neither player drafted ended up being long-time Penguins, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be that kind of player to be found at #9. Such players include Rod Brind’Amour, Brian Leetch, Cam Neely, and Logan Couture. Active ninth overall picks range from last year’s selection Zayne Parekh and include Nikolai Ehlers, Timo Meier, Dougie Hamilton, Jacob Trouba, Trevor Zegras, and Bo Horvat. Interestingly, only one goaltender, Brent Krahn, has been taken at #9 overall. He played just 20 minutes in his entire career, playing in relief of Marty Turco and allowing 3 goals on nine shots in a 6-2 Dallas Stars loss against the Chicago Blackhawks.