Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins prospect Will Horcoff continues to DOMINATE the NCAA!

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

With the Pittsburgh Penguins on a short break, it's time to check in with what might be their top prospect! Hunter and Patrick begin the show discussing the recent play of first-round pick Will Horcoff and how he continues to light up the NCAA (2:00). He also was named to the preliminary roster for Team USA at the World Junior Championships. Can he keep this up? How far away is he from potentially being NHL ready? Then, the Penguins are starting to get healthier as Justin Brazeau and Noel Acciari returned to practice on Wednesday (13:00). As the Penguins get healthier, can they get back to their October form? Finally, it's Wednesday and that means it's time for another edition of Warrior Helmet Wednesday. (23:40).Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!DripDropRight now, DripDrop is offering podcast listeners 20% off your first order.Go to https://dripdrop.com and use promo code LOCKEDONNHL.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.MonarchTake control of your finances with Monarch. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at https://monarch.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. So if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit FanDuel.com and place your NFL livebets all season long.  FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

One of the Penguins' prospects continues to light up the NCAA this season, and Pat and I are going to check in on him, plus discuss a few injured players making their way back at practice on Wednesday right after this. Your Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host, Patrick Dave.

We can follow him on all social media platforms at Send him for Wet. You can also follow this show's Twitter at LO underscore Penguins, and you can follow the show's Instagram account at Lockdown underscore Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first lesson slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit Fandul.com and place your NFL live bets all season long.

Pat, now that we're into the beginning of December, keep seeing all these Spotify wrap, these little YouTube wrapped top five is coming out. If you have locked on penguins in your top five, please send it to us. We'll put it on our Instagram story. We'll repost it on Twitter, Blue Sky, all those. social media platforms. We want to know how often you've been listening to our show this year. We've already gotten a couple of DMs, Pat, locked on Penguins number one for some select listeners. You guys are sickos in the best possible way. So if our show is in your top five

for Spotify or YouTube or wherever else, please let us know since, of course, it is that time of year. But Pat, let's get into a Penguins prospect that has been red hot as of late. first round pick will horcoff 18 goals that leads the NCAA for the 25 26 season his 26 points tied for first in the NCAA for the 25 26 season he is a machine right now especially goal scoring wise he is making these NCAA goaltenders look like a complete joke they cannot handle his release at all he looks like a completely different player than what we saw for the end of last season when he first joined Michigan for only 18 games, had four goals, 10 points in that time.

This season, Pat, it's something beyond. And he's doing this as an 18 year old kid. That's the thing. Like, he's going up against a lot of upperclassmen and he's kicking their butts up and down the ice. He had four goals and five points this past weekend against Harvard, including the overtime winner in the second game. The celebration was electric, did it right in front of the Harvard bench.

I absolutely loved it. He continues to be on an absolute tear, man. And he was also named to the preliminary roster for the World Junior team for the United States, 28 players on that roster. It's going to be cut down to 25 over the next few weeks. I'd be stunned if he is not on the World Junior roster. I don't see how you leave him off. He is clearly one of the best eligible players for the United States at this moment that can play at the World Junior Championship.

And the other thing I want to. emphasize here is we've been excited on this show about Horkoff for a little bit now. But early on, you very easily could have dismissed it and said, listen, the season just started. You know how college athletics works the first week or two, depending upon the sport. You're playing a lot of cupcake games. You're playing a lot of warmups. And when you're a program like Michigan, you're definitely going to mop those teams up. It's been 16 games now.

Like, this is not a hot start. This is a trend. This is a kid who is really establishing himself as one of the best players in the NCAA this year. And I'll put my marker down for this right now. This keeps up. I don't expect it to keep up at this torrid of a pace. I do think he's going to hit a little bit of a lull. But if he continues producing this way, when we get to the end of the NCAA season,

And don't be surprised to see him in the Hobie Baker conversation. Yeah. And I know I've seen a couple of people comment like, oh, you know, when could he sign his ELC and stuff like that? I expect him to go back to Michigan next year. And he should go back to Michigan, I think, for another year, in my opinion. It was always this pick at the time, I always felt like it was more of a project when you compare it to Ben Kendall, who obviously, we all know how great he's been. Bill's on and he's been a bit banged up, but I still think he's closer to being an inch already than Horkoff, despite how great Horkoff has been and don't worry people he has been electric i still think it would

behoove him to go back to school for another year before we have a conversation pat about him you know maybe even being close to n h already but i think he would still have to start in the minors and all that stuff because once you sign your ELC you turn pro you saw it with isaac howard this past office he's remember pat he was set to go back to michigan state he gets traded signs an ELC he's now in the oilers organization so i don't expect him to sign an ELC this season. I think it would be better for him to go back to Michigan for another year. He's going to be 19, a sophomore. So I think it would just be better for him still. And he can work on a couple other aspects of his game. But at least to me right now,

he's 18. He's a little ahead of where I thought he would be this year. It's just he's a human highlight reel on a nightly basis for Michigan. There was that one goal a couple weeks ago where he knifed around multiple defenders before firing a piss missile after one of the goalies. It was beautiful to watch in the offensive zone. I can't wait to see what he does for rivalry weekend this weekend because you know who Michigan plays, Michigan State. And you know there's going to be fireworks because that's one of the top rivalries. And all college sports doesn't matter if it's football, basketball, or hockey.

You know that tempers are going to be flaring there. So I'm excited to see what he does. But I agree with you on the Hoey Baker. And again, the early returns, it really seems like they've really hit on this one. But it's still, again, early we got to see how he continues the season if he makes the world junior roster which i expect him to how he does there and also for next season how does he continue to build upon that because i do think he's going to go back to school and to your point about thinking he should go back for

another year to maybe put a little bit of a storm cloud over this very bright and sunny day about will horcough i also want to see what he does when other teams get tape on him because for the most part at the NCAA level he's an unknown he's new on the scene and we see this at just about every level of elite hockey whether it's college juniors the ahl and the NHL there are a lot of players who just rocket out of the gate and they look like they're poised to be one of the all-time greats they're going to be among the elite of the elite. And then teams figure them out. Teams figure out what their weakness is. Teams figure out how you can get under this player's skin. Teams figure out, okay, maybe if we just double them up,

we can let his linemates who might not be as good as him try to beat us. And often they don't. So for right now, this isn't to say the progress he's making, the way he's playing isn't impressive. It extremely is. He has really established himself. early on as a good pick by Kyle Dubus and the management group and the scouting staff. But this is the challenge of development. When you get to your second year, when you have that rookie sensation season, whether it's college, juniors, wherever, can you build upon it? Can you make it better?

Or can you at least come close to what you did? So as great as this all is, and again, it is great. There is no negative to be found here. But you want to be able to find out, can he do this consistently? Can he keep this up? And if he goes back to Michigan, which we both agree he should for his second year, also assuming he stays healthy, also assuming he continues this output, and he does it again in a sophomore season or does something similar, then next offseason you start having the discussion.

Should he sign his ELC? should he be brought into the program, should he spend some time in Wilkes-Barre or should he get a shot with the big club? But those are questions to be answered well down the line. Right. And I think when it gets to that point, he's probably going to start in the minors, if I had to guess, unless he really has a Ben Kindle-type training camp hat and really blows everyone away. I mean, the way he's playing right now, it's certainly possible down the line. But I'd like to think as of right now, probably would start, you know, Wilkesbury. maybe make his way up, excuse me, but still, that's down the line.

I just want to see how he finishes the season. Can he work on his game in his own zone? Can he get some more zone entries getting into the offensive zone? All that good stuff. But his release, it's top notch. He's living in the offensive zone. His hockey IQ, I think, is getting a little bit better when I watch him. But can he add other parts of his game to his repertoire?

And can he keep developing as this season goes on? and then into next season. That's going to be the key for me. And then also you get that experience at the world juniors. That's going to really help as well. So I also, again, I'm going to keep track for him there. And assuming he gets on the world junior roster, which I would love to see and I hope to see,

this is a less measurable thing that I have kept my eye on with Will Horkoff. No moment has been too big for him. Now he has stepped up in just about every situation Michigan has asked him to step up in. Now let's see him do it. on the world stage with the world junior team. And you know he's got experience with the national program. So go to that tournament, be a big part of Team USA, go back to Michigan, continue to light it up.

And we'll keep an eye out for this rivalry weekend because, again, he has not shown that any moment is too big for him. You go out and you embarrass Michigan State as a driver of play with Michigan, boy, they might start building statues of this kid outside of Michigan's ranch. Oh, oh, yeah. I mean, and he's also feisty on the ice. He's not afraid to get into it. He was named also the Big Ten first star of the week for his weekend against Harvard.

I'm excited to see how he does against Michigan State this weekend. And I think those games are going to be pretty crazy just because how that rivalry is and just all college sports when those two schools did get together. But I think that's going to do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, I was at practice again on Wednesday. And the Penguins are starting to get some reinforcements back when it comes to some of injured players. Pat and I are going to discuss that right after this. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor, which is

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and mine performing at their best with DripDrop. All right. We're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of host Hunter Hodes joined by my co's Patchdamp and Pat, I was at practice because the penguins returned to Pittsburgh after their brief trip to Philadelphia on Tuesday. They were off yesterday. They practiced today. And right away, you could tell there were some reinforcements on the ice. Yes, people, I understand Anthony Mantha was not there. It was a maintenance day. I expect him in the lineup on Thursday in Tampa Bay. Yon Okopinan, he was not there due to a illness, but he's expected to travel as Anthony

Mantha, but Justin Brzeau and Nolichari were both on the ice practice, regular jerseys, meaning they have been cleared for contact. Dan Mew said after practice that this was a really important step, but that they are not playing on Thursday. So it's more likely that they'll go on Sunday in Dallas, if not then, then sometime during the five-game homestine that's coming out right after this three-game trip ends. But still, Pat, really good news. Brazo was doing some drills today with Hvgeny Malkin and Tommy Novak.

They didn't really do full line rushes. It was mainly just drills, but I guess if you want to count one specific drill as a line rush in quotation marks, you saw Kevin Hayes with Crosby and Russ doing a drill together, and then you saw, as I said, Berzo with Malkin and Novak. So he's getting closer. Achari was rotating in on a couple of the bottom six lines. So this is really good news to get these two guys back, especially Justin Brzeau, with the way that he was producing, six goals, 12 points,

and 12 games before we're going down. And look at the timeline right about where we thought they were going to come back, about a monthish. So that's where I want to start with this, Pat. Good news that the team is starting to get a little bit healthier here. It's real good news because we won. I don't think we realized how load bearing Justin Brzo was for the top six. And apparently he was a pretty big part of it.

But on the other side of that, you can say that it is frustrated as we were over the past couple of weeks by some of the performances, they have mostly kept their heads above water during this stretch of injuries. And they're still in a good spot as they start to get healthier. And it's just basic roster construction here where once you get Brazil back, a couple guys filter down the lineup, your depth gets a little bit better at forward. And you can hopefully look a lot more like that team that we saw in October. over rather than the team we saw for a good portion of November, and that's like you said, very good news. And I know that we aren't the biggest Noel Achari fans on this podcast,

but I have said it. I like him on that fourth line. That fourth line they got together early in the season did a lot of good. It possessed the puck pretty well in the offensive zone. It forechecked really well. They played solid defensively. And when you have a fourth line constructed that way, that's about the best that you can ask of them, and they were delivering. So I want to see them get back to that as best they can. And I really hope that even when they start to get healthy, we continue to see the kid line get a little bit longer of a runway

because I thought that line was very good against the Flyers. And with the players you're getting back here, hopefully within the next week, it's not going to have any impact on that line. So you can put Briseau back in the top six. You can move Kevin Hayes, hopefully down to a fourth line roller. Or even if he has to go out of the lineup, that's not going to be that big of a deal. But at the end of the day, getting Justin Brzo back is huge.

We just have to hope that his start to the season wasn't a flash in the pan. And he's really figuring it out. Right. And it's still going to be hard for him to keep up that very high shooting percentage for a full season once he does come back, hopefully on Sunday. but if he can still be a player that you can get, you know, 15 plus goals out of this year, hell Pat, maybe he'll score still 20 somehow, but, you know, again, in that 15-ish range, even though, you know, he already has six, but still, just trying to, I'm not trying to go too far and beyond here, but if you get that many goals out of them, that's a success

for me. And we all know how great that second line was when all three were healthy. Mantha was feeding off everyone, Brazil is feeding off everyone, especially Malkin was feeding off both of his wingers. I mean, he was having a blast with those two on his line. So I'm excited for that line to reunite. I know people are wondering where Rickel is. He's not back at practice yet, excuse me. I think we're probably looking at a few weeks here until he comes back to playing, maybe around Christmas, New Year's, something like that. Again, that's just me speculating it's me guessing it's kind of just going off the timeline that the penguins gave

when he got hurt with the freak hand injury but that's my guess i know he's been skating but probably a few weeks away achari he's still going to be in a battle pat for a bottom six spot like i don't think it's still going to be handed to him i was liking his play a little bit more to start the season i think part of it has to do with how doer and lazotte were playing on that line but i will say achari was complimenting them well at times during some games but he's still going to have to earn it. You know, Bokoa Mamu, it was only one game. I thought he played fairly well on the fourth line. Kevin Hayes has been on the top line. And if you look at some of the underlines, him and Sid, have not done that bad together, which is hard to believe because I thought

putting him on the top line was a little diabolical last week. But even when healthy, I'm still not sure. Is there a spot for Kevin Hayes in this lineup? Does Philly Coivinen get a spot in lineup on the kids line when everyone's healthy? Damien is going to have a lot of tough decisions to make here as this team continues to get fully healthy. Again, two of these players are almost back. Raquel's coming in a few weeks. It's going to be decision time here really soon. That's really what we wanted to see with this team, though, going into this year.

We wanted some of these younger players and some of these second chance guys to really push a lot of the guys who have been here for a while or for a couple of years. And like you said, Noah Chari fits that mold of a guy who's been here for a couple of years. And you've got your Boko Amamas and a couple other players who are going to put him. him into a position where he's got to earn his spot. He's not just going to automatically be stapled on that fourth line every single night. And I do think part of his early play this season was born of that. He was having to earn it. He had to elevate his game.

We've seen that with a couple players this year. They have been given the opportunity to play and either they've elevated their own game or they've elevated the game of others and it's led to this team having a surprising start. So that's huge for them. And I do that that's the other reason that I want to see this kid's line continue to get a chance and get a little bit more of a runway, simply because they had a good effort against the flyers. And you can see the makings of, of chemistry there between those three. And who knows? That could be a line that really bolsters your depth, really makes a matchup problem for other opponents and hopefully get you some production if

Vela Kovinen can ever get the weight off of his back and score a goal, but I digress. And as for Kevin Hayes, I continue to say it about him. He does not flee to foot. He may not have the speed, but he thinks the game at a really good level. And if you don't have the speed, you may not be able to be a long-term solution on the line of Sidney Crosby, but if you can think the game in a way that compliments the other two players, which are Brian Rust and Sidney Crosby, you'll be able to carve that out for a little bit of time. I don't want Kevin Hayes on that line all year long. But until Ricard Raquel gets back,

I don't think he's the worst option to have on that line. He really has not been bad since being promoted up there. I know some people aren't going to like that answer, but you watch the games, you look into some of the underlines as well, hasn't really been too terrible. I think his hockey IQ really fits that line. As you said, he thinks the game well. He's in the right position. Is he fast? No, that part of his game is not coming back probably ever with how old he is now and such.

But I do think his hockey IQ really does help Crosby and Rust on that line. Crosby's always like playing with pretty smart players on his line. So if you have to do it for, you know, again, a few more games, got me a couple more weeks until Raquel is ready to come back. That's fine. We all know Raquel is going right back up there when he's healthy. Like that was the top line before Raquel got hurt. I would be stunned if that somehow changed when he came back.

So again, at the end of the day, they're going to have a lot more options soon. The team is starting to get healthier, which is great news because I really want to see what this team can do when they're fully healthy. we saw it in October, they've still dipped a little bit, even though they've won three of the last four, can they rediscover that magic once they're able to get everyone back? That's still something that I'm looking forward to seeing. But that's going to do it for the second segment. Coming up to end the show, it's Wednesday.

Yins know what that means. It's time for Pat and I to give out our warrior helmet for the team MVP for the last week, and that's coming up right after this. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our final sponsor, which is Fandle. NFL Sundays move fast, one big play, and suddenly everything feels different. That's what makes live betting with Fandall so exciting. You're not just watching the game, you're reacting to it in real time.

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Finishing up the Wednesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. And as I do every single Wednesday, I rip Hunter Hodes out of the host chair because it's my favorite segment that we do here on Locked-on Penguins Warrior Helmet Wednesday, where we hand out our MVP of the week. If you are new to the show, each Wednesday, we hand out our MVP of the week for the Penguins, and we do it paying homage to the 2016 Stanley Cup winning Penguins, where after wins, they would hand out a warrior helmet in the locker room. So that is how we give out our MVP of the week here on the show.

And I got a feeling, Hunter, that this week, it's pretty darn obvious who's going to be getting the warrior helmet. I have this pick, and I'm pretty sure you have this pick as well. The captain number 87, Sidney Crosby, in his last three games, he has six points and five goals, a two goal performance against his favorite. rival the Philadelphia Flyers, two goals against the Columbus Blue Jackets. And despite the Penguins getting beat up against the Maple Leafs, he had a goal and an assist.

And not to mention, he is now just seven points away from tying Mario Lemieux for the Penguins franchise lead, which means he is eight points away from taking sole possession of first place for the Penguins franchise lead in points, huge week for the captain, and to quote the great NBA jam, he's heating up. Yes, I have the same pick as you, very obvious. If Sid didn't go on a heater, I was thinking long and hard about Blake Lazot, who I think has had an excellent week for the Penguins, especially on the penalty kill. He doesn't get enough love in the fan base, in my opinion.

He's been great. I was also considering Tristan Jari for the form that he has been in for the last week. But Sidney Crosby decided to go God mode, Pat, and screw up one of those two picks for us. Because I think, again, it was going to be one of those two players. Sid, as you said, five goals and six points. He's making it look so easy. Before that point, he wasn't struggling or anything, but I was like, okay, when are we going to see, you know, vintage God mode, Sid? Well, we got it over the last week.

he put the team on his back in Columbus. I know what Tang won the game in overtime, but he was tremendous all game. He gets that garbage time goal against Toronto. Okay, but still, Sid gets the goal there. And then he put the team on his back in Philadelphia, like he always does against the Flyers.

He lives to torment those players on the Flyers and their fans, I should say, excuse me, it's funny. I feel like Flyers fans still go to sleep after these games and they see Sidney Crosby in their nightmares. I think they'll be seeing Sid in their nightmares. until he's still well out of the league. When he's like 55, 60,

I think Flyers are still going to be seeing him in their nightmares with the way that he has dominated that team and terrorized that fan base throughout his entire career. So this has been vintage, Sid, 18 goals. He came into last night's game, Pat, second in the league behind McKinnon and Geeky. Then McKinnon decided to get more because I think right now McKinnon is probably the Hart Trophy favorite

the way that he's playing on the avalanche. But this is Sid's week. He continues to heat up, and if this keeps going, they're going to keep winning a lot more games and really stay in a playoff spot. So very easy decision for me. I mean, at this point, I think with Flyers fans and having talked to a few of them, because I do have somehow quite a few Flyers fans in my life. I'm not sure how that happened, but I digress. It's just a bit at this point. They don't like him.

Let's not get that twisted, but they're very much at the point where us. Penguins fans are with OV where yeah we may not like him but we definitely respect what he does and at this point the booing it's just the bit that they're forever committed to so let's check out our tracker obviously we just told you this week's winner is captain Sidney Crosby unanimous pick by both Hunter and myself and now let's check out our tracker for the season Crosby moves into a tie with Evgeny Malkin for three warrior helmets on the year. Got a couple people with two, Justin Brazo, Ben Kindle, and Sergey Murashov, and a couple people who have gotten just one this year, President of Hockey

Ops, Kyle Dubus, Eric Carlson, head coach Dan Mews, the penalty kill, and the power play. Why are we doing that this season? Well, because it's time to take Warrior Helmet Wednesday to the next level. Keep track of all these Warrior helmets we give out. And at the end of the season, whether that's after game 82 or maybe after, say, a playoff series or two, however this season decides to go, we will give out our season-long warrior helmets to whomever has the most at the end of the year. But Hunter, unless you've got anything else to add on a great week for Captain Sidney Crosby, that is going to do it for us here on the Wednesday edition of the locked-on.

Penguins podcast. Hunter and I are going to be back with a fresh episode for you on Thursday, getting you set for Penguins and Lightning on Thursday night. But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you as always for tuning in. And we will talk to you on Thursday.