Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - PROSPECT CAMP: Should Harrison Brunicke get a 9-game tryout?

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

There's one day left in Penguins' Development Camp, and we've got everything you need to know about what's been happening in Cranberry! Patrick and Hunter start the show giving their thoughts on the first few days of Development Camp and how while you shouldn't overeact to what you see, there is still plenty to be encouraged about from the Penguins' young players. Then, they have a discussion about Harrison Brunicke. After dazzling last year in training camp and nearly making the team, the Penguins now find themselves in a difficult position; Brunicke is likely too good to go back to junior, but still too young to head to the AHL, so what should the team do with him as training camp progresses later this year? Finally, with the draft and the first week of free agency in the books, what are some early expectations for the 2025-26 Pittsburgh Penguins? Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get $150 in Bonus Bets if your first $5 bet wins!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.

The prospects are here and they are going camping and they had a bit of a guest for the past few days. We'll talk about that right after this. You're Locked on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in to another edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at. synonym for Wet. Joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes.

You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's Twitter account a follow at L.O. underscore Penguins. And now you can follow us on Instagram as well at Lockedon underscore Penguins. As always, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine because we're your team every day. Don't forget, we're free and available wherever you get podcasts as well as YouTube. and if you're following us on YouTube, be sure to hit the notification button.

That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. Before we get started, today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. Right now, new Fandual customers can get $150 in bonus bets if their first $5 bet wins. Visit fandul.com to learn more. Hunter, before we get into everything, let's just run down. a little bit of business here. This is the last week of Monday through Friday episodes for the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

And then for the next two months until training camp, we will be doing three episodes per week. That usually means likely we'll try to do Monday, Wednesday, Friday, but we'll see what's going on around the hockey world, around the penguins, and adjust towards that. But as long as you're subscribed, you'll see. us in your feed when we drop our new episodes three days a week. So this week, Monday through Friday, then we go into offseason mode with three days a week. One other thing before we get started, and it does lead into what we're going to talk about here in the first segment, because we have

seen some questions about this. In Hunter, you're not much of one for bragging. So I'm going to brag for you. If you haven't noticed, Hunter Hodes is not just a co-host of Locked-on Penguins. He is also a contributor to the hockey news for the Penguins beat. So if you have seen him for the past few days at development camp at the Lemieux Sports Complex, while he is going to use some of that material for our podcast, he is using it for the hockey news as he is on assignment for them at the Lemieux complex. So all that said, you have written about this Hunter for the past couple of days. We had a weekend of development camp. You got to be there. You got to view a bunch of these prospects. And I will say this, just so everybody is clear. We know this isn't training camp. We know this isn't

them taking steps towards making the roster. This is quite literally development camp. They are seeing what these young guys can do, seeing where they are developmentally, and giving them a plan moving forward, whether it's going to the HL, whether it's going back to junior, or in the case of one player we'll talk about later in the show, how they can come to training camp and make the NHL roster. So let's dive into it, Hunter.

You were at camp on Saturday and Sunday. What were your thoughts starting with Saturday? The biggest thing here, Pat, is you don't want to overreel. act to this type of camp. Like I'm writing about some of the standouts. I'm talking about some of them here on the show, but I'm not sitting here saying like, oh my God,

this means they're going to be elite players in the NHL in the next five to six years or this definitely means they're going to make the league. All I'm saying is, hey, they had good days against some of the other prospects in the system. And I do want to start with Will Horkov. A lot of people felt like that was a reach in the first round. You know, even us on the show, Pat,

we were kind of like, that's interesting. We would have taken a few other players over Horcoff at the time. He was the third Penguins first round pick in the 2025 NHL draft. I felt like Saturday, he was really showcasing his release during someone on one drills. And then on Sunday, he showcased it during some three on three drills, some four on four drills. And the puck just exploded off his sick. It was really nice seeing the way his release was during those drills. I also felt like he was really good around the net front areas.

for someone who is 6-4, 6-5, he's a relatively good skater. And, you know, he also told, you know, Kelsey after, you know, he's super happy with the way his development camp has gone. So far, I'm excited to see what he can do during the tournament on Monday. Speaking of that, by the way, it is free open to the public, starts at noon, depending on when this episode comes out. It might be all news that I said that, but it is free and open to the public and it ends today.

So Will Horkoff, definitely a big standout. Harrison Brunich, we're going to touch on him a little bit later. I will just say this though, Pat. You can see that he is better than most of these players here at this camp. And if he keeps it up, he might get the nine game trial after camp in the preseason. But again, more on that coming up a little bit later. On Sunday, I also thought Cruz Lucius, remember him, Pat and they get Jake Gensel trade, they got his rights.

He was banged up for a lot of this past season, shoulder injury, comes back, produces a little bit for Arizona State. But he did say he's fully healthy. I thought he was using his physicality along the boards and up by the point really well, had a couple of nice goals. I'm not sure what to make of him going forward for his long-term future. I just wanted to point him out and say, hey, he had a decent day on Sunday. I also felt like Finn Harding, especially on Saturday, had a good day.

You can see the talent right there. Good skater, good instincts, really good in his own zone, but he also has really developed his offensive games. Seven goals, 57 points, and 67 games last year for his junior team. turning pro this year, probably going to start with Wheeling or Wilkesbury. That's where we're going to see, okay, where does his development go from here? He's really developed his offensive game. He's better than a junior player.

How does he do now against professionals in the ECHL and the AHL? Those are just a few of the players that really stood out to me these last couple of days. I also felt like Queen Bouchain, one of the Penguins' fifth round picks, had a good day. On Sunday, really showcased his scanning ability. He created space each time he had the puck. So again, those are just a few of the players that stood out to me. Again, we'll get to Harrison Brunigan a little bit. For sure.

I do want to go back to Horkoff because I watched a lot of the videos that you and Kelsey and just about everybody who's covering development camp put out. And more than looking at what he has done at development camp so far, because again, this is not a camp to really evaluate. what these guys could be or will be in the NHL or if they will even make the NHL. But looking at Horkoff, you can see that there is talent there, that there is something there. I still maintain that getting him in the first round was a bit of a reach. I think he probably would have been available and slid into the second round.

If the penguins were really interested, they probably could have held off. But at the same time, giving him that first round pick stats, could also really kind of entice you if he doesn't develop the way you want to maybe move him for assets later on down the road because teams do love that shiny first round pick title that you get. But I agree on the whole that he didn't exactly struggle with the U.S. development team, but he just struggled to carve out a niche with them. It wasn't like he underperformed. It wasn't like he played poorly. It just he didn't really seem to have a fit with that group.

But then he goes to Michigan and performs really well. So now I'm very curious to follow him this season to see how he extrapolates everything that he did across a full NCAA season and what he does with Michigan. So I think that's best for his development. But watching a lot of the tape from camp, you can see the releases there. You can see the willingness to go to the net is there. I want to see how a lot of that translates to the NCAA level when he gets a full year there. Right.

And he's going to get that full year there this year. According to Jason Spets, he told reporters after one of the practices this weekend, he's not even going to be there at training camp. He's just going straight to the NCAA with Michigan. So again, if he keeps this up and we have to see if he also plays at the Prospect Challenge in September, by the way, Pat, if he does there. And if he keeps up his development here. And by the way, Michigan is such a good place for him to develop when you look at that program.

You look at how good Michigan usually is. He was great right away once he got there during the 24, 25 season. He keeps it up. I think he could potentially have a breakout season for them. So I like a lot of what he's done, but we just have to see if that translates back over to the college game and for his potential long-term career. Again, I don't want to make too many big statements here just because. it is development camp, but last couple of days compared to Thursday and Friday, I've noticed him a lot more, which is good. That is definitely positive, given that we still agree that taking

him late in the first was probably a reach. But since the penguins are in rebuild mode, we're going to track him in the college level and get ourselves excited at everything he does, because that's what you do when your team is rebuilding. But that is going to do it for our opening segment. When we come back, there's another player at development camp that Penguins fans are pretty familiar with, and we're going to talk about what to do with him moving forward. We will get into that when we come back right after this. But first, we've got to tell you about today's first sponsor, and that is Fandul. Summer sports are in full swing, and whether you're all about baseball under the lights,

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open the Fanduil app today or visit Fanduil.com to get started. We're back here on the Monday edition of Locked-on Penguins, our final week of daily Monday through Friday episodes before we get into off-season mode and go down to three days a week. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp, right alongside Hunter Hodes. And we kind of teased it in the first segment, Hunter Harrison Brunich. He was a standout at training camp last season, not development camp, training camp, the real deal when we're figuring out who's going to be on the NHL roster.

And he hung on pretty much right until the end, really impressed, played very well. And there was a lot of discussion of whether or not he was going to get the nine game tryout before getting sent back to junior or if he was going to make the roster going into this season. and because of his age, we're going to have that debate once again. And I don't really know where I land on this one. I kind of go back and forth on it because as I've said on this show multiple times, specifically about some of the young goaltenders, I don't know what being on a bad NHL team is going to do for their development.

They're not going to play a lot of meaningful hockey. They could develop bad habits because they're not on a good team and they're not trying to push towards the playoffs or win a championship. But with Harrison Brunich, it's a little bit more of a complicated situation because he is still of the age where he is not going to be eligible to go down to the HL for the season and be kind of one of those players that they play most of the season in the HL, they get a few call-ups, they cut their teeth a little bit, but mainly their focus is staying in the HL and developing.

So for Harrison Brunick, I look at the penguins defense and I go, he could probably make the team, but is that best for him going into this year? I do think that is a valid take just because you don't want to burn his ELC for the sake of doing it, especially because we don't like the penguins are going to be that good this year. However, I will say this. After being a development camp for this past weekend and most of these days,

it is evident to me that he is better than a lot of the players here. The skating ability is gorgeous. It's through the roof, honestly. And during one of the drills on Sunday, during one of the scrimmages, he fired a seeing-eye shot from the point that beat one of the goalies through a ton of traffic. Didn't really celebrate it,

but you heard some ooze and ahs from the crowd. He used his reach really well to defend against some rushes in three-on-three and four-on-four. Again, like, it's just kind of par-firm. for the course for him at this point. And if he does have another great camp in preseason, I could at least see the penguins being like, hey, let's give you the nine game trial.

Let's see if you can earn a full-time spot through nine games, and then we'll have a decision to make. Obviously, Pat, if you want to send them back to junior, they'll have the chance to do that, or they can keep them on there for the full season, and then his ELC kicks in, you burn a year through it and all that stuff. On the other side of the coin,

if you do send him back to junior, say you give him the nine game trial, you realize, okay, maybe he's not ready. You send him back to junior. He's playing for a really bad junior team this upcoming season where some people may not know this. He has to do all of the work on the back end. And you just don't want someone like that getting a lot of really bad habits. And I know some people will be like, well, you know, he could get those bad habits here.

Sure. But at least he's also playing against better. competition. I honestly, like, I kind of see both sides to it. But at the end of the day, I just want Harrison Boone to go out there and try to earn a spot the best he can. He was one of the best players at training camp last year for the Penguins. They felt like he wasn't ready just yet.

But he's closing in. He has another similar camp on preseason. I think Damuze and company may be like, hey, let's just see what he can do on a trial. If he blows us away against actual NHL players, then why not keep him? If not, you still have the option to send him back to junior. It just sucks,

Pat, that this is the CAHL role and he can't go back to the AHL. It is a huge pain in the ass, especially, and not just because it's our favorite team, just in general, because Brunick is at that level right now where he is a cheaper. He can't go to the NCAA this year either.

That's also stinks for it. Well, that's because he turned pro. So he's, he's one of those players. And again, this isn't just Penguin specific. It is NHL prospect specific.

He is at the level now where he's done just about everything he can do at the junior level. He's got nothing left to prove there. He's shown he is one of the top players in junior, one of the top defensemen in juniors. And like you said, Cam Loops is not a good team. They are a bad, bad team in the CHL. and that is also a risk that you brought up because he has to be the guy for Camloops as a defenseman. That can lead to so many bad habits, not at the CHL level, because he'll be able to do it there. He'll be able to dangle through four guys, score a goal, set somebody up and be the best player on his team.

But that also gets you into a mentality, a habit of, oh, I did this all the time. So when I go to the AHL or the NHL, I'm going to do that here too. And then it leads to costly turnovers. It leads to bad habits. It stunts your development. And that really is the big paradox in complication with Brunich right now. I do think at the end of the day, what you said is probably the best way to approach his development at this point is see how he does in camp.

And again, there's no guarantee he has the same kind of camp he did last year. Maybe he comes in and it's not bad, but it's also not, oh, he stood out again. And it could be just a, hey, listen, Harrison, you're knocking on the door. It's not time yet. Go back to Cam Loops. Here's your development checklist and your plan. Here's what we want to see out of you. Here's the benchmarks we want you to hit.

But then there's also a world he has the same kind of camp. He impresses. He plays. well. And you go, you know what? Let's see. Nine games. You got nine. And if you stand out, if you look like you fit, screw it. We're not going for anything crazy right now. We'll give you your ELC to start the year and we'll go from there. But this is a really tough decision for the Penguins. Obviously, it's July 7th. We've got a long way to go. But as we get closer and closer to actual training camp coming up,

this is probably the biggest storyline to watch outside of the goaltenders. Yeah, that, you know, who's going to make the team in terms of bottom six forwards, but, you know, outside of those two, I would put Harrison Brunick right up there just because, you know,

he will have a legit shot to make this team depending on what he does at camp and just want to do a small correction. I am right, Pat. He can't play any NCAA this year, and that's just because he forfeited eligibility once he signed a pro contract with the penguins. Obviously, again, it's junior or the penguins this year, but he can't go to the NCAA since he signed that pro contract. So just wanted to, again,

throw that up there for everyone. But yeah, there's really not much else I have to add. I'm getting ready to go to the final day of development camp for the tournament in about an hour. And I'm curious to see how he does in the tournament, you know, more three on three, four on four scrimmages and games and all that here. For you Chappelle Show fans, that was Hunter hitting. the wrap it up button for me. So we're going to close out this segment and we're going to close out the show when we come back right after this.

It may like I said, only be July 7th, but what the hell? We're talking about hockey. What are some expectations going into training camp in this season from us here on Locked on Penguins? We'll dive into that right after this. Back here on the Monday edition of Locked on Penguins, I'm Patrick Damp right alongside the hockey news is Hunter. and we're going to try to keep this segment short and sweet because Hunter does have to get to the Lemieux complex, excuse me,

to cover the rest of development camp, which is the best day today when they play the tournament, the three on three, the four on four. It's a ton of fun. If you've got the day open and you're listening to this and you need something to do, head on down there for that. But let's get into it, Hunter. Again, July 7, long way to go before we get to training camp. long way to go before we get to the regular season. But we've got free agency behind us. We've got the draft behind us. We're getting more of a clear picture of what Kyle Dubus and company are doing. So let's start and talk about some early summer expectations for the 25,

26 penguins. I will start with this. It has to be a ruthless year. I know on this show, we love Brian Rust. Beachfront property in our hearts for everything he did during the cup runs, everything he's done from here. But if you get a great offer to kickstart this rebuild to keep it moving, you got to take it. Same thing goes with Rickel reporting from Sports Nets, Elliot Friedman, that he would prefer to stay in Pittsburgh.

But Raquel, I'm sorry, buddy. There's a future to deal with here. And you're probably not going to be part of it. So for me, looking at Dubus this year, there's got to be an element of ruthlessness. I know he likes to do right by players and that's good for business in the long stretch, especially when you're contending and you want to get those top talents. But right now, you can't really do right by anybody not named Sidney Crosby. You got to be ruthless.

Kyle Dubas kind of controls the seller's market right now, doesn't he? Like he's really the only dude that really is like, okay, I'll sell like even some of these other teams like the sharks and the Blackhawks who, I don't think you're going to be any good next year. I actually think the Penguins will probably be a bit better than that. And again, people, I'm not sitting here saying the Penguins are going to be good next season. I just think that when you look at how bad those two teams were last year compared to the Penguins, who I also know we're not good. I just don't know if they're going to, you know, leap for the penguins in terms of how many points they finish behind them based on the moves they have made so far.

But they are still at least trying to improve going into next season. The Penguins, as of right now, they really have been. Like, yeah, sure, they've made a few free agent signings, you know, Anthony Manta, Parker Weathers, you know, you know, Caleb Jones, you know, Raphael, Harvey Pernard, et cetera, et cetera. But, you know, they're not really being aggressive in free agency. This wasn't the year to do that. I think this might be the last, you know, one of the last big years in terms of pain when you come to the draft lottery before potentially all bets are off next summer when they have,

you know, 40 to 50 million in cap space and they want to spend it and try to maybe kickstart this up a little bit. At the end of the day, it comes down to what does Kyle Dubus see the timeline as right now? Does he see this as something that he think he can fix in the next three to five years if he does this right? Or does he see this as something he thinks will take a little bit longer, like six years? Some people have done out seven years. I think seven years for rebuild is too long. I don't think something like that works in the cap era as much anymore. Just because you don't really see a lot of teams at this point really fully tear it down to the studs. Takes too long to do that.

And then you have no guarantee you're going to get out of it. That's why you're seeing teams opt for more shorter term rebuilds. And I think that's what they're doing. But again, that's just me guessing at this point. It comes down to how many of these players does he move out this summer? And also, people are getting a little too antsy for these trades. trades can happen in August, guys. They can happen in early September.

Just because these three players that we keep mentioning have not been traded doesn't mean that they have not been in trade talks for them. I am sure Kyle Dubis is getting calls every single day. Heck, I had a thought during this past weekend. If Eilers had gone to Washington or something, I think Carolina would have pivoted to Rust or Raquel. It would have made a lot of sense. Carolina was looking for another difference maker that they can put up front.

Ruster Raquel would have fit. Now that they have Eilers, I'm not sure they really fit there anymore. I was just kind of spitballing that before Eler's sign like, hey, maybe if he chooses a different team, he could, Carolina could potentially come calling the penguins

and seeing what they could offer for, you know, Rust or Raquel. And that's a team that, you know, they have a lot of top prospects. But again, it comes down to how many of these guys does he move and what does he see the timeline as. So that's where I'm watching for the rest of this all season. I still think Eric Carlson is the most likely of the three to go, then Ricard Raquel, then

Brian Rust. At the end of the day, I'm just simply guessing. So we have to see. We do. And to kind of piggyback off of something you were saying, another thing that it builds into what I said and mixes with what you said, I know that at the end of the season, we enjoyed that little tiny run that the penguins went on or even that little tiny run that they went on to end the 2024 calendar year where they started stacking some wins together and we were talking

ourselves into can they sneak in with a wild card listen i'm not calling for active tanking you guys know i'm anti tanking on this show but there's got to be a little bit of selective tanking because granted, I do think the penguins did a pretty good job in this year's draft, all things considered. But some of those wins, some of those little runs, jari figuring it out down the stretch, kind of hurt their draft lottery chances a little bit. You got a lot of these players pan out. Like, yeah, yeah, they went for a quantity approach.

That's fine. but you really have to hope that the three first rounders that you took really pan out. You just can't afford to miss on these players with where you're at in a rebuild right now. I like also what they did in the middle rounds. You're taking players who have some unique skill sets that could translate to the NHL if developed properly. But for your first rounders, those guys have got to be NHLers at some point. So for Wes Clark and company, this is a big time for them to prove. that they know what they're doing.

And also going into the 2026 draft path, because, for example, say, as we expect, they're not very good next year. Say they pick in the top five. Just throwing that out there, which is a realistic possibility. You can't miss on a pick like that. Like, that's something that you will just get boned for.

And with how many potentially franchise players could be in the top five, you got to get one of them. Like McKenna is the generational player. but there's a few players behind him that could be franchise type players. And if you pick top five next year, you can't miss on that, man. And that is the fine point I want to put on what I was saying. Not calling for all out tanking, not calling for them to pull guys from games and intentionally throw them.

But I get it. You want some of these guys to play meaningful hockey. I agree with that, especially some of these young guys who are going to make the jump, your McGrorties, your covenins, et cetera, et. I want them to be playing meaningful hockey, but I also know that, yeah, Gavin McKenna, that's the prize. That's who everybody's going for. But there are other players in this draft next year that while they won't be generational, they will still be players that you can build a franchise around and fill out a franchise with players

who can get you back to contention. So I don't want them to end up in the same position that they were this year where, they have that shot of falling out of a very good pick. Now, again, that's always a possibility in the lottery. It can always happen. That's the whole point of it. But I would rather take the higher odds than the lower odds, giving you a chance to get one of those franchise players.

But again, it's July 7th. We've got a whole summer to go. We've got training camp. We've got the whole season before we get to any of that. and that is going to do it for the Monday edition of Locked on Penguins. Hunter needs to hit the road. So it's time for us to wrap it up. So for Hunter, hodies, I'm Patrick Damp.

Thank you, as always, for tuning in. We will be back with a new episode for you on Tuesday. So until then, have a great Monday. We will talk to you on Tuesday.