SUBSCRIBE NEWSLETTERS
ADVERTISE| CLASSIFIEDS| JOBS| E-TRIB
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS NETWORK TRIBLIVE LOCAL
Western Pennsylvania's trusted news source
NHL.com draft expert gives a 6-pack of Penguins 1st-round projections | TribLIVE.com
Penguins/NHL

NHL.com draft expert gives a 6-pack of Penguins 1st-round projections

Tim Benz
Tim Benz

Sponsored by:

Mike's Beer Bar
6333932_web1_ptr-NateDanielson-062923
AP
Nate Danielson runs the agility course during the NHL hockey combine on June 10, 2023, in Buffalo, N.Y.

The Pittsburgh Penguins select 14th in Wednesday night’s NHL draft. On Tuesday’s “Breakfast With Benz” podcast, I spoke with NHL.com draft analyst Adam Kimelman about a six-pack of players who may be in the conversation for the Pens at that slot.

Nate Danielson

This is who Kimelman sent to the Penguins in his most recent mock draft.

A 6-foot-1, 185-pound center from the Brandon Wheat Kings, the 18-year-old was a captain who had 78 points in 68 games last year. According to Kimelman, projected No. 1 pick Conor Bedard said Danielson was the most difficult player to skate against in the draft class.

“He kind of took his game to another level this season,” Kimelman said. “He went from being a 200-foot checking line center — where you can throw them out there against the other team’s top players and hope for him to hold them to a standstill — to a guy who could be used in all situations and be a dependable offensive contributor.”

Kimelman said that Danielson’s 78 points could’ve been higher with more skilled players around him.

“There’s a lot of hope with Danielson that the skating will still get a little bit better. He’s still gonna get a little bit stronger. You like the size and the reach that he’s got. But Danielson projects to be a really good player. … If you are going to build out, you build out through the middle. I think if he’s available, that would be a really good selection for the Penguins.”

Related

• Penguins president Kyle Dubas no stranger to dealing at NHL Draft
• Mark Madden: Can Kyle Dubas work miracles for the Penguins this week?
• Penguins defenseman Kris Letang wins Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy

Matthew Wood

Kimelman’s cohort at NHL.com, Mike G. Morreale, had Wood mocked to the Penguins in a recent draft. He’s a 6-foot-3, 193-pound LW/C who played at UConn last year and had 34 points in 35 games. Ian Kennedy of Yahoo.com Canada slotted Wood to the Penguins too, comparing him to Matthew Knies, a former Minnesota Golden Gopher drafted by Kyle Dubas in Toronto.

“I’ve heard more comparisons to Tage Thompson,” Kimelman said. “I don’t know if that’s because he’s really tall and he went to Connecticut much like Tage Thompson did. But I think the scoring touch is very similar to the way they approach the game. As Tage Thompson also needed some help fine-tuning his skating as a 19-year-old, I think Matthew Wood is sort of in that same projectable range. As long as he keeps improving the little areas of his game that need to get better, he looks like he’s going to be a real threat to be a power forward for somebody at the NHL level for a very long time.”

Axel Sandin-Pellikka

This is who I want the Penguins to take. But now I’m giving up hope.

For a long time, the 5-foot-11, 181-pound Swedish defenseman was projected in the 12-16 range of first-round picks. Now he’s projected to be in the 6-10 range. Many comps have his high-end potential being that of another offensively gifted blueliner like Kris Letang.

Kimelman has him going eighth to the Washington Capitals.

“He is probably the most offensively skilled defenseman in this year’s draft class,” Kimelman said. “He’s got to get a little bit bigger, a little bit stronger as most of these kids do. But he has the look of being a really solid player for whatever team drafts him. He’s going to have to probably be paired with a guy who’s a little bit more on the defensive side of it, because I don’t know if that element of his game is going to develop to where you would use him on your top penalty kill pair. But I think he’s a guy that, if you need somebody to run your power play, if you need somebody to be that extra fourth forward on the attack, I think that’s the strength of Sandin-Pellikka’s game.”

Oliver Moore

A forward from the U.S. National Development team, Kimelman has Moore 15th in his last mock draft.

“He’s considered probably the quickest skater, the best skater, in this year’s draft coming off the U.S. National Team program. He also plays center, which is nice, certainly an area of need (for the Penguins),” Kimelman said.

A Minnesota Golden Gopher commit, Moore had 75 points in 61 games with the USA under-18 team this past season.

Zach Benson

Kimelman has Benson going ninth to the Detroit Red Wings. So he’ll have to slip a bit. But if he falls to Pittsburgh, there is plenty of reason to consider him a good find for the Penguins.

“Crafty, skilled and smart. His hockey IQ is off the charts,” Kimelman said. “It makes him look faster than he actually is. But he does certainly need to get bigger and stronger. He’s very much on the smaller side, but he’s so smart and so elusive. You can’t hit what you can’t catch. He’s just crafty enough to keep himself in and out of certain little areas. But he’s also a guy who plays with a little bit of an edge and there’s some fearlessness to his game where he’s willing to get to the net and get to the dirty areas to produce. If Benson can get bigger and stronger, he’s certainly a guy if he’s available, the Penguins would have to look at.”

With the WHL’s Winnipeg ICE, the 5-foot-10, 163-pound Benson was second in the Western Hockey League scoring among draft-eligible players behind Bedard. In 60 games he totaled 36 goals and 62 assists.

Colby Barlow

A sixth player that Kimelman mentioned is Owen Sound (OHL) winger Colby Barlow.

He finished fifth in the OHL with 46 goals in 59 games. Kimelman writes that Barlow “has a high-end shot that is reminiscent of Sabres forward Jeff Skinner. Barlow can skate the puck into the offensive zone and is strong enough (6-foot, 190 pounds) to win battles along the wall. He also rates high in intangibles: He was a 17-year-old captain and was the top scholastic player in the Canadian Hockey League.”

Also during Tuesday’s podcast, Kimelman and I talk about if Bedard deserves to be referenced in the same breath as other clear-cut No. 1 overall picks such as Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Connor McDavid. We get into areas of need for the Penguins, Adam Fantilli’s potential as the likely No. 2 pick and why everyone is so high on Russian Matvei Michkov.

Listen: Tim Benz, Adam Kimelman discuss Penguins, NHL draft

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.

Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.

Get Ad-Free >

Categories: Penguins/NHL | Sports | Breakfast With Benz | Tim Benz Columns
Sports and Partner News