Carter Sanderson, Brady Peddle go from USHL Clark Cup adversaries to Penguins draft picks

The 2025 Clark Cup Finals to determine the United States Hockey League champion was a series to remember.

Pitting the Waterloo Black Hawks against the Muskegon Lumberjacks, it went the distance, requiring five games before Muskegon triumphed 4-3 in overtime.

As it turned out, two of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2025 NHL Draft picks, forward Carter Sanderson (sixth round, No. 169 overall) and defenseman Brady Peddle (third round, 91st overall) faced each other in the series.

Sanderson, 17, recorded one assist throughout the Clark Cup playoffs en route to winning a championship with Muskegon in his first USHL campaign.

The 18-year-old Peddle was more impressive from a statistical standpoint as he matched his regular-season point total (10) in 62 games with Waterloo over 15 playoff games, which ranked him second among all blue liners.

Now in the same NHL organization as his adversary from this past spring, Peddle reflected on the best-of-five showdown and what he observed of Sanderson.

“It was fun playing against each other,” Peddle said Monday at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. “He plays hard, and it was a good series.”

Game 1 on May 9 saw Waterloo begin the series with an 8-5 win, a game with more goals than Games 2-4 combined.

One day later, Muskegon evened the series with a 4-1 victory.

The final three games of the series went to overtime, starting with a 2-1 win by the Lumberjacks in double OT.

Facing elimination heading into Game 4, the Black Hawks won in overtime 3-2 on May 17, setting up a decisive fifth game.

Sanderson and the Lumberjacks came out on top thanks to a hat trick by Jack Christ, who netted the winning goal about six minutes into the extra period, lifting Muskegon to a 4-3 win and its first Clark Cup.

Sanderson recalled a hard-fought championship.

“I feel like the Game 5 of the Clark Cup final and the last three games ending in overtime was a really good thing for the both of us,” Sanderson said. “We both competed hard against each other, and now we’re going to be teammates here. It’s good to get to know each other now, and it’s been great battling against each other so far.”

Penguins vice president of player personnel Wes Clark believes there’s a lot of potential in the 6-foot-1 Sanderson, who scored five goals with six assists in his debut junior hockey campaign.

“Our area scout, Brandon Dennis, was super passionate about him,” Clark said. “Super, super competitive. Type of kid that may not show up on the stat sheet just yet. Extremely young, too, for the draft class. First year in the USHL, wins the championship. But that credit goes to Brandon Dennis, just loved his competitiveness and the way he plays the game to influence it, to help the team win.”

As for Peddle, Clark described him as possessing “a ton of defensive utility.”

Perhaps Sanderson and Peddle will get another crack at each other next season as the two are set to return to their USHL clubs for 2026-26.

The following year, both are continuing their hockey careers in college.

Sanderson, a Pierre, S.D., native, is committed to North Dakota, whereas Peddle has plans to attend Michigan State.