PENGUINS 2025 PROSPECTS CHALLENGE PREVIEW

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins’ season opener is one month away, but hockey season starts this weekend.

Once again, the Pittsburgh Penguins are visiting Buffalo, New York to participate in the 2025 Prospects Challenge. The annual event allows prospects for several NHL clubs to go head-to-head in full, competitive games as both a tune-up for training camp and an extra evaluation point for management. For these reasons, this weekend in Buffalo signals the starting gun for a new year of hockey.

Below is all the information you need prior to the 2025 Prospects Challenge, including roster, scrimmage, and storylines to monitor…

ROSTER

The Penguins’ roster for the 2025 Prospects Challenge is comprised of 25 players (14 forwards, nine defensemen and two goalies.) The full roster can be found here.

Among the 23 skaters are nine who suited up for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last season, including rookie stars Tristan Broz, Ville Koivunen, Owen Pickering and Harrison Brunicke. Sergei Murashov will man the crease alongside 2025 draft pick Gabriel D’Aigle.

SCHEDULE

Friday, Sept. 12 – Pittsburgh vs. Boston, 3:30 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 14 – Columbus vs. Pittsburgh, 3:30 p.m.
Monday, Sept. 15 – Pittsburgh vs. Buffalo, 12:00 p.m.

CAN I WATCH?

According to the Buffalo Sabres, hosts of the event, every game of the 2025 Prospects Challenge will be streamed online via each NHL club’s website. Therefore, penguins.nhl.com will be your digital igloo for Penguins games.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

FIRST-YEAR FIRST IMPRESSIONS
It will be fun to see how the likes of last year’s stars – Broz, Koivunen, Murashov, etc. – fare, but one must remember to keenly observe the play of incoming first-year pros. There are a handful of players on the blue line in particular for fans to watch closely, those being rookies Emil Pieniniemi, Finn Harding, Chase Pietila and Daniel Laatsch.

Pieniniemi played professionally in Finland (as a teammate of Koivunen, nonetheless,) but made the jump to North America last year. Skating for the Kingston Frontenacs of the OHL, Pieniniemi led the team’s defenders in just about every offensive category imaginable. He tied for the fifth-highest assist total in the league for blueliners (50) and ranked sixth among OHL defenders in points (60). The player he tied with was Harding, who happened to set the Brampton Steelheads franchise record for single-season assists by a defenseman (50).

Pietila and Laatsch lean much more towards the defensive side of their position. Pietila, who appeared in three games for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last year on an ATO, won CCHA Defensive Defenseman of the Year and was named Michigan Tech University’s team MVP for the 2024-25 season. Laatsch just wrapped up a four-year career at the University of Wisconsin, where he often led the Badgers in blocked shots.

All four of these defensive prospects will be vying for precious playing time in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this season, and although this weekend is far from make-or-break, it’s always nice to put a strong foot forward early.

HAYES BROS. UNITE
Pittsburgh made a whopping 13 picks at this summer’s NHL Draft, but the feel-good story among the field of promising prospects was their fourth-round selection of Travis Hayes. Travis is the younger brother of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton fan-favorite Avery Hayes, whose hard work earned him an NHL contract from Pittsburgh last season.

At Penguins Development Camp in July, Travis spoke about how excited he was to potentially play alongside his older brother in the future. He didn’t have to wait long, because both Hayes brothers are on the Prospects Challenge roster.

We’ll have to wait and see how Kirk MacDonald allots his line combinations, but no matter how often Travis and Avery share the ice at the same time, just sharing the locker room and wearing the Penguins sweater together will make for a special weekend for the entire Hayes family.

PARTY-CRASHING CALVERT?
Avery Hayes was perhaps the breakout performer at last year’s Prospects Challenge. He led the Penguins with seven points and paced the entire tournament with five goals. And he did it all while playing on an AHL contract.

That set the stage for Hayes’ rapid ascent throughout the 2024-25 season, leading to a team-leading 23-goal output for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and an NHL deal with Pittsburgh.

Could Atley Calvert be positioned to impact this year’s Prospect Challenge in a similar way?

Calvert was an ECHL All-Star last year with the Wheeling Nailers, but once he was called up to the AHL in January, he made sure to stick. He carved out his niche as a reliable, hard-working, bottom-six forward and later took advantage when more opportunities were presented to him. The rookie racked up six goals and 10 points in his final 13 games of the season.

Depending on his deployment this weekend, don’t be surprised if Calvert pops off in a similar vein to Hayes in 2024. Calvert has a knack for finding the net (especially when parked at the net-front,) plus he can be trusted to take key face-offs in any situation.

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