Heading into the 2025-26 season, the Pittsburgh Penguins have shifted the focus to youth and development.
With more talent in the system than Pittsburgh has had in years – and 13 picks in the 2025 NHL Draft – top prospects lists are becoming more competitive and more difficult to discern. Since the prospect pool is deepening, The Hockey News – Pittsburgh Penguins takes a look at the top-20 prospects in the organization.
We kick off the list by highlighting our pick for no. 20, which happens to be 2025 draftee, Peyton Kettles.
#20: D Peyton Kettles
Kettles was selected in the second round (39th overall) by the Penguins in 2025. The 6-foot-5, 190-pound blueliner has spent the last three seasons with the Swift Current Broncos of the Western Hockey League (WHL), compiling seven goals and 17 points in 116 games.
But it's not really the offensive production that defines Kettles's game. With his large frame, long reach, and physicality, Kettles is primarily known for his shutdown ability.
When the Penguins selected Kettles in the second round – a pick that they traded for by sending RFA defenseman Conor Timmins to the Buffalo Sabres – that's exactly what they were reaching for. The young right-shot defenseman still has some room to fill out his frame, but he already has a knack for shutting down the opposition's very best opponents.
Get yourself a blueliner that can lay the boom AND tickle the twine.
A.K.A. Peyton Kettles.@SCBroncos | #NHLDraftpic.twitter.com/ElTngcwBj7
— Western Hockey League (@TheWHL) June 12, 2025
Scouts from Elite Prospects have pointed out his skill in killing odd-man rushes, his potent stick, his ability to take away the middle of the ice and drive opponents away from the net, his booming physicality, and his flashes of puck-moving ability that have the potential to become more consistent as he develops.
The Penguins possess a lot of depth at the defensive position, as guys like Harrison Brunicke, Owen Pickering, Emil Pieniniemi, and Finn Harding headline the upper part of the organizational depth chart. Two other blueliners in Charlie Trethewey (73rd overall) and Quinn Beauchesne (148th overall) – who were also drafted in 2025 – have higher ceilings than their draft positioning suggests.
At the end of the day, however, a true shutdown defenseman is something that the Penguins have lacked since the prime days of Brian Dumoulin, and it's something that they can definitely use in their prospect pool to complement some of their more offensive-minded defensemen. Kettles's skillset is unique within the organization, and he has a relatively high floor and a rangy ceiling.
For those reasons, he has earned a spot in our top-20 Penguins' prospects ranking.
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Feature image credit: Ed Fonger-Swift Current Broncos/WHL
