The Pittsburgh Penguins made some significant strides towards revitalizing their stagnant prospect pool by selecting defenseman Harrison Brunicke and forward Tanner Howe with their 44th and 46th selections in the 2024 NHL Draft.
Each player, arguably possessing traits and skill sets worthy of first-round consideration by my estimation, brings tremendous value to the Penguins’ system.
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Brunicke, a smooth-skating defenseman with remarkable puck-moving ability, and Howe, an antagonistic, dynamic forward with a nose for the net and a scoring touch around it, are discernibly different than the current crop of Penguin prospects, adding some much-needed flair and diversity of skill.
While rebuilding a prospect pipeline from the ground up cannot be accomplished overnight, Penguins president/general manager Kyle Dubas deserves some credit for orchestrating two strong drafts since coming to Pittsburgh.
Brunicke and Howe not only replenish the amount of NHL potential in the system, they infuse it with unique talent that sets them apart from their peers. Let’s take a look at the traits that put these players in a class of their own, starting with the first of the two selected.
Harrison Brunicke
Position: RD
Last team: Kamloops Blazers (WHL)
Height: 6 feet 2 inches
Weight: 184 pounds
Age: 18
If Brunicke hadn’t suffered a shoulder injury at the three-quarter mark of the season, he likely wouldn’t have been available for the Penguins to take at all. An abbreviated season is about the only thing that could squelch the buzz around Brunicke’s game as his draft year progressed. With that injury in the rearview and an extremely impressive performance at the U18 worlds for Canada under his belt, Brunicke stands poised to pick up right where he left off.
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Let’s start with his combination of size and mobility. Brunicke has the gap control, reach and active stick of a shutdown defenseman paired with the skating of a puck-moving defenseman. His wheels allow him to take chances with the puck, pinch into the play and still get back in time to resolve his defensive responsibilities.
Take a look at how powerful his stride is and how quickly his first few steps allow him to burst into high gear and bear down on the puck in transition. This is the definition of a powerful skating stride.
His stride takes me back to the early days of a young Jordan Staal looping through the neutral zone and powerfully skating his way to high-danger areas. I’m obviously comparing a forward to a defenseman here, but I think that speaks to Brunicke’s puck-moving ability.
Brunicke ability to cover a lot of ice isn’t on display only in the offensive zone. He uses his mobility, size and reach to play effective defense at his own blue line and in front of the net. His performance at the U18 worlds was a clinic in penalty killing, aggressive play in the neutral zone and using your legs to make an impact on the game. These performances went a long way toward showing that Brunicke had more than offense to provide to a future team, boosting his stock in the face of the missed time from injury.
Keep a close eye here on Brunicke’s active stick. He routinely uses his size, reach and stick to break up plays and win loose puck battles.
These are some of the traits that make Brunicke deployable in just about any situation. If you need good penalty-killing, the reach and effort level are there. If you need mobility and zone entries on the man-advantage, he can provide that, too.
Perhaps the most entertaining aspect of Bruncike’s game is his work in the offensive zone in possession. His wrist shot is equal parts patient and accurate. He uses his legs to find open space or pathways to the net. He routinely pulls out shoulder-fakes and hip movements that put his opponents into helpless positions.
Everything Brunicke does in the offensive zone is driven by his ability to quickly gain a lot of momentum and bear down on the puck, protecting it with his long reach and waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.
There’s a lot of untapped offensive potential with Bruncike’s game. His combination of defensive effectiveness, mobility and offensive prowess stands out among the crowd in the Penguins system. His stats this year were hampered by being on a 46-point, 20-win Kamloops team that struggled with him in the lineup and was entirely lost without him.
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Brunicke, the second South African-born player to be drafted into the NHL, will return to the CHL this year with a clean bill of health and an opportunity to make an even bigger mark on the scoresheet as the team’s top defenseman. He’s a very complete defenseman who is showing a lot of prowess in all three zones.
Tanner Howe
Position: LW
Last team: Regina Pats (WHL)
Height: 5-10
Weight: 175 pounds
Age: 18
The Penguins have not had a prospect with Tanner Howe’s attitude in quite some time, and it won’t be long before that attitude has a chance to endear itself to Pittsburgh.
Howe is the kind of player you absolutely can’t stand in your beer league games. He shows up giving an effort level that is way beyond what you expect for an 11:00 p.m. faceoff, he’s chirping on the ice and from the bench all night long, and at some point he’s going to knock you off the puck, walk it in for a prime scoring chance and let you know about it.
That hasn’t existed in the Penguins prospect pool in years. If you have concerns about his size, place them at the door — you won’t be needing them any longer. At 5-10, he plays the game like he’s 6-10.
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Replacing Connor Bedard: How 2024 NHL Draft prospect Tanner Howe took the reins in Regina
This past season, he needed to step out from behind the shadow of another prospect you might have heard of, Connor Bedard. His linemate in Regina before Bedard landed in Chicago, Howe had much of his production written off as a byproduct of Bedard. He needed to step into his own space and prove he could score on his own. As the captain of the Pats, he did just that. He also had to carry the burden of a poor-performing hockey team on his shoulders.
Besides his size, a knock on Howe is his reputation of being a jack-of-all-trades forward who isn’t majorly proficient in any one area. I hope to change some of that perception here.
Any conversation about Howe, for me, starts with his forechecking. Howe plays the game with little to no regard for his own well-being. I don’t mean wasteless, wanton physicality. Howe hits to force people offside, ruin their scoring chances and make them cough it up for a quick scoring chance the other way. This next set of videos highlights the way he uses physicality to drive his offensive game.
Beyond the hitting, Howe is effective at positioning himself on the forecheck or backcheck to be a nuisance to puck carriers. Some of his best work this past season came on transition plays where he could play the role of bully and use his acceleration and on-ice position to break up opponents’ breakout attempts.
In the next video, you’ll see the ways Howe proactively positions himself in a checking role. Again, watch this clip with an eye on whether his size is a detriment.
You might not be surprised to learn that Howe’s favorite spot in the offensive zone is in front of the net — another area of his game that contradicts his size. Howe aims to find the most immediate and shortest path to the front of the net.
Occasionally, that comes in the form of planting himself there as a screen, but as the next set of clips show, it also manifests in Howe’s behavior in taking the puck off of the half-wall or out of a corner. There’s no hesitation — he heads straight to the high-danger scoring areas. Perimeter hockey is not a part of his repertoire.
Howe doesn’t have a standout offensive skill. His skating isn’t a concern, but he isn’t on the level of some of his peers. His wrist shot is adequate but not at the top of the class. That list goes on. The perception here is that the risk is very low but the ceiling may not be as high. That’s fair, but there is one element of Howe’s game that is truly underrated, ant it’s perhaps his best offensive asset.
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Howe was a major player on the Regina power play this season because of his one-timer. He gets low on his release and puts his entire body into the shot. The release is extraordinary. The one-timer makes Howe a viable candidate for any top power-play unit. He also showed it off, when appropriate, at even strength.
While Dubas may not have launched the Penguins into the stratosphere of the NHL’s elite prospect pools with this draft, he put discernible talent into the pool both via draft and trade over the last year. Whether it be the multi-faceted talents of Brunicke on defense or the stir-it-up-and-score nature of Howe at forward, the Penguins added two unique skill sets to a prospect pool that is in desperate need of them.
(Photo of Tanner Howe, left, and Harrison Brunicke: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
