Brunicke, McGroarty and Horcoff land on The Athletic’s top NHL drafted-prospect list

Pittsburgh’s farm system got a fresh vote of confidence in The Athletic’s latest top 100 rankings of NHL drafted prospects, a list built by prospect writer Scott Wheeler. On Tuesday, Yahoo Sports reported that three Penguins prospects, goaltender Harrison Brunicke, forward Rutger McGroarty, and defenseman Will Horcoff, were included in Wheeler’s new cutoff for the league’s elite draft-and-develop pipeline.

The rankings are specifically for “NHL drafted prospects,” meaning the players are tied to NHL organizations through the draft, rather than being purely international or undrafted risers. Wheeler’s evaluation provides a cross-organization snapshot of which prospects are perceived to be closest to breaking into high-end NHL roles.

For the Penguins, the most notable aspect is how the three names span multiple positions and development tracks. Brunicke represents the group’s goaltending pathway, a key factor for every contender that needs a long-term answer in net. McGroarty is a forward whose inclusion indicates continuing optimism about an offensive game designed for NHL minutes, while Horcoff’s ranking highlights the organization’s conviction in its defensive prospects and their ability to translate skating and decision-making into the pro game.

McGroarty, in particular, has been a widely watched part of Pittsburgh’s prospect picture, and Wheeler’s decision to place him inside the top 100 reinforces that his development is still trending in the direction teams want from players who can drive 5-on-5 play. The same logic applies to Horcoff, whose path is often judged not just on potential, but on whether a young defenseman can show enough structure to earn trust as competition rises.

The entry of a goaltender like Brunicke into a league-wide top-100 list also matters because goaltending projection can be volatile from year to year. A ranking like Wheeler’s is not a promise of NHL readiness on a specific timeline, but it does reflect that the prospect evaluation community sees enough at the position to keep him among the most meaningful targets for NHL organizations trying to build depth beyond the current roster.

As with any independent prospect list, it is also worth remembering the rankings are evaluative, not definitive. Teams can develop in different ways, and players sometimes take non-linear paths due to role changes, league adjustments, or simply the time it takes to sharpen specific areas of their game.

What to watch next for Pittsburgh is how these prospects continue to handle increasingly demanding competition in their respective environments, and whether the organization’s player development process aligns with the traits Wheeler’s ranking suggests they possess. If all three continue to trend upward, the Penguins’ timeline for replenishing NHL-level talent could look clearer going into the next wave of training camps and roster planning.

In the meantime, the list provides a useful outside reference point for Penguins fans: even in a system full of evaluation metrics, a top-100 inclusion from a well-followed prospect evaluator suggests Brunicke, McGroarty and Horcoff are still viewed as among the better drafted prospects across the league.