After a quiet and lackluster 2025 off-season for the Pittsburgh Penguins, hockey is back in a way this week and the regular season is inching closer and closer with a week of September already past and gone.
It's a yearly tradition and it's back for another year as the Penguins are participating in the 2025 Prospects Challenge hosted by the Buffalo Sabres on the LECOM HarborCenter Keybank Rink which is the Sabres practice facility in Buffalo, N.Y.
The participating teams this Challenge will feature the Prospects groups of the following; New Jersey Devils, Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Columbus Blue Jackets and of course your Pittsburgh Penguins.
For the Penguins prospect group this is a heavy opportunity to show Penguins fans and other team's scouts around the league that the prospect crop is for real and the future is bright for Penguins hockey. With the new rookies in Benjamin Kindel, Bill Zonnon, Will Horcoff, (if on the roster) and prospects like Sergei Murashov and Harrison Brunicke to showcase and use this as an advantage heading into main roster training camp.
The Prospect Challenge starts in three days, Thursday September 11, and so far the Pittsburgh Penguins have not released their rookie tournament roster. NHL training camp starts the following week and no news about that yet either, not even the official start date which is very odd but we will soon see the official roster of the baby penguins who will be in action this week and weekend.
Rookie tournaments begin this week across the NHL. Here is the master schedule of all events and participating teams. https://t.co/T1gIR0g6Vv
— Chris Peters (@chrismpeters) September 8, 2025
The Penguins Prospects Challenge schedule will look like this;
Fri, Sep. 12 at 3:30 p.m. EST | Sun, Sep. 14 at 3:30 p.m. EST | Mon, Sep. 15 at 12:00 p.m. EST |
|---|---|---|
PIT vs BOS | CBJ vs PIT | PIT vs BUF |
These games over the course of four days will be a nice appetizer for players and fans to feast on as training camp approaches. Expect Harrison Brunicke and Tristan Broz, (if on the roster) to feast the most of all expected prospects in the tournament on the Penguins. They are the next two noteable name's who yinzers expect to make a huge jump this year in development and to the NHL.
Broz is highly viewed by Penguins fans and is expected to make the jump to the big show this season, he had a good season last year with Wilkes but he is more than ready to make that next big jump in his early career. He has good potential and the ability to fuel the ongoing youth implementation here in Pittsburgh.
Brunicke says he feels ready to make that permanent jump to the NHL after putting on more size this off-season and looks a lot more confident in his game, he will need to translate that to the on ice product and not just talking about how much he does. All eyes will be on him.
Ladies and Gents, hockey is back, and it is time to buckle up for another eventful season of Pittsburgh Penguins hockey!