The Pittsburgh Penguins had three first-round picks in last year's 2025 NHL Draft. They used the 11th overall pick on now phenom forward Ben Kindel, they used the 22nd overall pick (acquired from Philadelphia) on forward Bill Zonnon, and used the 24th overall pick (also acquired from Philadelphia) on Will Horcoff.
Horcoff was seen as a massive reach by a lot of talent evaluators. It also seemed like a lot of teams did not see Horcoff as a first-round talent as they thought he had a lot to work on. But for Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas, that did not seem to be the case.
Dubas took Horcoff at pick 24 of the 2025 NHL Draft and went with it and did not see it as a reach. And so far with Horcoff playing with the Michigan Wolverines, seems to have been lighting up the scoreboard.
So far this season with Michigan, Horcoff has tallied 9 goals and 4 assists in 9 games played in October. He is out to a very hot start after quite a good month of October in terms of his production.
Horcoff's most recent game was on the road at the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on October 31 and he tallied 2 goals on 4 shots as the Wolverines got the win 5-3. The first goal that he scored against the Fighting Irish was an absolute beauty.
He received a nice pass from his teammate as Horcoff was set up in the slot. And then once Horcoff received the pass, he absolutely ripped it into the back of the net to give the Wolverines a 1-0 lead. Horcoff has quite the shot and it is a joy to watch him game in and game out in the NCAA.
Will Horcoff keeps finding the net! His 8th of the season! pic.twitter.com/ef1jWkhEez
— Pens Prospects (@pensprospects_) October 31, 2025
With the stats that Horcoff has put up so far this season, this looks like a steal of a pick. Dubas might have had help from his sidekick Wes Clark on this pick as Clark is such a good talent evaluator. Pens fans are hoping Horcoff will pan out to a good NHL player and so far, he has done a lot to impress.