There were a lot of avenues Kyle Dubas and the Pittsburgh Penguins could have gone down heading into the NHL Entry Draft. They could have used their draft picks for established NHL players, players further along the line in development, trade veterans (Rust, Rakell), or what they ended up doing, keeping the picks and making selections.
I know there was some growing excitement that Dubas was going to take some big swings, but the reality is that the Penguins just don’t have those types of assets. Even Ben Kindel, as much as I am bullish on him, isn’t a top-tier asset. He has more value to the Penguins as a cost-controlled probable top-six player than his open market trade value. Same with Sergei Murashov at this point in time. Those are the guys you would need to use to take those big swings.
The problem with the Jason Robertson conversation is that there are 30 other NHL teams you would have to beat out to acquire him. The Penguins just don’t have those kind of packages.
So, that is how you land on the Penguins using their draft picks to draft players.
Now, did they make it about as interesting as they possibly could have? I think most definitely.
Seeing double
With the 22nd overall selection, the Penguins took Liam Ruck of the Medicine Hat Tigers. He is a player with a quality shot release who put up big points in the WHL last season. What is notable about his selection is that he has a twin brother, Markus Ruck. Liam was the higher-rated prospect, but Markus was also going to be a coveted forward in the second round… right around where the Penguins pick at #39. And wouldn’t you know it, the Penguins did the thing
I like it quite a bit, to be honest. Both of them put up a boatload of points together and have built-in chemistry with twin telepathy so why not give it a go and see if they can progress together? Neither of the selections was a reach, and they both fit my very basic criteria for being drafted, having an offensive profile.
I’m pretty straightforward with my draft analysis, and I’ve said it many times. If a player doesn’t have an offensive profile, I dont want them. Sure, there are exceptions to this rule. It is a sports draft, there are always going to be exceptions. However, why try and find the exception to the rule when the likely ceiling of a player lacking an offensive profile is a defensive NHL’er.
Take a swing on the ceiling. You can find safe floor players almost literally anywhere ie: free agency, the draft, or trades. The brothers are not lacking an offensive profile in the least. Here are their 2025-26 numbers in Medicine Hat
Liam: 68 GP 45G 58A 104 pts
Markus: 68 GP 21G 87A 108 pts
Time will tell if they can take this success and translate it into professional hockey, but there’s a solid foundation and base as a starting point and you are only as good as your foundation.
That’s all I really want when you use your early selections in the draft. It is the same logic on why I really liked the Ben Kindel pick at the time of his selection. He had a great offensive profile, and you can build from that. Now, I didn’t think he was going to make the team and have the impact at the NHL level he did so soon, but Dubas’ logic on these picks is very sound, and to my liking
What others are saying
As I mentioned above the twins were taken right about where they should have been. The trick was getting them as a package like the Penguins did. Liam is more of the trigger man, and Markus is the playmaker who opens Liam up for his great release. From Jesse Marshall
You can see why trying to get Markus to go along with Liam was ideal. Liam is the kind of player who can do the things he does really well, but he isn’t going to be the driver out on the ice. He needs other players to do the things he doesn’t quite do as well. This kind of setup can work really well if the puzzle pieces fit.
This is not a direct comparison because the players are nowhere similar at all, but it is like having a Patric Hornqvist. Hornqvist couldn’t do the zone exit and entry stuff, but what he could do is finish plays off if the others around him did the things outside of his skill set. Hornqvist did it by ramming at the puck near the goal mouth and Liam will do it via his release.
So as I am typing this perhaps I am using the wrong Penguins player comparison from that 2014 trade. Liam may be a James Neal with more sandpaper, which would be a very useful player.
Markus is the one who can facilitate Liam getting the puck for his open looks. This is a necessary player type to get the most out of a shooter. Making lines is like putting a puzzle together with all the different skill sets. This particular combo is a known commodity and works at the WHL level. It is worth finding out just how far they can take it together.
While the idea of selecting both brothers is to keep them together, life doesn’t always work out neat like that. Markus (and his brother) are going to have to make sure they can keep up at the next level. There is a real chance that one of them ends up being capable of playing at a higher level while the other does not.
If that is the case then Liam is still going to need a playmaking center to unlock his potential. Markus is going to need a trigger man on his line to unlock his potential. In a perfect world they will continue to be that for one another, but the odds say it will come from a non-family member. I’d love to see them make it together because it is such a rare and cool thing.
I very much like the bet the Penguins have made by acquiring the Ruck brothers. They check the boxes I want checked and it makes for a great story. It wasn’t the blockbuster trade some were hoping for, but I think it was a good path to go down as far as roster building is concerned.
The Penguins prospect pool continues to grow at a fast rate and is light years ahead of where it was a few years ago. I’m really interested to see how this duo plays out in the years to come.
Kyle Dubas continues to do things that make sense while trying to thread the needle on competing and building. Job well done.
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