Where are they now? Pensburgh 2021 Top 25 Under 25 update

Young players are getting older, we check up on how their careers have gone

Prospects come, prospects go and in the dead of summer we’ll look back three years to our PensBurgh Top 25 Under 25 list to see where the top players in the organization ended up.

#25: Santeri Airola (2023-24 stats: 30 GP; 5G+7A, SaiPA [SM-liiga]): The smallish defender never made the leap to North America. No big loss as a seventh round pick.

#24: Jan Drozg (49 GP, 9G+17A, Khabarovsk Amur [KHL]): Drozg was one of those players who was going to have to score his way to success. After putting up a point/game in the QMJHL and the ECHL, Drozg topped out as an occasional AHL player. He’s putting up pretty decent numbers for the low-offense Russian league. Pretty good player, just not quite at the level to play in the world’s toughest leagues.

#23: Will Reilly (55GP, 10G+28A, Florida Everblades [ECHL]): Will Reilly is an ECHL Kelly Cup champion, putting up 11 points in 22 games from the blueline in the Everblades’ 2024 championship run. He’s reportedly signed with Idaho of the ECHL for next season. Success in hockey is measured in different degrees and it’s not NHL level glory, but Reilly is carving out a decent career.

#22: Clayton Phillips (no 2023-24 stats): Phillips didn’t play pro hockey this past season, after some ECHL time in 2022-23. The former third round pick in 2017 never got it into gear developmentally, way she goes sometimes.

#21: Chase Yoder (35 GP, 11G+9A, Providence College [NCAA]): Thanks to COVID, Yoder has a fifth year of eligibility in the college ranks. And he’s using it, the 22-year old draft pick way back in 2019 will return to Providence for the 2023-24 season. He was a co-captain last year, works hard, chips in a little. Ideally he could take up the mantle of another former Friar, Brandon Tanev, as the type of prospect who works, works, works up the ranks as a try-hard grinder.

#20: Kirill Tankov (42 GP, 11G+13A, Neva SKA [Russia, VHL]): A nasty and gnarly broken neck from an on-ice injury early in 2022-23 obviously cost Tankov a lot of time. In 2023-24 he basically got back to where he was in 2021-22 (24 points in 42 games this past year, 21 points in 38 games back then) but is now 22-years old and still in Russia’s version of the juniors leagues. Unfortunately with that bad injury, not sure what the upside or timing for coming to America would be for him right now, might be one of those Russian prospects that lives on here only in rumor and ‘what could have been’.

#19: Raivis Ansons (34GP, 2G+5A, Wilkes [AHL]): Ansons could be considered a victim of the Pens’ organization bulking up their investment at the AHL level. There wasn’t much room for him to carve out a niche last season. The 22-year old has already played two years pro, and while the AHL isn’t nothing, it doesn’t look like he’s got any momentum or trajectory to ascend past that, and now is in the final season of his entry level contract.

#18: Lukas Svejkovsky (30GP, 16G+21A, Wheeling [ECHL]): Another player lost in the shuffle as the org. changes over, Svejkovsky played more games in the Wheel (30) than Wilkes (8) in 2023-24. He did well enough there to have interest from Tampa, the Pens traded Svejkovsky for fellow floundering prospect Bennett MacArthur this summer in a minor league change of scenery transaction.

#17: Judd Caulfield (61GP, 10G+16A, San Diego [AHL]): Caulfield was traded in 2023 in an exchange of minor leaguers. 2023-24 was his rookie year, and as a grinder type he put up decent enough looking numbers for an AHL debut. Questions of ceiling remain for the 23-year old.

#16: Jonathan Gruden (47GP, 13G+11A, Wilkes [AHL]): Gruden is right on the fringe now from the NHL to AHL, having also appeared in 13 NHL games last season with Pittsburgh. He’s a low minute player, but has decent speed and willingness to get on the forecheck. Doesn’t look like a world beater, but he’s bucked the odds to make it to the NHL for at least cameo duty at times.

#15: Kasper Bjorkqvist (46 GP, 4G+9A [Karpat, SM-liiga]): Between injuries and the COVID lost time, Bjorkqvist never was able to get on track with the Pens. He only played in 11 total AHL games in the organization over two seasons in his development from 2019-21. That was enough to knock him off track for an NHL career, having gone back home to make a good living as a pro hockey player in Finland.

#14: Jordy Bellerive (59GP, 5G+7A across Lehigh Valley, San Jose and Syracuse [AHL]): Another “what could have been story” if not for severe damage suffered in an accident with a fire during the summer of 2018, Bellerive has made the rounds as a journeyman energy/pest type of checker at the AHL level.

#13: Cam Lee (37GP, 2G+11A, Khabarovsk Amur [KHL]): In hindsight, we were too sweet on the undrafted player at this moment in time. After two decent but unimpressive AHL seasons, Lee has moved over to play two more years in the KHL.

#12: Drew O’Connor (79 GP, 16G+17A with Pittsburgh [NHL]): From being undrafted and mostly unknown in 2020 to playing with Sidney Crosby and starting to legitimately fit in by 2024, it’s been quite the whirlwind for O’Connor. But as a pending UFA after 2024-25, it sure has gone by fast.

#11: Joel Blomqvist (25-12-2, .921 save% 2.16 GAA, 1 shutout with Wilkes [AHL]): Alex Nedeljkovic signed a multi-year contract extension but it’ll be tough to keep the AHL’s All Rookie goalie out of the show for much longer at this rate. The future is bright for Blomqvist, even if it takes some more patience before that future is now.

#10: Isaac Belliveau (70GP, 14G+24A, Wheeling [ECHL]): The promise of any young puck mover was enough to earn a high ranking in a thin 2021 prospect pool. Playing in the ECHL was better than sitting in the AHL for a still young 21 year old, time will tell if he can make a jump from pro year 1 to year 2.

#9: Calle Clang: (10-16-4, .897 save% 3.21 GAA, 0 shutouts with San Diego [AHL]): Included in the 2022 trade to Anaheim to send Rickard Rakell to Pittsburgh, and it doesn’t look like the Pens will regret it. Kudos to the by 2022 to chose to part with Clang over Blomqvist as far as goalie prospects back then went.

#8: Filip Lindberg (6-12-11, .883 save% 2.54 GAA, 2 shutouts with TPS [Liiga]): Lindberg was awesome at the NCAA level up through 2021 but didn’t do much to find a niche in the AHL and now had a tough 2023-24 season. He’s joining a new club, SaiPa, for 2024-25.

#7: Nathan Legare (54GP, 8G+4A across Laval and Utica [AHL]): The big shot hasn’t been registering much in the AHL and pace/play away from the puck was never a strong suit for Legare. He’s signed with Utica for 2024-25 but even being an AHL impact player would be a step up for him at this point.

#6: Tristan Broz (43GP, 16G+20A with Denver [NCAA]): It was a down and then up experience for Broz in the college ranks and now the 21-year old is turning pro. His clutch OT goals (as in plural) during the NCAA tournament last fall has shades, if not of Max Talbot clutch, then at least in the Fedotenko-ian levels of knowing when to step up. Getting his all-around game to match those types of players will be the next challenge.

#5: Valtteri Puustinen (52 GP, 5G+15A with Pittsburgh [NHL]): Puustinen made some nice plays in his first extended look in the NHL, but scoring five goals in 52 games with that shot is a head-scratcher. Proving he can get to the high scoring areas and then paying it off with more scoring is going to be a must for him to keep his career trajectory on the upward track in 2024-25.

#4: Filip Hallander (51GP, 14G+22A for Timra [SHL]): Hallander went back to the SHL and led his team in scoring. About what you’d expect for what turned into a very good AHL player who couldn’t quite have the burst and ability to stand out enough to make it to primetime.

#3: Samuel Poulin (41 GP, 16G+15A with Wilkes [AHL]): This season is finally the big make or break year for the first round pick of five years ago. The field of contenders for fourth line jobs is very crowded, but if ever Poulin needed a great camp and not to pick up an injury by Halloween as he tends to do, now would be the time.

#2: Pierre-Olivier Joseph (52 GP, 2G+9A with Pittsburgh [NHL]): It’s off to St. Louis for good ol’ PO Joseph. Acquired for Phil Kessel in 2019, Joseph had five years in the Pens’ organization and didn’t end up much further down the line than when he came into it, if we’re being honest. It’ll be interesting to see if he takes any drastic steps or stays about the same as he always has been when he gets a change of locations.

#1: John Marino: (75 GP, 4G+21A with New Jersey [NHL]): Marino still hasn’t topped the 26 points (in 56 games) of his rookie season in 2019-20. Defensively, it was a rough go for him in New Jersey — which is ironic since around here most of the 2023-24 struggles of NJ’s second pair from the past was focused on Ryan Graves. Marino is a good player, who does lots of little things well, but he’s missing that certain something to perhaps be a very elite one. Sensing this, the Devils traded him to Utah for cap space that they turned around and burned on free agent defender Brett Pesce. Could be a shrewd upgrade for them, now Marino moves onto team No. 3 of his career and his first taste of playing in the Western Conference.