Taking another look at Ben Kindel’s breakout rookie season

The Pittsburgh Penguins have certainly changed the expectations for themselves this season. When the 2025-26 season began, most people were anticipating a bad team, going through a long season that was going to put them closer to the top of the NHL Draft Lottery than the top of the NHL standings. But as we enter the stretch run of the regular season, they remain in second-place in the Metropolitan Division with an excellent chance of making the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

At this point the playoffs are the expectation. As they should be given the way they have played and the position they have put themselves in with the standings. This is a good team, and the expectations should be treated as such. But whether they make the playoffs or not, and whether they do anything if and when they get there, this season is still part of a rebuild and the long-term outlook is still important. Very important. There have been some significant long-term developments that should be seen as highly encouraging.

The most significant of those developments remains the performance of 18-year-old rookie center Ben Kindel.

He scored another big goal for the Penguins on Wednesday night, helping them secure an important point on the road against the Carolina Hurricanes. It is his 17th goal of the season in just 65 games, putting him on a pace for around 20 goals for the season.

That would be a significant number to reach as an 18-year-old rookie going right to the NHL in his draft year. The list of players that have done that in the modern era is both pretty short, and also a significant who’s who list of stars.

Even 17 goals is a big number for somebody his age.

Going back over the past 30 years, only 15 players have scored at least 17 goals in their age 18 season. Most 18-year-olds are not even a serious option for the NHL, and the ones that do make the NHL do not hold their own enough to get more than a nine-game look in the league before being sent back to Juniors or taken out of the lineup.

Kindel not only proved himself enough to stay and become a regular part of the lineup, he has become a significant contributor. He is not a passenger on a good team. He is one of the reasons this is a good team.

It is also relatively uncharted territory for a player drafted where he was to be this good, this productive, and this important so soon.

Of the 15 players that have matched his goal total at this age, the overwhelming majority of them were players picked with a top-two pick in the draft.

The list and each player’s draft position:

No. 1: Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Macklin Celebrini, Steven Stamkos, Ilya Kovalchuk, Connor Bedard, Matthew Schaefer, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Rick Nash
No. 2: Andrei Svechnikov, Patrik Laine, Jordan Staal

Unless you are a top-two pick, you really do not step right into the NHL in your draft year and make this sort of impact. The fact the Penguins got Kindel where they did, and that he has been as good as he has, is a huge score for the team’s front office and perhaps even the type of good luck they needed to really accelerate any sort of a rebuild.

It is not just the goal numbers that are significant, either. It is also the fact he is simply legitimately a good player that has taken on so many roles and been such a major contributor outside of the offense.

Of the 16 Penguins skaters that have played at least 500 minutes of 5-on-5 hockey he ranks third in shot attempt share, seventh in expected goal share, seventh in scoring chance share and fourth in high-danger scoring chance share.

Since the start of the 2007-08 season when such data started to be tracked, he is one of just two 18-year-olds that have scored at least 17 goals and had a shot-attempt share of more than 52 percent (Andrei Svechnikov is the other).

He has taken on more of a penalty killing role as the season has gone on, and entering play on Friday ranks first on the team in goals against per 60 minutes and expected goals against per 60 minutes when he is on the ice in shorthanded situations.

In most years he would be a serious contender for the Calder Trophy as the league’s Rookie of the Year, but I feel like Matthew Schaefer has such a lock on that award that it is not even worth discussing. But Kindel should still get significant votes and at least be worthy of a top-five finish.

I am still not sure what his long-term upside and ceiling is, but the company he is keeping right now in his first year is impressive. He may not be a franchise-changing player on the level of a Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon or Macklin Celebrini, but he at least looks like a long-term, cornerstone player that can be a foundational piece for a contending team. That is the most important development of this season. Perhaps even more than anything the team as a whole does.

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