Penguins Blog

2024 round 2 #44 overall by Pittsburgh Penguins

Harrison Brunicke is a 6″3 203lbs Defenseman right shot. The combination of his size and skill are hard to find. He is also shooting on the right side which is a premium in the NHL. Brunicke is another great find by Dubas. Drafted in the 2nd round considering that Brunicke could have been drafted as high as in the mid 1st round.

His playstyle can be described as “do-it-all blue-liner”. What prevented him from being a 1st rounder was his offensive game. He currently has 12pts in 15gp compared to last year when he only had 21points in 49gp. Kamloops did not have a 20 goal scorer or point per game player last year which contributed to Brunicke’s lower production. Here is a compression between his production between last year and this season:

Harrison is 7th in points amongst Kamloops skaters despite having missed half the season so far due to injury.

Brunicke was expected to make Team Canada for the 2025 World Juniors but got injured. His production this year has been amazing. He was projected to be a top 4 Dman when he got drafted but it showing potential of having the offensive skill to be a 1st paring D in the NHL.

Brunicke has a lot of potential to become a solid blueliner at the NHL level. Defensemen usually take longer to develop and considering his injury this year he might be NHL ready in 3-4 years. He might need to spend a couple of years in the AHL before making the jump to the NHL. If he is able to build on his current production I would expect great things out of Brunicke. In my opinion he is the 2nd best prospect after McGroarty that the pens have right now.

NHL certainty: 7.5