Heading into the 2025-26 season, the Pittsburgh Penguins have shifted the focus to youth and development.
With more talent in the system than Pittsburgh has had in years - and 13 picks in the 2025 NHL Draft - top prospects lists are becoming more competitive and more difficult to discern. Since the prospect pool is deepening, The Hockey News - Pittsburgh Penguins takes a look at the top-20 prospects in the organization.
For No. 7, we turn our focus back to the forward front, where a second-round pick from 2024 - currently on the shelf with a long-term injury - has plenty of raw potential. And that is Tanner Howe.
#7: F Tanner Howe
Howe, 19, hit some pretty unfortunate injury luck during 2024-25, as an ACL tear ended his season prematurely and will keep him out through the end of 2025.
But despite the injury, there is nothing to suggest that it will be anything more than a minor setback for Howe, who continued to impress the Penguins' organization last season. The 5-foot-11, 182-pound left wing is speedy, versatile, and has a lot of potential to develop a formidable two-way game.
Selected 46th overall by the Penguins in 2024 and subsequently signed to an entry-level contract, Howe began the 2024-25 season with the Regina Pats of the WHL, registering six goals and seven points in 10 games. He was then traded mid-season to the Calgary Hitmen, where he amassed 12 goals and 39 points in 37 games, and he spent a good chunk of time playing with eventual Penguins' 2025 11th overall pick Ben Kindel.
Top-20 Penguins' Prospects 2025: New Penguins' Goaltender On Verge Of BreakoutHeading into the 2025-26 season, the Pittsburgh Penguins have shifted the focus to youth and development.
He fit in with the Pats right away, and the progress he made throughout the season should pick up right where it left off when he tore his ACL. Howe's defensive game is still a work in progress, but he has the hockey sense, the motor, and the edge to keep improving upon it. Offensively, he's great around the net front, has some craftiness to his game, and has displayed a finishing touch and a lethal shot that could very well translate to the NHL level.
It seems that there are a lot of forwards with "middle-six potential" in the Penguins' organization, but Howe is one of those players with a higher ceiling. He may not be on the same level as Rutger McGroarty or Ville Koivunen, but there is a lot of room for him to continue climbing Penguins' prospect charts if he can lean into that 200-foot game and situational versatility.
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