PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Just like that, the 2026 NHL Draft has come and gone, and it was an eventful one for the Pittsburgh Penguins. While general manager Kyle Dubas didn’t make any earth-shattering trades, the moves he did make helped Pittsburgh leave Buffalo with a solid balance of players across different positions.
With just one first-round pick to use on Day One, Dubas opted to select right winger Liam Ruck, who served as a centerpiece of the Medicine Hat Tigers’ (WHL) offense this past season with a whopping 104 points. After Liam was drafted, his mother confirmed during an interview that Liam and his twin brother Markus — another highly-touted forward at the draft — had only spent four days apart in their entire lives.
So naturally, when Pittsburgh made its next selection in the second round, Dubas made sure the two wouldn’t be separated anytime soon by selecting Markus 39th overall.
From there, the Penguins went on to add Czech defenseman Tomas Galvas later on in the second round before picking up another forward in Pierce Mbuyi from the OHL in the third. Through a trade with the Boston Bruins and then Nashville Predators, the Pens capped off their draft class by selecting yet another OHL product in blueliner Parker Von Richter and finally Belarusian goalie Matvei Nikonovich.
Following the draft, Penguins Director of Player Personnel Wes Clark discussed the thought process behind Pittsburgh’s draft choices.
Liam and Markus Ruck
The fact that Dubas chose to grab both of the Ruck twins isn’t just a plus because of the brotherly bond they share. Based on their statistics and playing styles, they seem to perfectly complement each other on the ice. Liam possesses a shot-first mentality, and Markus is much more comfortable passing the puck than taking it to the net himself. In 2025-26, Liam’s 45 tallies were tied for the most among all Medicine Hat players, while Markus finished the regular season with a team-high 87 helpers.
Sharing the ice with world-class talent is also nothing the Ruck twins haven’t experienced before. While with the Tigers, they got a front row seat to watch eventual 2026 first overall pick Gavin McKenna develop alongside them.
“It was a very unique situation. Put a lot of time into it last week dealing with the agent, our scouts and management. Once we took Liam at 22, we decided to hold and roll the dice and were able to get Markus at 39,” Clark said.
Clark also noted that both players have elite offensive instincts and love the game of hockey, traits that make them an ideal fit for a team like the Penguins, which is still looking to become younger and add further depth on the offensive side of the puck.
“The reality is we need to keep acquiring talented people into the organization, and I think we were able to accomplish that with both of them,” Clark said.
Tomas Galvas
Galvas was someone Pittsburgh’s scouts had had their eyes on for a while.
In each of the past two drafts, the Penguins nearly pulled the trigger on Galvas but held back due to his size. So did every other team in the NHL. But looking back, Clark admitted that waiting so long to draft the defensive phenom was an error on his part.
“We made mistakes. We’re gonna continue making mistakes. He slipped through two drafts, but he was too good to pass up there. We believe in the impact he can provide, and we’ll help him develop properly,” Clark said.
“Lots of work was done there, especially with our Czech scout. (As the) Czech Defenseman of The Year, he was making a lot of noise in that league. He was great (at) the World Juniors playing with the men at the end of the year,” Clark said.
Indeed he was. En route to a silver medal at the 2026 World Junior Championships, Galvas was a staple of the Czech blue line. While using his size and speed to make plays in the defensive zone, he also showed off his offensive ability by racking up nine points (3 goals, 6 assists) through seven games.
Pens didn't have assets to make major move
Pierce Mbuyi
With their lone pick in the third round, the Penguins decided to go back to one of Canada’s junior hockey leagues and selected winger Pierce Mbuyi from the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack.
Another player on the shorter side at 5 feet and 10 inches tall, Mbuyi dominated as an aggressive forechecking forward who made a living creating turnovers. He collected 75 points in 68 games this past season and will return as the captain of the Owen Sound before competing for Penn State in 2027-28.
Mbuyi’s character attracted the Penguins to him just as much as his skill on the ice. Back in 2021, adversity struck him at a young age when he lost his mother to cancer. In the years that have followed, he’s used that loss as his greatest motivation to make it to the NHL someday.
“He’s an underdog. We did a lot of work on him the last couple weeks. He’s dealt with some things in his lifetime that you don’t want people that age to deal with. You see the look in his eye, you’ve got a lot of belief in the person (and his) makeup,” Clark said.
Parker Von Richter
In the first of two moves Pittsburgh made during the draft, it traded up to get the 111th overall pick and used it to snag another older defenseman. The largest selection in the Penguins’ draft class by far at 205 pounds and over 6 feet tall, Von Richter was another player who didn’t hear his name called in each of the past two drafts.
Through four seasons of action in the OHL, he recorded 119 total points. Now committed to the University of New Hampshire for the next four seasons, he’ll have plenty of time to continue polishing his game at the NCAA D-I level.
“Our scouts Brendan DeFazio and Chris Rock had a lot of passion for him. We also converged with the data. He’s going off to school next year and had a great run this year, and we believe there’s a real upside (for him) to provide a defensive impact,” Clark said.
Von Richter marked the fourth and final player Pittsburgh chose from a Canadian junior hockey league. But according to Clark, the trend was simply a coincidence.
“It’s just random, right? We’ll all have our biases toward certain leagues. I’m a big believer in the WHL, so it just happened to be the way the board lined up,” Clark said.
Matvei Nikonovich
To close out the draft, Dubas had one more trick up his sleeve. Acquiring the 160th pick in the fifth round from Nashville, the Penguins rounded out their draft class by selecting a promising young Belarusian goaltender from HC Lada Togliatti, a team in the Russian junior league.
This past season, Nikonovich finished with a strong .939 save percentage and a just-as-solid 1.96 goals-against average. The main thing holding him back is his size, as he doesn’t appear as big in front of the net compared to other goalies who were available at the draft.
But according to Clark, Nikonovich was a player he and his staff wanted to select from the moment the draft began.
“He was a red star player on (Director of Goaltending) Jon Elkin’s draft board. “We knew there was a chance that we would be able to get him late. Once we knew we could get him, we decided to move a future pick,” Clark said.
What the Pens were thinking on every selection
What the Pens were thinking on every selection
