Pittsburgh Penguins Prospects, Liam Ruck, 2026 Development Camp: Photo by Dan Kingerski Several years ago, the Pittsburgh Penguins elected not to be a full participant in the Prospects Challenge held annually at the LECOM Harborcenter, but the organization has otherwise fielded a team of prospects to compete annually in the mid-September tournament featuring up to six teams going back to 2017.
In fact, the Penguins are the tournament champions three years running. However, overlooked on the recent schedule drop was a nugget that the Penguins are taking their prospects to a new Prospects Challenge in Detroit from Sept.
11-14. Unfortunately, it seems the Buffalo tournament has been shelved.
Instead, the Buffalo organization announced that its prospects will play a pair of games against the Boston Bruins on Sept. 13 and 14, and those are the only two teams attending.
And next year, Buffalo will visit Boston for a two-game showcase, as well. The Penguins began participating in the Buffalo Challenge in 2017 after years of participating in a prospects challenge in London, Ontario.
They continued every year except in 2020 and 2021, when COVID lockdowns prevented it. With a lack of prospects, former GM Ron Hextall buckled and allowed the team to play one game in 2022, which became a penalty-and-fight-filled contest as then-prospect Nathan Legare infuriated the Boston team, leading to a 6-4 Penguins win.
The tournament at LECOM Harborcenter has served as a stepping stone for several Penguins prospects to garner attention, including Legare, but also defenseman John Marino, who excelled in 2019, and Sergei Murashov, who showed well in 2024. Zach Aston-Reese and Daniel Sprong were the headliners of the 2017 team.
The Penguins will have a large team from which to choose after a 13-member 2025 draft class and drafting Liam and Markus Ruck in the first and second rounds of the 2026 NHL draft. And most of the recent draftees showed up for the recent Development Camp at the UPMC Lemieux Complex in July.
It’s unclear if the tournament collapsed due to scheduling conflicts of early training camps or if Buffalo chose not to host a larger tournament. NHL teams are beginning training camp the week of Sept.
13, and the Penguins’ regular season begins on Sept. 30, an early start to accommodate the 84-game regular season schedule.
**This story was updated. The initial version was published in error and quickly removed.