Brunicke’s AHL playoff surge highlights major skating improvement

Harrison Brunicke’s playoff run with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton has done more than add a goal and an assist to the Penguins’ ledger. It has changed the conversation around how a 20-year-old defenseman is moving, and that matters because skating is the trait that decides whether a young blue liner survives NHL pressure or gets exposed by it.

Hockey journalist Hunter Hodies noticed the difference, and the eye test matches the numbers. Brunicke, a right-shot defenseman listed at 6-foot-3 and 201 pounds, looked far more fluid in the AHL postseason than he did during his early NHL stint with Pittsburgh. In nine NHL games this season, the 2024 second-round pick scored once and averaged 15:43 of ice time. Back in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, he produced eight points in 11 regular-season games, then carried that touch into the playoffs at a higher gear.

The turning point has come under the kind of stress that reveals whether a prospect’s progress is real. Brunicke assisted on Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s 4-3 overtime win at Hershey in Game 3 on May 5, then scored a shorthanded goal in the 4-1 series-clinching win in Game 4 on May 7. That goal snapped a 1-1 tie and sent the Penguins to their first division final since 2016. For a player whose greatest question has been his pace, the fact that his best playoff moments came on a penalty kill and in a tie game says plenty about where the skating is headed.

Brunicke’s path to this point has been unusually tangled. Pittsburgh drafted him 44th overall in 2024, then he spent time with Pittsburgh, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Kamloops and Canada’s 2026 IIHF World Junior team, where he won bronze. He was assigned to the Kamloops Blazers in January because the NHL-CHL transfer rules blocked a full-time AHL assignment while he remained junior-eligible, then returned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in April once his WHL season ended.

That is why the current surge matters to the Penguins. Brunicke is no longer just a toolsy prospect who flashed in a few NHL games and then had to be parked in junior. He has shown he can handle playoff hockey, contribute on special teams and get around the ice faster when it counts most. He said it plainly on May 12: “This is probably the most fun I’ve ever had.” For Pittsburgh, the more important takeaway is that his skating now looks like something the organization can begin to trust, not just hope for.