Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Persevere Despite Call-Ups, Rise in AHL Power Rankings

FloHockey's AHL Power Rankings labeled Wilkes-Barre/Scranton "persevering" heading into the final weeks of the 2025-26 season. It's a reasonable word. It is also, at this point, an understatement.

The Penguins had already clinched a berth in the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs with a 38-16-6-2 record and 84 points when they proceeded to rattle off four consecutive wins, going 5-1 over their last six games. That run, built almost entirely from players who were not on the depth chart at the season's midpoint, is the clearest evidence that what head coach Kirk MacDonald and general manager Jason Spezza have assembled is more than a roster held together by organizational patience.

The question the power rankings raised, but did not fully answer, is whether "persevering" captures something real or is simply crediting WBS for surviving turbulence that would have sunk a shallower club. Look at the specifics, and the answer leans toward real.

The two wins that closed March made the strongest case. On Star Wars Night, the Penguins dispatched the Laval Rocket 3-1, with Avery Hayes providing the first-period lead on a shorthanded goal, then adding an insurance marker in the third. A shorthanded score is not a product of luck; it is the penalty kill running with enough confidence to turn defense into offense. Days later, Howe, Joona Koppanen and Rafael Harvey-Pinard combined to star in a 5-1 dismantling that ended the month on a statement. Harvey-Pinard, whose name carries NHL-level recognition from his time in Montreal, anchored an offensive performance that underscored the depth argument the rankings were trying to make.

That depth has been necessary because the Pittsburgh Penguins have been active on the recall wire throughout this stretch. WBS has absorbed repeated departures of offensive contributors and responded by redistributing ice time rather than redistributing blame. The rankings credited goaltending as a stabilizing factor, and Alex Nedeljkovic's presence in the crease provides exactly the kind of low-variance reliability that keeps a team functional while its forward lines regenerate.

The Pennsylvania rivalry context sharpens the seeding picture. Hershey and Lehigh Valley, the two most recognizable benchmarks in the AHL's Atlantic Division, have tracked WBS through the late-season calendar. With four wins in a row and a regular-season record that projects toward one of the East's top seeds, the Penguins are positioning themselves to open the playoffs at Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza. That matters: a home-ice advantage in a first round against a team like the Hershey Bears, the Washington Capitals' perennial AHL entry, is worth more than a branding exercise. It changes travel, crowd energy, and the psychological weight of a series.

If WBS sustains this form through the final weeks, a top-two seed in the Atlantic is the realistic ceiling. That would likely set up a first-round matchup against the Hershey Bears, a familiar and genuinely dangerous opponent. For a Penguins group that has spent months reloading under fire, the prospect of that series is not a burden. It is the point.