Penguins face next decision point on Harrison Brunicke’s season

Harrison Brunicke’s time with Team Canada for the World Junior Championship is now completed. The Canadians won the bronze medal game yesterday against Finland after getting upset by Czechia on Sunday night.

Brunicke played in all seven games, recording no goals and two assists. At times he was alright, but it was hardly a smashing success. In fact, he saw his role reduced as the tournament went on to the point of being the fifth most played defenseman for Canada in the critical game against the Czechs. The hope was Brunicke would shine as an older player and one with pro experience, instead he ended up just kinda being there. Corey Pronman from The Athletic said he “underwhelmed” for an NHL loan. Scott Wheeler from the same publication:

PP wasn’t a natural role for him at this level, even though they tried him there. Want to see him play a little harder in his man-to-man D coverage, too. I actually thought he played better once his minutes moved from 18-20 to 14-15, but the coaching staff had clearly decided he wasn’t a go-to guy, and they tried to spread out the minutes to find that person and never did. Not a confidence-building tournament for him, which is what you’d hope for when you get sent down from the NHL. Skating and potential remain.

In short, Brunicke showed the rust of a player who has only played five games since November 3rd, because, well his only game action since early November was appearing in five AHL games. The ‘developmental plan’ the Penguins have had Brunicke on had him not play in the NHL since he appeared in his ninth game in early November and go to the AHL on a conditioning loan for five games with Wilkes-Barre from November 26 – December 6. That wasn’t a huge runway to enter the tournament at the top of his game and the results showed as much.

There’s been enough time wasted on where Brunicke ‘should’ be playing or best-served playing while avoiding the fact that as a 19-year old he needs to be playing as perhaps the most important variable involved. Given what we’ve seen, that is nowhere close to the NHL level at this time. The AHL is not an option for him this season until his junior season is over, which whether fair, right, wrong or in the middle is the unavoidable way it is this season.

That only leaves one option: assigning Brunicke back to the WHL. The Penguins have been resistant to that to this point but enough data from his performance in the three venues (NHL, AHL, WJC) have come in to present a clear choice

The Canadian junior league is in the midst of rapid change now that several of the top players are opting for the collegiate route before they turn pro. However, several of Brunicke’s peers from Team Canada currently play in the CHL, and ones that are arguably even more advanced than him based on the performances at the recent tournament like Tij Iginla, Jett Luchanko, Cole Reschny, Caleb Desnoyers, Sam O’Reilly, Ben Danford and Kashawn Aitcheson. Most, if not all of these players will due their time in juniors and go onto having fruitful professional careers. Several of those players are ‘24 draft picks like Brunicke was, playing out one more season in juniors. Playing in the CHL for a couple months until Brunicke can rejoin the pro ranks in Wilkes-Barre may not be an ideal situation, but it’s not unprecedented in the current climate and also something that can’t be avoided for much longer either. After a rocky World Juniors, Brunicke could benefit from the regular playing time of a huge role on a team for a few months after playing a total of just 21 games in the last three months at various levels and usually in very limited roles while in the pro ranks.

By sending back Brunicke now before he plays in a 10th NHL game and spends 40 games on the roster, the Penguins will avoid seeing his entry level contract start and having him earn a year towards unrestricted free agency. (As an aside, funny how there was no drama and the question never really came up about Ben Kindel blowing past that 40-game mark since he wasn’t off the NHL roster to be assigned to Team Canada).

No harm, no foul on that front. It hasn’t been a notable past few months for Brunicke on the ice, which is a shame but also hardly unprecedented for a talented young defender to need some time to put everything together. Progress is not always a straight, linear arrow that steadily moves up without a few bumps along the way, doubly so for a defenseman.

The Pens haven’t announced just yet what they plan to do with Brunicke for the balance of the season, but from what they’ve seen there isn’t much way around the fact he has shown that he needs more developmental time in a lower league to build and grow before he can reach his potential in the next stages. Then, with any luck, it’ll be a few short months until they can get him back in Wilkes once his junior season ends to be a part of the AHL team for what everyone hopes will be a deep playoff run.