Lost in the great Zach Benson war of August 2026 is the placement of Penguins breakout center Ben Kindel in Corey Pronman’s U23 pipeline exercise. Now it’s fair to wonder if, even after a surprise breakout at 18 in the world’s hardest hockey league, Ben Kindel might be underrated.
Pronman, who drew criticism for ranking 123 players ahead of three-year NHL veteran Zach Benson, also ranked 91 players ahead of Ben Kindel. The math works out fairly similarly to the Zach Benson dialogue. Suffice it to say, there are not 91 players under the age of 23 better than Ben Kindel.
In another entry into the theater of the absurd, Pronman released his 2025 NHL Re-Draft exercise on Monday morning. The following is a real quote from the piece:
Only one year removed, there isn’t a ton of major movement among the top names, with a lot of the high picks still being mostly represented at the very top of this list.
Ben Kindel Underrated After Re-Draft Drop
If the U23 ranking of Zach Benson was as ‘indefensible’ as one expert suggested, then so is the re-draft ranking of Ben Kindel.
This is a little tongue-in-cheek, but clearly Ben Kindel is underrated in the wake of this ranking. Ben Kindel, the 11th overall selection in 2025, unexpectedly made the NHL at 18. He then locked in as a third-line center for a surprisingly good Penguins team as an 18-year-old. As you might be aware, it’s hard to make the NHL at 18. Now, he’s the type of comparison some might hope for Viggo Björck in his first year in Winnipeg.
Certainly, Kindel can improve as a player. Penguins fans, to be sure, are hoping that he improves as a player. That, however, is true of any 18-year-old. Conversely, not every 18-year-old graded out as an above-average contributor (and sometimes better) on a team that made the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
So where did Corey Pronman rank Ben Kindel in his re-draft exercise? He dropped him eight spots. So, once again, let’s take a look at how the math of this works out.
Pronman Ranks Kindel Behind Guys He’s Already Lapped
Now, it is worth noting that Pronman elevated Kindel compared to his pre-draft rankings. Pronman ranked Kindel 33rd on his board in 2025. While it’s not absurd for fans to want to pull out the pitchforks, it’s worth noting that Pronman has adjusted his priors on Kindel by at least that much. So, from that perspective, maybe Ben Kindel isn’t necessarily underrated.
Still, Pronman ranked 18 players ahead of Kindel in the re-draft exercise. And, as you’ve likely guessed, not all of those 18 played in the NHL last season. In fact, that number is five. Of those five, only one of them played more games than Ben Kindel — Matthew Shaefer, who was historically good last season.
As noted about the Benson exercise, it’s perfectly reasonable to believe that a one-year sample doesn’t define a player or a draft class. It’s also perfectly fair to still use projection. For example, goaltender Joshua Ravensbergen moves up 20 spots in this exercise and is ahead of Kindel. That’s justifiable. Goaltenders play on a different timeline than skaters at the prospect level, and Ravensbergen dominated the WHL last season.
Ben Kindel Underrated Compared to Peers, Clearly
Comparatively speaking, three players stand out as being way too high next to Kindel. Roger McQueen, Brady Martin and Jack Nesbitt are all likely future NHL centers. Certainly, their organizations are hoping that’s true. McQueen turned in a perfectly respectable season at Providence College, scoring 27 points in 36 games. Brady Martin labored through an injury-shortened year for the Soo Greyhounds of the OHL. Nesbitt scored at a DY+1 rate more in line with a middle- or late first-round pick rather than a top-half first-round pick. In a vacuum, there’s nothing wrong with the production of any of these players. They’re likely in line to be future NHLers, though their impact is certainly worth questioning.
The issue here is that everything they did takes a backseat when compared to Ben Kindel’s season in the NHL. Keep in mind, McQueen produced at a rate worse than James Hagens’ 17-year-old freshman season at Boston College. Pronman ranked McQueen ahead of Hagens in this exercise. Perhaps it’s not just Ben Kindel that’s underrated. It seems like this comes down to a question of size. Kindel is only 5-foot-11. And, yes, 5-foot-11 centers aren’t common in the NHL. Still, he’s off to a tremendous start.
Size matters in sports. It matters in the NHL. It will always matter. That doesn’t make it the entire story. Ben Kindel is ranked behind Islanders prospect Daniil Prokhorov in Pronman’s re-draft exercise. The latter scored one point in 23 games last season in a diminished Kontinental Hockey League. Again, Ben Kindel scored 35 points in 77 games in the National Hockey League.
The National Hockey League, as most understand it, is the best league on Earth. It’s fair to assume Ben Kindel’s 35 NHL points are more meaningful than Prokhorov’s single KHL point.
Pittsburgh Penguins Ben Kindel the Latest Snub by Prospect Expert