Owen Pickering is going to be a big part of the Penguins' defense corps as the team transitions into the next era.
So on Saturday, the Penguins went out and got him his defense partner from junior.
The Penguins didn't have a second-round pick entering Day 2 of the draft. But early in the day, they traded the rights to pending restricted free agent Conor Timmins, prospect Isaac Belliveau and took on the last year of Connor Clifton's contract from Buffalo in exchange for the Sabres' pick No. 39. They used that pick to select right-handed defenseman Peyton Kettles from the Swift Current Broncos.
Kettles' first full season with the Broncos was Pickering's final year of junior, and the two are both from the Winnipeg area.
"Yeah, I definitely have a really good relationship with Owen," Kettles said after being drafted. "I started my Western League career with him, and we were D partners for a long time. I'm definitely happy to reunite with him."
Pickering was pretty happy too, posting the news along with "Let's goooo" on his Instagram shortly after the pick.
The Pickering-Kettles connection is a nice bonus. Having that existing chemistry is great. But independent of any of that, there's a lot to like about Kettles himself.
Kettles, 17, is big at 6 foot 6, 195 pounds -- a size he had to learn how to use, after he was only 5 foot 5 four years ago. As Kettles started to get big for his age, he started to make an effort to put it to his advantage.
"It's definitely a big part in how physical I am, with how tall I am," he said. "It was definitely hard to grow into my body and to gain weight, so it's definitely something that I'm still working on."
Kettles named his size and his skating as the key parts of his game, but noted how the two work in tandem -- "If I'm not a good skater, then I can't really catch up to those guys and beat them."
Still, Kettles pointed to his skating as an area he's looking to improve the most as he moves forward, getting faster in order to keep having that success at higher levels.
Penguins vice president of player personnel Wes Clark said that the Penguins liked Kettles' "elite defensive stick, super competitive, tough. He checks a lot of the boxes, trying to improve certain qualities on the back end here."
Kettles called the draft a "full-circle moment" for him. His very first hockey jersey as a kid was a Penguins Evgeni Malkin jersey. In just a few months, he'll be at an NHL training camp along with Malkin, wearing that same logo on his chest.
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THE ASYLUM
Taylor Haase
2:09 pm - 06.28.2025DowntownPenguins trade up for Pickering's partner Kettles
Owen Pickering is going to be a big part of the Penguins' defense corps as the team transitions into the next era.
So on Saturday, the Penguins went out and got him his defense partner from junior.
The Penguins didn't have a second-round pick entering Day 2 of the draft. But early in the day, they traded the rights to pending restricted free agent Conor Timmins, prospect Isaac Belliveau and took on the last year of Connor Clifton's contract from Buffalo in exchange for the Sabres' pick No. 39. They used that pick to select right-handed defenseman Peyton Kettles from the Swift Current Broncos.
Kettles' first full season with the Broncos was Pickering's final year of junior, and the two are both from the Winnipeg area.
"Yeah, I definitely have a really good relationship with Owen," Kettles said after being drafted. "I started my Western League career with him, and we were D partners for a long time. I'm definitely happy to reunite with him."
Pickering was pretty happy too, posting the news along with "Let's goooo" on his Instagram shortly after the pick.
The Pickering-Kettles connection is a nice bonus. Having that existing chemistry is great. But independent of any of that, there's a lot to like about Kettles himself.
Kettles, 17, is big at 6 foot 6, 195 pounds -- a size he had to learn how to use, after he was only 5 foot 5 four years ago. As Kettles started to get big for his age, he started to make an effort to put it to his advantage.
"It's definitely a big part in how physical I am, with how tall I am," he said. "It was definitely hard to grow into my body and to gain weight, so it's definitely something that I'm still working on."
Kettles named his size and his skating as the key parts of his game, but noted how the two work in tandem -- "If I'm not a good skater, then I can't really catch up to those guys and beat them."
Still, Kettles pointed to his skating as an area he's looking to improve the most as he moves forward, getting faster in order to keep having that success at higher levels.
Penguins vice president of player personnel Wes Clark said that the Penguins liked Kettles' "elite defensive stick, super competitive, tough. He checks a lot of the boxes, trying to improve certain qualities on the back end here."
Kettles called the draft a "full-circle moment" for him. His very first hockey jersey as a kid was a Penguins Evgeni Malkin jersey. In just a few months, he'll be at an NHL training camp along with Malkin, wearing that same logo on his chest.
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