In less than a week, the hockey world will gather at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo for the 2026 NHL Entry Draft.

For the Pittsburgh Penguins, it will mark the fourth draft conducted under general manager Kyle Dubas. This summer, his team is coming into the draft following their first playoff appearance in the Dubas era, after surprising the NHL and finishing second in the Metropolitan Division before falling in six games to the Philadelphia Flyers in the opening round.

Despite the playoff bid, Dubas largely strayed away from making impulsive, win-now moves to boost this year’s team. The Penguins kept the bigger picture in mind, something they will look to do next weekend at the two-day event.

But you might be surprised to learn that the Penguins, as of now, only have five draft picks heading into Buffalo. Barring a late addition to the cupboard, that will mark the fewest picks the Penguins have used in a Dubas-era draft.

The stockpile they do have, however, is rather top-heavy.

For the second year in a row and fourth time in the last five years, the Penguins still have their own first round pick. Starting in 2022, the organization shifted towards holding onto one of their strongest trade chips and using it to build towards the future.

Once again, barring a trade or pick swap, the Penguins will be on the clock at pick 22, the latest they’ve made their first selection in a draft since picking Kasperi Kapanen in 2014.

Last year, the Penguins made three picks in the first round, headlined by 11th overall selection Ben Kindel and supplemented by Bill Zonnon and Will Horcoff.

The Penguins will open Saturday with two picks in the second round, as well. Before they use their own pick at 54th overall, the Penguins can use Winnipeg’s second-rounder, slotted at 39th overall.

Dubas acquired that pick at last year’s deadline, following the acquisition of Luke Schenn before flipping him to the Jets. Winnipeg, who won the Presidents’ Trophy last season, tumbled in the standings this year, handing Pittsburgh an early second round selection.

Earlier in the season, the Penguins also owned a second-rounder belonging to St. Louis. That pick, now 43rd overall, was acquired as payment for taking on the contract of Kevin Hayes. Initially, the Blues gave the Penguins that pick in 2025, but after a convoluted deal, that pick was moved back to 2026. Dubas ended up using that pick as part of the package to bring Egor Chinakhov to town.

And then in the third round, the Penguins own their original pick at 86th overall. For three years, the Penguins also owned a 2026 third-rounder from San Jose, which they originally picked up as part of the massive Erik Karlsson deal. That was sent to Detroit to trade for Elmer Söderblom at the deadline in March.

But as of now, the rest of the draft is slated to be pretty quiet in Pittsburgh. The Penguins have traded away all of their own picks from rounds four to seven.

They traded their fourth-round pick this year last season, when they made a deal with Nashville to flip it and Michael Bunting for the aforementioned Schenn.

Their fifth was also dealt away in that pick swap deal with the Blues. They moved their sixth-rounder back in 2024 to bring in Emil Bemström. And their seventh round selection was shipped off to Colorado (along with Valtteri Puustinen) for depth defenseman Ilya Solovyov.

But despite the thinness of the overall draft crop, this year could be massive in further setting up the next era of Penguins hockey, and continuing the youth wave that is starting to form in Pittsburgh’s lineup.