SALT LAKE CITY — Ryan Shea figured Ben Kindel would listen to music he heard on TikTok. So it was surprising to hear that the Penguins rookie’s favorite band is the Eagles.

“Most of the boys say he’s a 40-year-old in an 18-year-old’s body,” Shea said.

Kindel’s maturity extends far beyond music tastes. It’s allowed him to seamlessly blend into a Penguins locker room that includes players more than twice his age. And as he’s ascended from unheralded prospect to one of the top rookies in the NHL, it’s equipped him to stay true to who he is.

“Ben could play 1,000 games for the Penguins, have a statue outside the rink — he’s going to be the exact same guy,” said Kevin Hodgson, one of Kindel’s billet parents when he played for the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League.

Kindel ranks fourth among NHL rookies with 16 goals. He’s the second-leading scorer among players in the 2025 NHL Draft class. He’s having one of the best seasons for an 18-year-old in Penguins history.

It’s all come quicker than most expected.

Penguins vice president of player personnel Wes Clark is the biggest reason why the team picked Kindel 11th overall when most projections had him going much later in the first round.

“He’s obviously exceeded the industry’s perception or expectation for him and, to be honest, exceeded my own expectations, being his biggest fan,” Clark said.

Making an impression

Kindel was selected 43rd overall in the 2022 WHL draft. He’d been injured during his prospect draft year, was undersized and it wasn’t clear whether he’d actually come to the Western, Hitmen general manager Garry Davidson said.

But Davidson had been impressed by Kindel’s game during a tournament in Edmonton and scooped up the British Columbia native in the second round.

The talent was obvious.

“His IQ and his vision and his stick skills are phenomenal,” Davidson said.

Kindel put up 60 points in 68 games during his first season with Calgary before breaking out with 99 points in 65 games last season.

But what really impressed Davidson was Kindel’s toughness and competitiveness despite his size.

“He would go into battles with older, bigger, stronger guys, and he’d win those battles with his head and with his stick,” Davidson said. “... He wanted loose pucks, and he got them.”

Clark saw Kindel early last season in Swift Current.

“Actually went out there to watch someone else, and [Kindel] jumped off the page in that game,” the Penguins’ lead scout said.

Clark started tracking Kindel from there. Early on, it became clear that Kindel was “one of the very few select guys that deserve to be in the conversation.”

In hindsight, Hodgson said he and his wife, Kristie, should have known Kindel would end up with the Penguins. They were frequently making him late for dinner.

“If we had thought about the number of times he’d come up and said, ‘Sorry, I was on the Zoom call with the Penguins,’ or talking to somebody from the Penguins, this shouldn’t have surprised us,” Hodgson said.

Sticking around

Still, Hodgson, Davidson and even Clark thought Kindel would be back in Calgary this season.

During the second game of the Prospects Challenge in Buffalo, Clark started to see the potential for the 18-year-old to stick on the NHL roster.

“The puck was following him all over the ice,” Clark said. “He was always in the right spots.”

For Hodgson, the realization arrived in a preseason game against Detroit. Kindel was consistently matched up against Patrick Kane and held his own.

Hodgson turned to Kristie and said, “Sweetie, I don’t think he’s coming home. He looks like an NHLer.”

Penguins assistant general manager Jason Spezza told Davidson that if Kindel faltered or leveled off, there was a good chance he would return to Calgary.

“That never happened, unfortunately for us but fortunately for Ben,” the Hitmen GM said.

In typical Kindel fashion, he didn’t think too far ahead. He was surprised by how ready he felt in training camp and the preseason but didn’t feel secure until he played his 10th regular-season game, locking in his roster spot for the rest of the campaign.

When the Hodgsons dropped him off at the airport on his way to Penguins training camp, Kindel had just one suitcase and one suit. They said they’d see each other in a couple of weeks.

“And he never came home,” Hodgson said. “Kristie and I would both describe it as the most surprising, least surprising thing in the world.”

But when Kindel did return to Calgary for the Penguins’ game against the Flames in January, the rookie visited the Hodgsons the night before the game.

Once dinner was done, Kindel got up and did the dishes, just as he had the previous two years.

“Then he sat down and played cards, and he kicked our ass, and he chirped us after,” Hodgson said. “... He has not changed.”

Breaking through

Less than a week after that evening in Calgary, Kindel scored two goals in his return to Vancouver, the area where he grew up.

That snapped a 19-game goal drought. In the last 16 contests, Kindel has lit the lamp eight times. He’s tied for the fourth-most points by an 18-year-old in Penguins history, with the chance to climb as high as second by the end of the season.

But his teammates have been more impressed by his work on the other side of the puck.

“The way he is defensively as an 18-year-old is pretty elite,” Shea said.

Penguins coach Dan Muse has trusted Kindel on the penalty kill and when protecting a lead at the end of the game. The rookie clearly takes pride in playing a two-way game.

His close friend Connor Dewar said Kindel aspires to win the Selke Trophy — given to the best defensive forward. It’s not a flashy goal, but it fits the soft-spoken teenager.

Even when he scores, Kindel deflects the attention. Earlier this season in Toronto, Kindel’s stick broke on a power play. The equipment managers delivered him a new one in time to rifle home his second goal of the game. He quickly pointed to the bench to thank the equipment guys.

Hodgson texted him about it. He often compliments the little things Kindel does — blocking a shot, making a clutch backcheck, winning a big faceoff. That’s the stuff Kindel cares about.

“To see an 18-year-old with that level of maturity and self-awareness and confidence and passion for the game is pretty special,” Dewar said.

Fitting in

Kindel went on vacation with Shea, Dewar, Parker Wotherspoon, Kevin Hayes and a couple of former Penguins over the Olympic break. He was the youngest by far but fit right in.

“You can tell he was raised right, raised by a good family, and he’s got a good head on his shoulders,” Shea said.

Every once in a while, he shows his age. Wotherspoon recalled one practice where Hayes walked in and informed Kindel he’d left the window of his car down. In the snow.

But otherwise, Wotherspoon said Kindel is “insanely mature.”

“Maybe kids are like that nowadays, but it seems like he knows what’s going on in the world already,” the Penguins defenseman said. “I feel like I was in a blur. Can’t relate to that.”

His upbringing prepared him to handle the life of a professional athlete with poise. Both of his parents played professional soccer for the Vancouver Whitecaps. His mother, Sara Maglio, was a forward for Canada at the 1999 World Cup. Kindel’s younger sister, Lacey, is an elite soccer player, as well.

Davidson said Kindel’s own soccer experience translates to the ice.

“He understands space,” Davidson said. “Lots of players never understand it and don’t appreciate it.”

Kindel also appreciates the platform he’s been given. He avidly jumped into the HEROS program Hodgson runs, which provides hockey opportunities for at-risk youth and kids with disabilities.

“He treated every one of those athletes with respect and with dignity and with consideration,” Hodgson said. “And if they ever came to a Hitmen game to see him, he always made time for them.”

Kindel particularly befriended a girl named Katherine with Down syndrome. He gifted her a pair of No. 81 jerseys and visited with her during the Penguins’ trip to Calgary.

By that point of the season, he’d established himself as a key part of a team in playoff position. Kindel is one of just five members of the 2025 NHL Draft class to even skate in a regular-season game — and he’s played in 63, with 31 points.

He said his life hasn’t changed that much despite becoming one of the most celebrated rookies in the league.

“It’s the game I love. Love to play the sport,” Kindel said. “I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. So that’s just always been my mindset.”

Hodgson recommends that parents of young hockey players consider a Kindel sweater.

“Go buy a Kindel jersey and buy it two sizes too big,” Hodgson said. “Because five years from now, Ben is still going to be a kid that you want your kid to model themselves on the ice and off the ice.”

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