Largely Hypothetical Penguins Prospect Profile: Tom Kühnhackl

By Artistry

Pens prospect Tommy Kühnhackl has a lot of things going against him. For one thing, he's an undersized scoring winger with allegedly questionable conditioning. For another, he's got one of those names where you're supposed to put two dots over the "u," but do you know how to make that happen without copying and pasting it from somewhere? We don't. Guys with a ü or an ö in their name tend to be overhyped (see Fabian Brunnström). We're not falling into that trap.

The Good German?

Third, Tommy Kühnhackl is a German. How many forwards from that country have edged their way into your consciousness? Marco Sturm, Jochen Hecht, and Marcel Goc. That's basically the list. Oh, Sven Butenschon is also German. Germans tend to suck at hockey. It's just a fact. What are you going to do about it, Germans?



So the odds would not appear to be in Kühnhackl's favor. Until you look deeper. We've never heard of the guy, but apparently Tommy's dad was at one time Germany's answer to Mario Lemieux. Erich Kühnhackl was a 6'5" giant whose nickname was "Wardrobe on Skates." We don't even know what that means, but we're impressed. Clearly, the kid's got good genes. He's currently listed at 6'2", 172 pounds. Get him in a room with Mike Kadar, let him eat like 19-year-olds tend to do, and he'll fill out that frame in no time. The skills are already there. Tommy tore up the OHL last year with 39 goals in 63 games. He's a sniper with legitimate top 6 potential.

We're going on the record here. If anyone is going to overcome being a German named Tommy Kühnhackl, it's probably going to be Tommy Kühnhackl from Germany.

In case you missed our earlier prospect profiles, you can find them here:

Simon Despres
Kevin Veilleux
Dominik Uher
Beau Bennett

Don't miss out. Follow us on Twitter.