PensBurgh’s 2026 edition of the Top 25 Under 25 countdown rolls on with Hendrix Lapierre, a 24-year-old forward who gets a fresh start with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the hopes he can blossom the way a few other young players have in recent seasons.
Catch up on the previous entries for this year:
Pensburgh Top 25 Under 25: Graduates and Departed players in 2025
Top 25 Under 25: The best of the rest
#25: Chase Pietila, D
#24: Ryan Miller, F
#23: Finn Harding, D
#22: Peyton Kettles, D
#21: Zam Plante, F
#21 (bonus): Brady Peddle, D
#20: Melvin Fernstrom, F
#19: Tanner Howe, F
#18: Tomas Galvas, D
#17: Pierce Mbuyi, F
#16: Jake Livanavage, D
#15: Owen Pickering, D
#14: Tristan Broz, F
#13: Avery Hayes, F
#12: Ville Koivunen, F
#11: Hendrix Lapierre
2025 Ranking: N/A
Age: 24 (Feb. 9, 2002)
Acquired Via: Trade with the Washington Capitals
Height/Weight: 6-foot, 190 pounds
The Penguins offseason began with the trade for Lapierre, bringing him over from the Washington Capitals for third-and fifth-round draft picks.
After being a first-round pick by the Capitals (No. 22 overall in 2020), Lapierre spent the first six years of his career in the Capitals organization and produced some mixed results. He made his initial NHL debut late in the 2021-22 season by appearing in six games, and then spent the next few years split between the Capitals and the American Hockey League.
The 2025-26 season was his first full year in the NHL, appearing in 74 games and scoring just four goals with 12 assists. He did not score his first goal of the season until Jan. 23, ending what had been a shocking 90-game regular season goal-scoring drought that stretched all the way back to March 18, 2024. It’s really difficult to be an NHL player and go 90 consecutive games without scoring a single game, and it is a frustrating combination of bad luck and some overall struggles.
But while the offense has not always been there at the NHL level for Lapierre in the form of actual goal-production, he has still managed to make himself useful, especially when it comes to his defensive play. That was especially the case during the 2025-26 season when he had some of the best defensive metrics on the entire Capitals roster among the team’s forwards.
Of the 12 Capitals forwards that logged at least 500 minutes of 5-on-5 ice-time, Lapierre had the following ranks defensively:
- Expected goals against per 60: 2.43 (first)
- Scoring chances against per 60: 23.8 (first)
- High-danger scoring chances against per 60: 9.31 (first)
- Total shot attempts against per 60: 50.98 (first)
- Total shot attempt share: 54.4 percent (first)
- Expected goal share: 55.6 percent (second)
- Scoring chance share: 55.5 percent (second)
- High-danger scoring chance share: 58.7 percent (first)
He did have some of the more favorable offensive zone start numbers on the roster (51 percent, which was the fourth-highest on the roster), but the play generally went in the right direction when he was on the ice. The Capitals out-chanced, out-shot and out-scored their opponents with him on the ice. And while the offensive zone start numbers were somewhat favorable, it’s not like he was playing alongside the Capitals’ best offensive players.
His most common linemates throughout the course of the season were the likes of Brandon Duhaime, Ethan Frank and Sonny Milano. That is very much a depth role, and he mostly played it well despite the lack of offense.
It creates an interesting situation for him as it relates to the Penguins going in to the 2026-27 season.
On one hand, the Penguins are already overloaded at the forward position, to the point where a player like Justin Brazeau, who scored 17 goals a year ago, is going to have a hard time finding a spot in the lineup, let alone returning young players like Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty.
But the Penguins are also looking to improve their overall defensive play, and that isn’t just going to come from changes on their defense pairings (where half of the lineup has already been overhauled this offseason with Kaedan Korczak, Declan Carlile and Trevor van Riemsdyk all coming in). It also has to come from their forward play, and given what Lapierre showed in his first full season with the Capitals, he can potentially help improve that a lot in a depth role. Especially following the offseason departure of Noel Accairi and his free agent signing with the Philadelphia Flyers.
He also fits the mold of the type of player the Penguins have been targeting over the past year-plus: Early-to-mid-20s, at one time a top prospect, some success at the NHL level, even in a limited role, and probably needing a fresh start and change of scenery somewhere else. They have had some success with those moves.
The question now becomes whether or not Lapierre can win a roster spot in a deep forward competition, and whether or not there is more offensive upside to his game.
At the very least he has a chance to be an effective bottom-six player and defensive forward. If he can add some more offense to that the Penguins will have found themselves another good player.