PensBurgh Top 25 Under 25: #14 - Cruz Lucius

A new prospect who arrived via trade that the team hopes will one day take over where Jake Guentzel left off

The 2024 version of our PensBurgh Top 25 Under 25 countdown continues with the first of four pieces for the list this year that include a young player that the Penguins received from the March trade that sent Jake Guentzel to Carolina.

Graduates and departed players from last year’s list
The best of the rest
#25: Raivis Ansons
#24: Kirill Tankov
#23: Isaac Belliveau
#22: Taylor Gauthier
#21: Chase Pietila
#20: Emil Jarventie
#19: Kalle Kangas
#18: Joona Vaisanen
#17: Filip Kral
#16: Mac Swanson
#15: Jonathan Gruden

#14: Cruz Lucius
2023 Ranking: N/A
Age: 20 (Apr. 5, 2004)
Acquired Via: trade with Carolina, March 2024
Height/Weight: 6-foot-0, 179 pounds

Elite Prospects Resume

At only 20, it’s already been an interesting career path for Cruz Lucius. He’s been drafted to the NHL, had his rights traded and will start at his second college this fall. In between, he’s put up impressive numbers with the US development program over the years and at the NCAA level and may be in his final amateur season before his professional journey begins.

From Byron Bader:

Cruz Lucius Model-wise, Lucius has the highest likelihood to be something significant (although still not a high likelihood). Was drafted in 2022 and saw a nice jump in his D+1 season. He seemed to stall out in his D+2 season (the current season in the NCAA) and hasn’t gone up another level from his previous few seasons.

David St. Louis, an NHL analyst and Elite Prospects writer succinctly summed up Lucius:

deceptive/flashy playmaker, skating also a weakness. Skilled, but style may not translate to NHL.

And therein lies the question with Lucius for his long-term future: can the obvious talent rise above the weakness? In many ways, for the NHL, he looks like a boom/bust player. He’s either going to make it as a scoring line point producer, or not enjoy an NHL career at all. The talent, daring and moxie is on display from this 18 month old clip.

Granted, he’s fighting off US National Development players and not grown professionals, but there’s a handful of young players with that type of puck skills and the effort to stick to it. That shows Lucius’ upside and some of his promise.

The other side of the coin is wondering if he will get there. Lucius’s draft+2 season in 2023-24 wasn’t impressive - he didn’t make any statistical growth in his sophomore season at Wisconsin from his 2022-23 freshman campaign (producing a matching 34 points in both). His future is in flux, having opted to transfer out of Wisconsin and down to Arizona State for 2024-25. He’s missed time in his draft year with injury, helping to contribute a fall into being a fourth round selection in 2022.

And yet, Cruz Lucius is a prospect worth having for the Penguins. Though Kyle Dubas has been working to change and improve the future, Pittsburgh doesn’t have many in their system with high-end upside and a lot of skill at the forward position.

Lucius will be intriguing down in the desert this season, and with a good year it should be about time for Pittsburgh to sign him to a professional contract when his college season ends next March. It will still take some time and development to have Lucius begin to step into the skates when Guentzel left the organization but this is one “lottery ticket” type of prospect to have in the organization as they attempt to rebuild their team.