PensBurgh Top 25 Under 25: No. 7 Tanner Howe

A little spark plug that could go a long way for the Penuins

A new 2024 draftee who plays with an attitude and an edge debuts high on our list of the top young players in the Penguins’ organization.

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
#13: Emil Pieniniemi
#12: John Ludvig
#11: Mikhail Ilyin
#10: Harrison Brunicke
#9: Tristan Broz
#8: Sam Poulin

#7: Tanner Howe, LW
2023 Ranking: N/A
Age: 18 (Nov. 28, 2005)
Acquired Via: 2024 NHL Draft (Round 2 - No. 46 overall)
Height/Weight: 5’10”, 183 pounds

Elite prospects resume

Dobber Hockey described Tanner Howe:

Feisty, undersized winger with great hands, motor and defensive ability. Refining his puck skills could land him a middle-six, two-way role.

His former junior teammate Connor Bedard (he of 2023 first overall stature) put it in more of layman’s terms to The Athletic:

“On the ice, he’s a bit of a prick,” Bedard told The Athletic of Howe, laughing.

Bedard also talked about the time Howe started a brawl with Moose Jaw.

Howe’s bulldog mentality pops out all over the ice at the WHL level. Bedard

This tweet of Howe going wild got a lot of play around the NHL draft, and is fun enough to get some more shine.

A small left hand forward who loves to stir it up and has some skill to boot, it’s no surprise who Howe has modeled his game after. Take it from Regina head coach Brad Herauf:

“I’ll never forget before the game, I met with him and I was asking him, ‘Who’s your favorite player? Who do you emulate your game after?’ And he goes, ‘Brad Marchand,’” Herauf said. “He was like, ‘I just like to be competitive, like every game, just to make sure that I’m in the game and the other team knows I’m in the game.’”

As time as gone by, Howe now incorporates some Matthew Tkachuk in there as well as an emotional but skilled forward will gives it his all.

Howe’s drive extends off the ice. He’s the captain of Regina now and has those intangible leadership traits dripping off of him. As he put it:

“In a big way, what I do is leading by example. I think practicing and giving it 110 (percent) every day. And I mean, in the gym, first guy to the rink and last leave, just little things like that. I think being a young captain in the league, you kind of have to do that. You got to be doing the right thing when no one’s watching.”

Howe has come a long way to prove himself. At age-15, he was only a fourth round draft pick in the WHL. By 18, he was a second round draft pick across the world in the NHL draft.

Now that he’s drafted (and signed to an NHL contract), Howe will be on the typical Canadian junior path. He’s back in Regina for 2024-25 and going to keep developing and on his track for a while. Howe will be involved in Pittsburgh’s camps and coming through the ranks with some patience required given his age, but sooner than later he’ll be ready to work his way up the ladder as a pro that Pittsburgh hopes can be a worthy successor to the Marchand/Tkachuk legacy of a competitive little rat that opponents think is a prick to play against.