A Coquitlam hockey player with a soccer pedigree is now a Pittsburgh Penguin.
Ben Kindel signed a three-year entry-level contract with the NHL team on Tuesday, July 8, after the Penguins selected the 18-year-old forward 11th overall in June’s 2025 Entry Draft.
Kindel’s dad, Steve, is a former Canadian national soccer team player who also played eight seasons with the Vancouver Whitecaps and two seasons with the old Vancouver 86ers of the A-League.
Kindel’s mother is Sara Maglio, who played for the women’s Whitecaps from 2001-05 and made four appearances with Canada’s national women’s team, including at the 1999 FIFA women’s World Cup.
His younger sister, Lacey, is an accomplished soccer player with the Vancouver Rise FC’s academy program. She also represented Canada at a qualifying tournament for the FIFA U-17 World Cup that will be played in Morocco Oct. 17-Nov. 8.
Ben Kindel, a right winger, spent the past two seasons with the Calgary Hitmen in the Western Hockey League where he amassed 159 points in 133 games, including a franchise-record 23-game point streak that spanned more than two months from Nov.8 to Jan. 12.
Not to be outdone on the international stage by the rest of his family, Kindel also played five games for Canada’s gold medal-winning team at the 2025 IIHF U-18 World Championship in Texas in the spring. He scored a goal and added six assists.
“You see the hockey sense, you see the playmaking ability,” said Pittsburgh’s director of player development, Tom Kotsopoulos, of Kindel’s performance at the team’s recent development camp. “I think he’s a kid who’s willing to put in the work, and he knows what he has to do.”
Kindel said he’s excited to be part of a team that’s built around veteran superstar Sydney Crosby.
“Obviously, they have a player such as Sidney Crosby and a lot of other great players that have been here for a long time,” he said of the Penguins’ longtime captain. “But I think like looking up to a guy like Sid for his passion for the game, his loyalty to the Penguins, and his hockey sense and the way he plays the game the right way.”
Kindel told Penguins’ team reporter Michelle Crechiolo while he grew up in a soccer household, his dad was a big hockey fan and he fell in love with the game as soon as he started playing.
Still, Kindel added, he gleaned valuable lessons from his parents’ soccer passion.
“Do everything 100 per cent, no matter what you’re doing, Then, play with passion every time you step out on the field or the rink.”
MARIO BARTEL 