Denver junior forward Tristan Broz has signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins beginning in 2024-25.
He will spend the remainder of the 2023-24 campaign with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on an amateur tryout.
Broz registered career highs this past season with 16 goals, 24 assists and 40 points. He finished tied for third on the Pioneers in goals and was fourth in points while helping the program win its NCAA-record 10th national championship last weekend.
The Bloomington, Minn., native was third on Denver with four game-winning goals and scored twice in overtime during the NCAA tournament, the first Pioneer ever to accomplish the feat and earned all-tournament honors for both the Frozen Four and Northeast Regional. He tallied in double-overtime on March 28 in the regional semifinals against Massachusetts in the longest tournament game in DU hockey history and also scored in extra time in the national semifinals on April 11 versus Boston University.
Broz was Denver’s top-line center for much of the final eight weeks of the campaign and recorded 19 points (seven goals, 12 assists) in the last 17 games. He finished the year with a plus-20 rating and nine power-play points (two goals, seven assists) as well.
He matched a career high with four points twice in 2023-24, recording two goals and two assists on Jan. 6 vs. Niagara and had a goal and personal-best three assists on Feb. 24 against Miami. He had 11 multi-point outings during the campaign, including a three-point performance with a trio of helpers on March 2 at St. Cloud State.
He tied a career long with a five-game point streak from Nov. 17-Dec. 1, 2023 (three goals, five assists) and set a personal-high assist streak with a four-game run from Nov. 17-25, 2023. Broz appeared in his 100th collegiate game on Jan. 26 at North Dakota and finished his NCAA career with 79 points on 32 goals and 47 assists in 119 career games.
Beginning his collegiate tenure at Minnesota, Broz transferred to Denver in the summer of 2022 after posting 11 points (five goals, six assists) and helping the Gophers reach the Frozen Four in 2021-22. He posted then-career highs the next season with the Pioneers by registering 10 goals and 18 assists in 2022-23.
He tallied his first career overtime goal and first game-winner at Denver on Dec. 9, 2022 at Minnesota Duluth and had a goal and three assists on Dec. 17, 2022 vs. Lindenwood. Broz recorded a career-high four goals — including his final three coming consecutively in the third period — on Jan. 14, 2023 vs. Miami for the first four-goal game by a Denver player since Kevin Doell on Feb. 21, 2003 vs. Michigan Tech.
Broz was selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round (58th overall) of the 2021 NHL Draft.
