Pensburgh Top 25 under 25: #23 – Isaac Belliveau

In his first professional season, former fifth-round pick Isaac Belliveau is spending most of his time in Wheeling, but he has a chance at a promotion in the 2024-25 season and the Penguins are counting on him to take the next step in his development.

Graduates and retired players from last year’s list
The best of the rest
25th place: Raivis Ansons
24th place: Kirill Tankov

23rd place: Isaac Belliveau, Germany
Ranking 2023: 13th place
Age: 22 (November 26, 2002)
Acquired through: 2021 NHL Draft (Round 5 – No. 54 overall)
Height/Weight: 1.88 m, 84 kg

Elite Prospects Resume

After four years of junior hockey in the QMJHL, defenseman Isaac Belliveau made the transition to full-time professional hockey in 2023-24, spending most of his first season in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ organization of the ECHL with the Wheeling Nailers. Belliveau played briefly in the AHL, playing two games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, but he played the rest of the season in Wheeling.

This time last year, Belliveau was ranked 13th in our annual countdown, but this year he slipped sharply, falling ten spots and becoming almost unpromising in the Penguins’ weak system.

According to Seth Rorabaugh of Trib Live, the fact that Belliveau spent the majority of his season in the ECHL wasn’t necessarily a reflection of his play or the organization’s future prospects. It was more a reflection of Kyle Dubas and the developmental style he brought to the Penguins.

From Trib Live:

Because Dubas has a background in developing the game, having played with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League and the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League, he recognizes the value of playing time at lower levels. With the Penguins, that approach was evident in how many of the team’s most promising young players were assigned to the Wheeling Nailers.

To open the season, five players with NHL contracts were stationed in northern West Virginia. It is believed to be the first time the Nailers have had so many players with NHL contracts on the roster since they became an affiliate of the Penguins in 1998.

Belliveau was one of those who ended up with the Nailers. Instead of being a semi-regular backup on the veteran-laden Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Belliveau got plenty of playing time in his first professional season and was the leading scorer of all Nailers defensemen.

All in all, Belliveau had a solid first professional season with the Nailers and will look to make the jump to the AHL in 2024-25, with a number of last season’s AHL players moving on in the offseason and making room on the roster for promotions within the organization, especially for guys like Belliveau.

The upcoming season will represent another opportunity for Belliveau to make an impact, continue his development as a professional and hopefully climb further up the Penguins’ system.

It’s no secret that the organization is hungry for young talent, and developing that talent has been a focus of Dubas’s, not just here but when he was in Toronto. Belliveau is exactly the type of player the Penguins must hope to land as a late-round draft pick to replenish the talent pool as they transition into a rebuild.