Buccaneers build 50-man protected list, tender Christopher Pinko

Des Moines added 31 players to its organization and completed a 50-man protected list, then gave up its Phase I Round 1 pick to lock in Christopher Pinko before the draft board could move any further. That is not a patch job. It is a roster blueprint built around age spread, position depth and a long runway to the 2026-27 season.

The USHL’s draft rules explain why the total matters. Phase I was for 2010-born players, Phase II covered the 2009 through 2006 birth years, and teams kept selecting in Phase II until their protected list reached 50 players. The draft order was set by the previous regular-season standings, with the lowest finisher picking first, so every choice carried the weight of where a team landed a year earlier.

Des Moines used its full allotment in Phase I, making 15 selections and spreading them across the lineup: 10 forwards, four defensemen and one goaltender. That split says the Buccaneers were not hunting a single quick fix. They were loading up on bodies everywhere, the kind of draft volume that gives a staff room to sort out who rises, who develops and who eventually sticks.

Pinko was the clear exception to the wait-and-see approach. The Buccaneers signed the Brooklyn, New York native to a tender agreement ahead of the 2026-27 season, and he had spent the previous three seasons with the North Jersey Avalanche AAA program. At the time of the agreement, Pinko led North Jersey with 45 points in 18 games, including 15 goals and 30 assists at the Atlantic Youth Hockey League level. He was one of seven players in the league to sign a tender that season, a sign that Des Moines was willing to spend real draft capital on a forward it did not want to risk losing.

That is the strategic tell in all of this. The 31-name haul looks like depth stocking, but the Pinko move pushes the story toward succession planning. Des Moines did not simply fill slots; it used one of the offseason’s most valuable shortcuts to secure a young scorer it clearly views as part of the next wave. For a club building a protected list by birth year, position and upside, that is how an identity takes shape long before the puck drops on a new season.