Ville Koivunen was one of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s top players over the last two seasons, and Pittsburgh is betting big on his potential, signing him to an eight-year contract on Thursday.
Gene J. Puskar | AP file photo
Ville Koivunen was one of the AHL’s most productive forwards during his stints in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last season.
On Thursday, parent club Pittsburgh made a huge bet that he can stick in the NHL for years to come.
The Penguins signed Koivunen to an eight-year contract — the maximum length allowed — worth $4 million annually.
Most restricted free agents in Koivunen’s position, a 23-year-old still looking to lock down a spot with the NHL club, end up signing a short-term deal before establishing themselves.
But with the market undergoing a major overhaul this summer — 20-year-old San Jose Sharks star Macklin Celebrini just became the league’s highest-paid player on a 5-year, $94 million deal — the Penguins elected to take a different approach.
“There were many factors that led to us going down this path,” team president and general manager Kyle Dubas said in statements to Pittsburgh media via email. “But the primary factor was watching the way the market evolved over the season and especially the summer and trying to best plan for the future of the Penguins.”
Pittsburgh was hopeful Koivunen would become a key cog for the future when he came over in a trade from the Carolina Hurricanes for All-Star winger Jake Guentzel in March 2024.
He became a solid contributor in his first season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, racking up 56 points (21 goals, 35 assists) in 63 games in 2024-25. He earned a call-up to Pittsburgh at the end of that season, playing eight games and recording seven assists.
That led to Koivunen making Pittsburgh’s opening night roster last October, landing a major opportunity to fill in for an injured Bryan Rust on a line with future Hall-of-Famer Sidney Crosby. But Koivunen struggled during those opening games and was sent down to the AHL to work through things.
Koivunen took the demotion well and, over the next few weeks, rocketed to the top of the league in scoring as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton had the hottest start to the season.
He ended up splitting the campaign between the two leagues. The AHL results were impressive (41 points in 34 games) but the NHL numbers were not (seven points in 39 games). Koivunen also helped Wilkes-Barre/Scranton reach the Eastern Conference Finals, scoring four goals and five assists in 15 playoff games.
One area of concern for Koivunen was that he was getting knocked off the puck too easily at the NHL level, and Dubas said Thursday that has been a focused area of improvement.
“Over the course of the season, Ville showed excellent commitment in Wilkes-Barre to doing extra work, and he has doubled down on that this summer,” Dubas said. “He did not return to his home in Oulu (Finland), instead working to set up a new training program in Helsinki. He then informed us that he would be returning to Pittsburgh in mid-August to join the growing number of players we have training here in the summer.
“His actions gave us assurance, and our staff will continue to push him on and off the ice.”
Koivunen’s new contract would seem to signal that his days in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton are over. But as the roster stands now a month before training camp, Pittsburgh has a logjam of forwards on NHL contracts. Even if a trade or two alleviates that, it isn’t a lock that Koivunen will have a spot in the lineup when the season opens.
“He will still have to earn everything,” Dubas said. “As we have shown over the last few years, a long-term contract does not mean you are given anything in Pittsburgh. He will need to earn his roster spot and opportunity in training camp. He will need to finish the summer strong, show gains in power and speed on the ice in training camp and exhibition games.”
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