In this segment, THN - Pittsburgh Penguins' editors Kelsey Surmacz and Hunter Hodies discuss the shifting landscape of roster-building in the NHL and whether or not it's a viable approach for Kyle Dubas and the Penguins to take.
Read about the Penguins' approach to roster-building and the state of their rebuild here:
Patrick Damp of Locked On Penguins joins Kelsey Surmacz and Hunter Hodies - editors of THN's Pittsburgh Penguins site - to discuss why the one-year contract extension for Evgeni Malkin makes sense for both the player and the team.
OTTAWA, CANADA - MARCH 26: Ville Koivunen #41 of the Pittsburgh Penguins skates against the Ottawa Senators on March 26, 2026 at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by André Ringuette/NHLI via Getty Images) | NHLI via Getty Images
The news reverberated out of no where when the Penguins signed Ville Koivunen for an eight-year contract and a healthy $4.0 million cap hit. No matter how you slice it, there’s been a big bet made on a player prior to proving he truly deserved it, which opens up obvious questions about the reasoning behind making such a move.
Let’s dive in more and gain a new perspective that could help understanding just what this contract really means.
Ville Koivunen has some positive signs under the hood, but an incredibly limited NHL track record. The Penguins are clearly betting on him leveling up to at least middle-six caliber over this contract. pic.twitter.com/VzUKR0g9y4
This projection, if anything, shows that it doesn’t take a lot to get a $4.0 million player in the expanding NHL salary cap world. Koivunen would only need to moderately improve his point production to start getting into justifying the money. It can be a hard pill to swallow given that he’s looked slow and not quite quick enough to be effective in the NHL so far, but there’s some signs that he might be able to get there. Whether or not he will, of course, is another debate.
The comparable players to Koivunen might be the most fascinating part to consider for just where he might end up as a finished product. There are a bunch of similar players with a wide variety of career tracks.
Some of Koivunen's comps add some weight to this — if he can follow the Jack Drury/Jesper Fast track or follow in Viktor Arvidsson's footsteps, this will age well. The best-case scenario is Troy Terry. But there's obviously a pretty wide range outcomes here. pic.twitter.com/iAkDvfhIqn
Locking down a potential Troy Terry, Jack Drury or Jesper Fast would be a big win for the Penguins, let alone if Koivunen had a Viktor Arvidsson future lined up. Up until age-22, Arvidsson was a great AHL scorer with six goals in 64 games – then he popped off for 31 in 2026-17 and has gone onto have a nice career as a mid-line support player.
The trade off, and where the risk comes in, is that this best case scenario is far from guaranteed. If Koivunen trends more to the “just a guy” or worse area of following in the footsteps of Benn Ferriero or Anders Bjork, suddenly the contract looks like a big problem for a long-lasting huge cap hit on a player that isn’t capable of making much of an impact at the NHL level. And that above grouping of player contains more misses than players deserving of a max term contract.
Then again, maybe it shouldn’t look that way to gain a true understanding of the perspective of why an unestablished player signed a massive contract.
There is quietly an off-ramp built in, via a wrinkle in the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement. Players under the age of 26 can be bought out for one-third of the contract, unlike the standard 2/3 that an older player gets in a buyout. If the Pens were to buy out Koivunen in the summer of 2028, they’d sidestep almost all of the issues created with this contract. This area probably wasn’t lost under Kyle Dubas, but surely now would have been highlighted by the Pens’ new consultant Brandon Pridham – who was involved in writing the CBA.
Something to note on this contract – if the Pens buy him out in summer 2028, they'll be on the hook for 12 seasons but the cap hit will never exceed $750K
there's essentially a "get out of jail free" baked in if he actually doesn't turn out to be a player in the next two seasons https://t.co/4i2dqxGSKw
Based on the backloaded structure for the salary components on the contract, it is prime for a buyout. Per PuckPedia, here is what it would look like if the Pens bought Koivunen out in 2028.
(Note: screen cutoff, the annual $729,167 penalty continues through the 2039-40 season)
Dead cap money in hockey is usually seen as a plague to be avoided, but the rising cap mitigates the impact in a way where perceptions will need to be updated. The NHL salary cap should be in the $125 million range in 2028-29 and figures to grow beyond that in future years. Taking a $479k penalty would be negligible at best for the Penguins. The whole thing would become more of a footnote and trivia point hanging around the margins than anything else – should things come to that.
Due to the economies of scale it can be difficult to compare the NHL to the NFL in a business sense, but carrying plenty of dead cap hits is a standard operating procedure in the NFL. The Steelers, for instance, are projected at holding $12.2 million in dead space in 2026 (though, of course, the NFL salary cap being over $300 million makes that a drop in the bucket). Such a shift in mindset could wind it’s way into normality in hockey as their caps begin to grow and allow for more tolerance of inefficient penalty cap hits.
Of course, a team isn’t going to be keen to make a bold move in signing an eight-year deal thinking they will have to buy it out in two seasons, yet practically that has to be remembered when thinking about the very essence of this contract. In essence, this could be seen as the Pens giving Koivunen $8 million for two years with a team option for five more in 2028 when they assess whether Koivunen is worth keeping or better off cutting losses for the most marginal of penalties. Such money at $8mx2 is still an excessive amount for Koivunen’s worth and value in the short-term, but one the Penguins can easily afford with all their current cap space to hedge a bet against the possibility that Koivunen justifies showing that he can be a capable NHL player from 2028-33.
Dubas even said he preferred to think of the deal as a ‘bet’, a bit of a departure from the standard signing of a young player to a max-length extension. By that outlook what is a long contract isn’t an eight-year promise to a core player but a risk the team was willing to do to see if it works.
If that happens, Pittsburgh would find themselves in a winning position to have a useful, prime-aged player locked up for what will be an exceedingly reasonable amount should Koivunen trend the way of a Jesper Fast type by 2028. It would be a home run and huge win if somehow Koivunen does even better than that and has Troy Terry or Viktor Arvidsson production at the age of 25 in a couple years. In the event it doesn’t work out and Koivunen’s trajectory falls short, the team has an option to bail and chalk the whole thing up to taking a chance that didn’t pay off with very minimal cost moving forward.
On Wednesday, the Penguins re-signed restricted free agent forward Ville Koivunen to an $32 million, eight-year contract that runs through the 2033-’34 season.
While long-term contracts are common in other professional sports, maximum-length, eight-year contracts in the NHL are typically restricted to players such as Igor Shesterkin, Nathan MacKinnon and Leon Draisaitl who have proven their worth.
Pittsburgh Penguins right wing Ville Koivunen (41) beats Tampa Bay Lightning center Jake Guentzel (59) to the puck. AP Photo/Chris O'Meara
Now, Koivunen joins the list with just 14 points in 47 games across parts of two seasons in the NHL.
The 23-year-old was acquired by the Penguins in the Jake Guentzel trade in 2024, after the Hurricanes drafted him in the second round of the 2021 NHL Draft.
What the Penguins and general manager Kyle Dubas are betting on is that Koivunen starts to live up to his offensive potential.
“With the cap going up significantly they don’t think $4 million is a lot of money, and with the eight-year term they’re betting on his upside”
Now Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas speaks to the media during an end-of-season availability in Toronto. AP
Prior to being drafted the 6-foot, 184-pound forward produced 113 points in 164 career games in Liiga, the top professional league in Sweden, and has added 98 points in 109 career games in the AHL since.
For Pittsburgh fans used to the likes of Sydney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, though, potential isn’t enough
“8 years!?!?” one fan said on X. “This is a crazy gamble for a guy who has been giving multiple opportunities on the big boy team and has been non productive and been sent down.”
Others weren’t as respectful asking ” WHAT THE F–K ARE WE DOING!?” or pointing out that Koivunen “got more years than points last season” under the Penguins post.
Part of the fans’ frustration could stem from their expectation of a big summer after making a return to the playoffs last year.
The Penguins were in trade rumors for some of the NHL’s top stars such as Jason Robertson and were thought to be looking into moving up in the draft, none of which came to fruition.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have handed out an unusually lucrative and lengthy contract extension to a young forward who has had limited NHL production so far in his career.
The team announced on Thursday, Aug. 6 that it had reached an eight-year contract with Ville Koivunen worth an average of $4 million per season. Koivunen was a restricted free agent.
The 23-year-old was drafted 51st overall by the Carolina Hurricanes in 2021 and was acquired by the Penguins in the deal that sent Jake Guentzel to Raleigh in 2024. He had seven assists in eight games after the trade.
Last season, Koivunen scored two goals and tallied five assists for the Penguins at the NHL level and had 13 goals and 28 assists in 34 games for their Wilkes-Barre/Scranton American Hockey League affiliate. He helped the AHL Penguins reach the conference finals with four goals and five assists in 15 playoff games.
It appears that late-season surge was enough to give general manager Kyle Dubas the confidence that Koivunen could be a significant contributor at an affordable rate for the foreseeable future. Koivunen, however, did not appear in any of the Penguins’ first-round Stanley Cup playoff games against the rival Philadelphia Flyers or score in any of his last nine NHL appearances.
Widening the lens, Koivunen’s total minor league resume does show some promise with 35 goals and 63 assists for a total of 98 points in 109 games between Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and the Chicago Wolves of the AHL.
The #Pens signed 23 y/o F Ville Koivunen to an 8 year $4M cap hit contract
Yr 1 850K Salary, 2M Signing Bonus Yr 2 900K/2M Yr 3 4.25M Yr 4 4.35M Yr 5 4.4M Yr 6-7 4.5M Yr 8 4.25M
Deal covers 4 UFA seasons, does not include any trade clauses
Still, the urgency to make such a commitment is a bit of a head scratcher for a team that has no other players signed past 2029-30 as franchise legends Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin wind down their careers.
While Dubas has repeatedly signaled a focus beyond their immediate window to win one more championship, he will face questions about whether Koivunen has earned this bet to be a big part of both the team’s present and distant future.
PITTSBURGH, PA - MARCH 24: Ville Koivunen #41 of the Pittsburgh Penguins in action during the game against the Colorado Avalanche at PPG PAINTS Arena on March 24, 2026 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images) | NHLI via Getty Images
If you had any doubts as to whether or not the Pittsburgh Penguins believe in Ville Koivunen, you can forget about it.
At least for now.
The Penguins showed everybody on Thursday morning that they do, in fact, believe in Koivunen, at least to some degree, by signing him an eight-year, $32 million contract extension with a $4 million salary cap number per season.
It’s a stunning bet that comes with some serious sticker shock.
It’s a max-term deal for a guy that’s played less than 50 games in the NHL and has scored only two goals.
You didn’t have that on your radar today. Nobody did. It is one of those deals where I had to read the press release five times and check the social media account with intense scrutiny to make sure it was real before I commented on it. Remember back when fake Twitter accounts posting fake trades and signings were a thing? The “Perguins” acquired every player in the NHL one summer.
I thought this was the Perguins.
But, no, it was in fact the actual Pittsburgh Penguins, and it is in fact a real contract.
So let’s try to make some sense of this.
It’s a gamble. That’s it. They are gambling that Koivunen realizes his potential, becomes an NHL regular, and slots somewhere into the middle of the lineup (or higher). If he does, it would become an insanely team-friendly contract in the future under the rising cap.
A $4 million cap-hit in 2026-27 would be the equivalent to a $3.3 million contract under the $88 million cap from a couple of years ago.
Under next year’s $113 million cap it would be the equivalent of a $3.1 million deal.
Assuming the cap goes up into the $120 million range after that, and every year beyond that, the value keeps going on that same trajectory. I don’t think you’re prepared for how small a $4 million cap hit is going to be in the future.
Honestly, the dollar amount isn’t even close to the main concern. Not now, and probably not even in the future. Not only because of the cap around the league and the way it is climbing, but also because the Penguins have almost nobody signed long-term. I said this about the Tommy Novak deal as well; this team has NOBODY signed. That doesn’t mean you just throw money at anybody, but at some point you’re going to have to fill out a roster and pay somebody. Even if Koivunen busts a $4 million cap hit in six or seven years is going to be on the low end of NHL contracts.
Koivuen also doesn’t need to be a top-line player for this contract to pay for itself long-term. I honestly think everybody is setting too high of a bar for what Koivunen has to be for this to be worth it. Your brain is still instinctively working on a sub-$90 million salary cap from the past two decades.
He really just needs to be a capable middle-six player.
If he becomes anything more than that, it’s a steal.
His ability to actually become even THAT level of player, as well as the term itself, are the big parts of the gamble.
In some ways, I can kind of see why the Penguins have that level of faith in Koivunen.
There is obvious talent. He is still only 23 years old. He has been wildly productive in the American Hockey League. He is also coming off a season where he posted some of the best underlying and possession-metrics in the league. And that is not an exaggeration or hyperbole.
There were 397 forwards that played at least 450 minutes in the NHL this season.
Koivunen ranked 16th in that group in expected goal share, 25th in total shot attempt share, 11th in scoring chance share, 26th in high-danger scoring chance share and 84th in expected goals per 60 minutes.
He played a lot of sheltered minutes in terms of offensive zone starts, but he didn’t really have the highest quality linemates at times. Even so, when he was on the ice the puck was typically in the offensive zone and they were typically out-chancing their opponents.
It just never translated into actual goals. For him, or the team. And that became frustrating. But it’s also still a ridiculously small sample size.
The biggest thing I kept going back to is he always just seemed to be a half-second slow in releasing his shot. There were countless times he had himself in a good spot, but ended up having his shot blocked or deflected away because he couldn’t get it off in time. Maybe that’s a red flag for his ability to turn his AHL production into NHL production.
But there is still something to be said for being in the right spots, and in potential scoring spots.
Honestly, given that profile, his age, talent and the numbers, he is probably the exact type of player the Penguins would be looking to trade for if he played on another team. He fits that profile of a talented player with strong underlyings that simply hasn’t put everything together to produce results.
In this case the Penguins are not gambling future draft picks, they are gambling future salary cap space.
I am not sure where Koivunen slots in this season. I am not sure if there is another trade to happen that moves out a forward to open a more secure roster spot for him. I also don’t know how his career is going to develop, if he will keep posting great underlying numbers, or if it will turn into actual, tangible production. The Penguins seem to at least have some level of faith that he is going to take some sort of a step forward, if not this season, than in the seasons ahead.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Penguins made a significant investment in their future on Thursday, signing forward Ville Koivunen to an eight-year contract worth $4 million annually.
Koivunen, 23, was a restricted free agent. The deal signals Koivunen is an important part of the franchise as it navigates the twilight of the careers of icons Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang.
The Finnish-born Koivunen, acquired in a March 2024 trade with Carolina that sent Jake Guentzel to the Hurricanes, had two goals and five assists in 39 games with Pittsburgh during the 2025-26 season.
Koivunen excelled in the playoffs for Wilkes-Barre, Pittsburgh's American Hockey League affiliate, collecting four goals and five assists in nine games to help the club to the conference finals.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have re-signed Ville Koivunen to a massive contract.
They announced on Thursday that Koivunen has agreed to an eight-year deal with an average annual value of $4 million. Koivunen was the final restricted free agent for the Penguins to sign.
The Penguins have re-signed restricted free agent forward Ville Koivunen to an eight-year contract.
It's a contract that nobody saw coming, especially after finishing the 2025-26 season with only two goals and seven points in 39 games. He also spent time with the AHL's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, compiling 13 goals and 41 points in 34 games.
He plays super well in the AHL, but hasn't been able to translate that play to the NHL. The Penguins are obviously betting that he will during this deal and that he'll be a big part of their future.
His underlying metrics have been strong, but the production hasn't been there. He'll have an opportunity to change that this season, especially if he makes the team out of training camp.
Koivunen was acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes in the Jake Guentzel trade back in 2024. He has compiled two goals and 14 points in 47 NHL games.
PITTSBURGH, PA - MARCH 07: Pittsburgh Penguins right wing Ville Koivunen (41) skates during the third period in the NHL game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers on March 7, 2026, at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, PA. (Photo by Jeanine Leech/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Well, this one came out of no where. The Penguins announced today that Ville Koivunen has been re-signed to an eight year contract with a $4.0 million annual average value.
The Penguins have re-signed restricted free agent forward Ville Koivunen to an eight-year contract.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have re-signed restricted free agent forward Ville Koivunen to an eight-year contract, it was announced today by President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Kyle Dubas.
The contract runs through the 2033-34 season and carries an average annual value of $4 million.
Koivunen, 23, spent the 2025-26 season split between Pittsburgh and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (AHL). With Pittsburgh, he notched seven points (2G-5A) in 39 games and also had 13 goals and 28 assists for 41 points in 34 games with WBS. He led the WBS Penguins in assists (28), ranked second in points (41) and had the highest points-per-game average on the team (1.21). Koivunen was named AHL Player of the Month for February after notching 16 points (6G-10A) in 11 games. In the Calder Cup Playoffs, he was tied for second on WBS with nine points (4G-5A) in 15 games, helping them reach the Conference Finals.
The 6-foot, 184-pound forward has recorded 14 points (2G-12A) in 47 games across parts of two seasons in the NHL with Pittsburgh. In the AHL, Koivunen has 98 points (35G-63A) in 109 career games, split between Chicago and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He also notched 13 points (5G-8A) in 19 career Calder Cup playoff games. He was named to the 2025 AHL All-Rookie Team, and was the January 2025 AHL Rookie of the Month.
Prior to coming to North America, Koivunen spent three seasons with Kärpät in Liiga, the top professional league in Finland, from 2021-24. The forward had 113 points (45G-68A) in 164 career games with Kärpät which was the highest point total by a player on the team in that span.
The Oulu, Finland native has represented his home country at various tournaments in his career. He skated in the 2021 World Under-18 Championship and twice at the World Junior Championship in 2022, where he helped his team win a silver medal, and 2023 where he served as an alternate captain of Team Finland.
There’s certainly a lot to digest with this one. Koivunen struggled to find the scoresheet in the NHL in 2025-26, scoring only two goals and adding seven assists in 39 games. His production was much better at the AHL level with 41 points in 34 games. Below the stats, Koivunen did shine in territorial play, posting some of the best puck possession numbers on the team last year.
That left questions about where Koivunen, 23, might fit in the future.
This contract goes to answer some of that. The Penguins have made a big bet that Koivunen will be a part of their future. As of September 16, when the new CBA officially kicks in, the max length of a contract is seven years, they decided to make the longest bet still possible it will happen.
On one hand, that could pay off. James Mirtle at The Athletic speculated that the revenue boom in the NHL could lead to a $150-160 million upper limit of the salary cap in 2031-32. Koivunen will still be on that contract during those latter years of expected massive growth in the cap and would be coming in at as low as 2.5% of the cap total.
From that perspective, having a skilled winger on a potential bargain could be beneficial for the Pens down the road. They certainly have enough cap space in the next few years where even if Koivunen doesn’t amount to a $4 million player that he won’t hand-cuff their situation or prevent any other moves that they may wish to make.
On the other hand, this is a complete departure of how the Pens have been building. In recent years Pittsburgh haggled with impending restricted free agents like Connor Dewar and Philip Tomasino over a few hundred thousands dollars — and even let them become unrestricted free agents. To hand out eight years at a massive salary increase is a big change from what has been established.
Prior to last week’s Tommy Novak contract extension last week, the Pens had no forwards under contract for the 2029-30 season, and only three (Novak, Egor Chinakhov and Blake Lizotte) under contract for 2028-29. The team had moved into a strong direction to not give out much term to players that they’ve signed in the past few years.
Perhaps they didn’t have any candidates to go long with. Koivunen didn’t seem like a strong one either, but the team clearly thinks this player has a lot of achievable upside and will help them for years. It’s a bold bet that could have positive or negative consequences. Whether this juice will be worth the squeeze will be a very interesting area to track in the years to come.
That sound you may hear is the cash register for Emil Heineman and Simon Holmstrom's eventual contract extensions next summer, as they're both set to become RFAs following the end of the 2026-27 season.
If the New York Islanders had plans on extending both long-term, they both just got undoubtedly more expensive.
Koivunen, 23, played 39 NHL games this past season, and has a total of 47 career NHL games.
In 2025-26, he posted two goals and seven points. In his career, he has just five more assists, a total line of 47 GP, 2G, 10A, 12Pts.
It's a massive, massive contract from the Penguins. While the cap is rising exponentially and indefinitely, given an unproven RFA eight years and a solid enough cap hit is a big bet on the player's future.
Koivunen's now signed until he's age 31, and if he hits as a solid middle-six forward, it'll age fantastic for Pittsburgh.
Meanwhile, for the Islanders, it's not the best of news. Heineman, 24, just potted 22 goals and 31 points this year. Holmstrom's posted 39 goals and 86 points in the last two seasons.
Heineman on a long-term contract could point right to that Koivunen deal and command at least another $1.5-2 million annually on an eight-year deal, minimum. If the Islanders wait, and Heineman posts another 20+ goal season while becoming more well-rounded offensively, it could become even more expensive.
Holmstrom, meanwhile, has excelled at both even strength and on the penalty kill. His biggest deficiency has been early-season consistency. If and when Holmstrom puts that together, he's an easy 25+ goal, 55-60+ point player who can play in all situations.
A long-term contract for that will cost double to two-and-a-half times what Koivunen just signed for.
While Koivunen is not the best comparable for either player, what he did just do is raise the bar entirely for RFA forwards.
Heineman and Holmstrom are better players than Koivunen, and thus will command a higher salary AAV if they signed today.
The Utah Mammoth’s decision to part ways with Maksymilian Szuber this summer opened the door for the young defenseman to find a new opportunity in Montreal.
That opportunity became official Monday, with the Canadiens announcing that they had reached an agreement with Szuber on a one-year, two-way contract for the 2026-27 season.
According to PuckPedia, the deal carries an $850,000 NHL cap hit. Szuber will earn $135,000 at the AHL level and is guaranteed at least $175,000 regardless of where he spends the season.
For Utah, the signing puts a bow on the next chapter for a defenseman who spent the past three seasons within the organization after originally joining the franchise when it was still based in Arizona.
The 23-year-old Szuber was selected by the Arizona Coyotes in the sixth round of the 2022 NHL Draft, going 163rd overall. The 6-foot-3, left-shot defenseman developed in Germany with EHC Munich before making the jump to North America in 2023.
He ultimately became a dependable presence for the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners, appearing in exactly 200 regular-season games over three seasons. During that span, Szuber produced 25 goals and 62 assists for 87 points while accumulating 162 penalty minutes.
His NHL experience, however, remained limited to a single appearance with Arizona during the 2023-24 season.
Szuber showed enough promise to remain part of the organization’s defensive depth, but the Mammoth’s blue-line picture became increasingly crowded. The emergence of prospects such as Dmitri Simashev and Maveric Lamoureux eventually pushed Szuber further down the organizational depth chart.
That ultimately contributed to his departure from Utah.
The Mammoth traded Szuber to the Montreal Canadiens in June, receiving the rights to forward Joshua Roy in return. Roy, 22, became the centerpiece of the deal from Utah’s perspective as the organization continued reshaping its prospect pool.
Now, Szuber gets a fresh opportunity with Montreal.
The Canadiens are coming off a season in which they advanced all the way to the Eastern Conference Final, and their blue-line competition figures to be intense heading into training camp. Szuber will have to fight for an opportunity at the NHL level, but his size, left-handed shot and experience in the AHL give him a legitimate foundation to build upon.
His new contract also gives him some financial security while providing Montreal with a low-cost option capable of providing organizational depth.
For Utah, meanwhile, Szuber’s signing is another reminder of how quickly the Mammoth’s roster and prospect landscape continues to evolve. A player who spent three years developing within the organization is now moving on, while the asset acquired in his departure gives Utah another young piece to evaluate moving forward.
Montreal Canadiens forward Oliver Kapanen had a solid 2025-26 season for the Original Six club. In 82 games this past campaign, he posted 22 goals, 15 assists, and 37 points. While he has held off the scoresheet in his seven playoff appearances for Montreal, it was still a successful year for the skilled forward.
Now, Kapanen will be looking to continue to develop in the right direction next season. If he can take his offensive game to a new level and continue to build on his two-way play, he could cement himself as a very important part of the Canadiens' forward group.
When noting that Kapanen is still just 23 years old and only really getting his NHL career started, there is no question that he has the potential to hit a new level for the Canadiens in 2026-27. The young center has a lot of upside, and it would be significant for the Canadiens if he can improve further next season.
It is going to be interesting to see what kind of season Kapanen can put together for the Canadiens in 2026-27. Due to his high potential, it is clear that he is a young forward who fans should be watching extra closely.
Marko Daňo, an Austrian-born Slovak, was drafted by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round, 27th overall, at the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.
Daňo made his NHL debut in 2014 and played 35 games. He scored 8 goals, totaled 21 points, and was a plus-12 in his first NHL season. It seemed that Marko Daňo had arrived and was ready to be a good player for Columbus. That was until the following season.
On June 30, 2015, before he even started his sophomore season, he was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks along with Artem Anisimov, Jeremy Morin, Corey Tropp, and Columbus' 4th-round pick in exchange for Brandon Saad, Michael Paliotta, and Alex Broadhurst. He ended his time in Chicago by totaling 2 points in 13 games.
Less than one year later, Daňo was traded again, this time to the Winnipeg Jets. He played a total of 82 games over three seasons with the Jets, scoring 10 goals and netting 22 points.
Winnipeg would waive him in October of 2018, when he was then claimed by Colorado. Just over a month later, the Avs put him on waivers again, where he would be claimed by Winnipeg.
In 2019, he was not tendered an offer by the Jets. He signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Blue Jackets on August 8th. He played three games for Columbus that season but spent most of his time in Cleveland. He played 46 games for the Monsters, scored 4 goals, and totaled 19 points.
In his AHL career, he played in 199 games and had 102 points. During his time playing for the Springfield Falcons, which was the CBJ's AHL team in 2014 & 2015, as well as the Cleveland Monsters, Daňo scored 17 goals and had 44 total points.
Daňo left for Europe in 2021, where he remains to this day. He has played for HC Oceláři Třinec since 2021 and has also played for Czechia in the Olympics and World Cup.
There are 56 days left until opening night at NWA, and Marko Daňo could've been one of those players who would've done well in Columbus for years. He was traded for Brandon Saad, who was then traded back to Chicago for Artemi Panarin a few years later. So, in the end, the deal sending Daňo to Chicago was definitely worth it.
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The Buffalo Sabres have been considered to have one of the deepest prospect pools in the NHL, which is in part due to them selecting high in recent drafts because of their not qualifying for the playoffs. The Sabres have displayed an eye for talent, and the organization’s developmental model has begun to yield results, with 2023 first rounder Zach Benson making an impact in the playoffs, and 2024 top pick Konsta Helenius appearing as one of the AHL’s top prospects the last two seasons.
Leading up to the opening of training camp in mid-September, we will look at the club's top 40 prospects. These players are all 25 years old or younger, whose rights are currently held by the Sabres or are on AHL or NHL deals, and have played less than 82 NHL games.
Will the Sabres add scoring help before the beginning of training camp?
32. Sean Keohane - D (Harvard - NCAA)
Keohane was selected in the sixth round of the 2023 NHL Draft and is a long-range prospect with impressive physical tools. A native of the Boston area, the blueliner played at Dexter Southfield Prep in Massachusetts and was slated to play a full season in the USHL with Tri-City before heading to Harvard, but after 16 games, he shifted to West Kelowna in the BCHL, where he posted 14 points (6 goals, 8 assists) in 25 games.
Elite Prospects indicates that Keohane “flashes nuanced defensive skating, allowing him to push an absurd amount of aggression defending the rush. He's physical, jumping off the net front to punish attackers on the end boards and tries to clog lanes with anticipation-based reads, pushing nastiness after the whistle.”
The 6’4”, 205 lb. defenseman had two assists in 11 games for Harvard as a freshman and in an increased role with the Crimson last season, he posted three points (2 goals, 1 assist) in 34 games. The 21-year-old has holes in his game at both ends of the ice that could be honed with another two years at Harvard, which has traditionally done a good job at developing prospects, but those hopes may have taken a hit after head coach Ted Donato departed for an NHL job with New Jersey.
PITTSBURGH, PA - APRIL 11: Pittsburgh Penguins right wing Egor Chinakhov (59) looks on during the second period in the NHL game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals on April 11, 2026, at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, PA. (Photo by Jeanine Leech/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
We continue our look at some over/unders for the 2026-27 Pittsburgh Penguins, and today we turn our attention to their secondary players. The players on that list include: Egor Chinakhov, Rickard Rakell, Tommy Novak, Elmer Soderblom and Samuel Girard. They are not new players, they are not among the Penguins’ youngest players, they are not quite depth players, and they are not the Penguins’ top core players. But they are still players that should be expected to play a significant role and produce this season.
Here is a quick look at the other over/unders we have looked at so far:
Let’s get into today’s players and potential numbers.
Egor Chinakhov: Over/under 28.5 goals
There were a lot of big (and surprising) developments for the 2025-26 Penguins, and one of the most significant was the in-season acquisition of Egor Chinakhov from the Columbus Blue Jackets. It was not only his acquisition that made a difference, it was also the way that he arrived and immediately started to reach his full potential as a player, both with and without the puck. He was one of their best and most impactful players in the second half of the season, and looked like the player Columbus had always hoped he could be.
He finished the season with a career-high 21 goals and 42 total points between the two teams, including 18 goals and 36 total points in his 43 games with the Penguins.
Those numbers with the Penguins come out to a 34-goal, 68-point pace over 82 games.
That is first-line production, and when you add in how improved he was defensively he looked like a potential star.
The question is what is he going to do over a full-season?
Was that performance with the Penguins a sign of what he can, and will, be? Or was it simply a hot streak where everything clicked for a talented, but still inconsistent player for a brief period of time?
I think the answer to that question resides somewhere in the middle.
He’s clearly better than he showed in Columbus, and very likely needed a fresh start and a different environment with different voices leading him to start reaching that potential.
But I also don’t know if I expect him to spend a full season shooting over 17 percent. His shot is objectively great, but there might be some regression that comes there. I could see a situation unfolding where he might be the same player, or perhaps even improve, while not scoring goals at the exact same pace as he did a year ago with the Penguins.
With that said, 28.5 seems like a good target line. It’s still very good. It’s still very productive. But it might just be a little bit of a slower pace.
Rickard Rakell: Over/under 30.5 goals
I feel like Rickard Rakell’s time with the Penguins has been a little underappreciated. He had one down year in 2023-24, but other than that has scored like a top-line player and owns what has become a pretty team-friendly contract under the rising salary cap.
He’s good. He is one of the few positive things that can be associated with the Ron Hextall era.
He also showed this past season he can be pretty versatile and held his own at center when the Penguins needed it.
In his four seasons with the Penguins his 82-game goal paces have been 28, 17.5, 35 and 32.8. That’s pretty good, and it’s not hard to spot the outlier. His past two seasons have been outstanding from an offensive perspective, and especially as a finisher.
He is going to be 33 years old this season, so there is a chance he starts to slow down, but after scoring at a 32-goal pace in back-to-back seasons I am not sure he is going to just suddenly fall off the map.
The big thing that might limit him is the potential for injury as he has missed at least 10 games in two of the past four years. But if he stays healthy? Thirty goals should definitely be on the table.
Tommy Novak: Over/under 15 minutes of ice-time per game
At this point we have a pretty good idea of what Novak is as a player. He’s a very capable middle-six forward that can play a variety of roles up and down the lineup, and is probably going to score you between 15-20 goals and 40-45 points.
He is talented, but a little inconsistent.
He has obvious skill, but sometimes it leaves you wanting more.
He is a good player, but there is a very obvious ceiling on what he is.
The Penguins also seem to really like him, as evidence by the fact he just a received a three-year contract extension.
For his over/under I am focussing more on role and usage than production, and I am wondering if he takes on a bigger role than before.
For his career he has averaged 13:45 of ice-time per game.
With the Penguins, that number has gone up a little to 14:15 per game.
But over the last two months of the 2025-26 season, and into the playoffs, his ice-time started to reach levels it has never reached at any point of his career, topping 16 minutes per game.
Prior to those two months to close out the 2025-26 season, he only had three other months in his NHL career where he averaged more than 15 minutes per game, and one of those months came in a month where he played just five games.
With Evgeni Malkin now looking like more of a winger than a center, and with Ben Kindel still only being 19 years old, I wonder if we see Novak take on a more traditional second-line center role from the start of the season and get a slight boost in his ice-time.
Elmer Soderblom: Over/under 10.5 goals
Soderblom was another younger, mid-20s player that the Penguins rolled the dice on. Just as was the case with players like Chinakhov and Novak (and some of this past offseason’s additions), Soderblom was a player that posted strong rate and per-minute stats with his previous team, but never really had a chance to show what he could do with a consistent role.
After joining the Penguins he scored five goals with 10 total points in 20 games, while still posting great underlying numbers.
While his raw box score numbers for his career do not jump off the page, he has still averaged 12 goals per 82 games.
He has obvious skill and tremendous size, and I think there is still some untapped potential in him as a player. He also might get a bigger role than he ever had with the Detroit Red Wings. All of that, combined with a new 84-game season, could put him in a position to reach double-digit goals in a full season for the first time in his career.
Samuel Girard: Over/under plus-6.5 rating
Sam Girard did not have a consistently great debut with the Penguins, but I am not giving up on him still having some sort of positive impact for the Penguins.
He is still only 28 years old, has a track record of success in the NHL, and for as much as he struggled at times with the Penguins he still finished as a plus-5 after coming over in a trade from the Colorado Avalanche.
He has been a plus-6 or better in four of his NHL seasons, including this past season.
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