It has been a couple of days since Ville Koivunen’s eight-year, $32 million extension lit up the hockey conversation, and the move still doesn’t sit right with me.
This is one thing if you’re paying up for a true can’t-miss prospect, the kind of player you already know is headed for stardom. Leon Draisaitl had the same two-goal rookie line that Koivunen posted, but even then, you could see where Draisaitl was going.
With Koivunen, that certainty just isn’t there. As the Tribune-Review’s Joe Starkey put it, “Nobody even knows if Ville Koivunen is an NHL player.”
That’s the part that makes the deal feel so extreme. Former Penguins GM Ron Hextall took plenty of heat in the summer of 2022 for giving Kasperi Kapanen a two-year extension at a $3.2 million cap hit after a rough season, but Kapanen at least had 11 goals and 32 points on his resume. Compared with Koivunen’s output last season, that looks downright generous.
To be fair, development doesn’t always run in a straight line. Bob Errey needed four tries before he finally became a real NHL player, and he did it as a 15th overall pick.
Players like Ben Kindel, who arrive and make noise right away, are the exception. Koivunen still has a chance to build on what he showed in the AHL and in his late-season look in 2024-25.
But promise alone doesn’t justify that much term. No one was beating down the door with an offer sheet for Koivunen, and a shorter deal - two years, maybe three, at $2-3 million per season - would have made a lot more sense. It would have given the Penguins time to find out what they really have.
Instead, the contract puts Koivunen under a brighter spotlight than ever. Every shift, every mistake, every quiet night is going to get magnified.
If he struggles, the pressure will be relentless. There is a buyout option down the road that softens the team’s risk, but that doesn’t make the original decision any easier to understand.
Especially when there doesn’t even seem to be a lineup spot waiting for the 23-year-old Finn.
That leads to the other thing that has me puzzled: the sheer number of forwards Kyle Dubas has stacked into the roster mix.
Right now, unless a trade opens something up, the only vacancy appears to be on the right side of the fourth line. Justin Brazeau and Elmer Söderblom are likely first in line there, which pushes out young players like Avery Hayes and Rutger McGroarty before they can even get a foothold. The same goes for Koivunen, Tristan Broz and Filip Hållander.
Competition is good. That part is not the issue.
The issue is that Dubas has jammed the forward group so full that the prospects are barely left with a crack at the door. And this wasn’t done with a clear Cup-contender plan in mind, either.
Put yourself in the shoes of one of those kids. You spend a season grinding to get yourself ready for the next step, expecting that hard work to count for something. Then you look up and see that the path has been effectively sealed off.
Hockey players are supposed to be tough, and they are. But it’s hard to imagine that kind of setup leaving anyone feeling encouraged.
The frustrating part is that last season’s Baby Pens had built real togetherness, that all-for-one feel that teams need. That kind of bond will be tested if the roster picture doesn’t change.
At some point, the organization has to stop guessing and actually let these players show what they can do. Right now, Dubas has left almost no room for that.
In Other News...
Penguins Double Down On A Farm System Plan Fans Should Notice
The Penguins are making a point of continuity in the places where prospects are supposed to take their next steps. Pittsburgh announced the coaching staffs for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Florida for the 2026-27 season, keeping Kirk MacDonald in charge of the AHL affiliate and Brad Ralph at the helm of the ECHL club. Several assistant coaches and support staff were also confirmed or moved up, a sign the organization is leaning into a more stable development structure across both levels.
For a team trying to build better habits from the bottom up, these decisions matter almost as much as the moves at the NHL level. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton remains the critical bridge for players closest to Pittsburgh, while Florida continues to serve as a proving ground for younger prospects and depth pieces. The staff announcements do not grab the same attention as a trade or a draft pick, but they do tell you something about how the Penguins want their system to look in the years ahead. [Read more 🡒]
Penguins Fans Are Split On How Far This Rebuild Should Go
The Penguins are at the kind of crossroads that tends to stir up every version of the same debate all at once. With the roster aging in key spots and the trade and free-agent markets offering only so much help, the conversation has turned from simple tinkering to bigger questions about what the next phase should look like and how aggressively the front office should chase it.
That makes the hypothetical exercise around names like Harrison Brunicke, Shane Wright, Jason Robertson, Evgeni Malkin, Erik Karlsson and Sidney Crosby feel especially relevant, even if none of it is tied to a confirmed move. Some possibilities point toward a quicker retool, others toward a deeper reset, and the tension is in how far the Penguins should be willing to go before the roster finally starts to look different in a meaningful way. [Read more 🡒]