Pittsburgh Penguins Kyle Dubas Some assumed it was a typo. Others a false report.
No, instead of signing restricted free agent Ville Koivunen to a small deal to allow him a chance to compete for his first permanent NHL roster spot, the Pittsburgh Penguins and general manager Kyle Dubas signed the Finnish winger to a surprising eight-year, $32 million contract Thursday morning. And jaws dropped.
Koivunen, 23, has not yet claimed a permanent NHL spot, and Dubas admitted Thursday in an email correspondence with local outlets, including Pittsburgh Hockey Now, that Koivunen isn’t guaranteed a spot, either. Last season, Koivunen fought through a disappointing season at the NHL level, registering only seven points (2-5-7) in 39 games played and finished the year with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL.
Indeed, it is quite the gamble, but Dubas cited the marketplace as the primary factor in the size of the deal, and the optimism that Koivunen will payoff the bet. Perhaps the shockwaves of the Philadelphia Flyers extending an offer sheet to Anaheim Ducks RFA center Leo Carlsson that carried a five-year term and an $18 million average annual value did filter down to the Penguins.
Within the matter of just a few answers, Dubas repeated his claim that the changing paradigm made the deal tenable, further underscoring the new NHL landscape for young players. He also seemed to indicate the team is satisfied with Koivunen’s improved preparation for this season after both player and team admitted Koivunen didn’t meet expectations last summer.
The questions from Dubas’s email exchange with reporters are in bold. Kyle Dubas Eight years is a real commitment.
As Ville hasn’t been able to yet find a full-time role, what factors led to the lengthy contract? There were many factors that led to us going down this path.
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. We view the contract as a bet – on Ville, his potential, and our belief that he is going to do the work to reach that potential.
You spoke about Ville perhaps not being as physically prepared for last season as he should have been. What assured you that isn’t going to happen again?
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. He did not return to his home in Oulu, instead working with us to set up a new training program in Helsinki and 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. With the state of the market, it seems a lot of teams are, in essence, paying for potential in young players by locking them down long-term.
Given Ville’s limited NHL sample size, is the rising cap and the state of the market a big part of what led to the eight-year term? Do you agree that betting on potential, to an extent, is something that’s happening across the league right now?
We don’t think of it as paying for potential; we view it as placing bets on what we believe the player is going to produce moving ahead. As the question asks and my previous answer speaks to, the evolution of the market is a key factor, for sure.
The way that older forwards who have lower lineup ceilings were paid as free agents and watching the way the restricted free agent market took shape led us to take a different view on how we wanted to handle our own players, for sure. Did the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins’ playoff run in any way affirm or change your opinion of his development?
Helping our affiliate teams go deep into the playoffs affords all our young prospects the chance to continually impact and improve their standing with us. In Ville’s case, it just added to his AHL rookie season, initial recall, and the way he handled the fall not going the way he likely wanted at the NHL level.
We stress to the players the value and importance of winning in the AHL, ECHL, or with their junior, college, or European teams, and one of the benefits is that it affords you a greater chance to make an impact on your standing within the organization. Production aside, what else do you need to see from Ville this season in order for him to earn a full-time spot in the NHL?
Well, he will still have to earn everything. 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 and show gains in power and speed on the ice in training camp and exhibition games.