There have been a lot of interesting signings this NHL offseason, with the Flyers forcing the Ducks to pay top dollar for Leo Carlsson, Patrick Kane signing a nice deal to return to the Blackhawks and Macklin Celebrini getting the big money from the San Jose Sharks.
But the most intriguing deal may have come from the Pittsburgh Penguins, who signed a player with just 47 career games to an eight-year, $32 million deal after he registered 7 points (2G, 5A) in 39 games last season.
Reread those numbers if you need to, but your eyes did not deceive you. That’s the deal Penguins GM Kyle Dubas gave Finnish forward Ville Koivunen on Thursday.
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Now, first of all, this is awesome for Koivunen. But Dubas may as well be wearing a stars-and-stripes jumpsuit, because this deal has an Evel Knievel-level risk.
That’s because while the salary cap and therefore player contracts are going up, paying a player with that kind of production an AAV of $4 million is a massive gamble.
Sure, the numbers come from a small sample, but they’re still not blowing any minds.
Still, the Penguins like what they see enough to keep him around long-term.
That could be because his AHL numbers with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins the last two seasons have been pretty great. Just last year, he posted 41 points (13G, 28A) in just 34 games. Before that, he was really solid playing in SM-liiga in his native Finland too.
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Is solid production in the AHL and abroad, but so-so results in the NHL now worth a long-term deal at $4 million per year?
But who knows? If Koivunen clicks, it may soon turn out to be a very team-friendly deal.
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The one thing to remember is that the team may only have a few more years of paying its current core veterans like Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Sidney Crosby, who has a famously team-friendly $8.7 million AAV deal.
But if Koivunen’s production doesn’t ramp up, good luck finding a trading partner willing to take that deal off your hands.
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