Penguins' Prospect Headlines List Of NCAA Players On Verge Of Unrestricted Free Agency
One Penguins' prospect from the Jake Guentzel trade has already declared his intent to part ways from the organization.
Video Transcript
They believe in him, to be frank.
They see his potential and they think that he is going to reach it.
He has good underlying numbers and they think the production is going to match up to it.
Now, do I think that's going to happen at this juncture?
I would lean towards no because I haven't seen it.
But he has the opportunity to prove everyone wrong.
If he goes out there, he becomes a top nine player, he can give you 15-ish goals a season.
The contract looks pretty good, especially at 4 million where contracts like these I feel like are only going to go up for younger players.
So if he gives you okay production for a middle six top nine forward, that's fine.
But that's the big if because we don't even know if he's going to turn into that type of player.
There are warning signs right now about him.
Yeah, solid eight game sample at the end of the 24-25 season.
But last season, he was stuck in neutral in a lot of his NHL tenure.
He lit up the AHL.
That's great.
But I got to see it.
That's the thing.
He needs to really show up to camp, have a hell of a summer and be ready to fully put in the work and make this team.
Nothing is going to be given to him or anything like that.
But it's on him now to really prove everyone wrong and be like, hey, I have what it takes here to be a competent NHL player that can play up and down the lineup.
But there you go.
Those are my main thoughts on it.
I think it was a bit much.
I would not have made that gamble and it was a pretty big gamble.
But I'm also not in charge of an NHL franchise.
I'm just here on a podcast with you.
So those are my main thoughts.
Pretty jumbled.
I kind of said the same thing on Locked On today.
We'll see.
Like they're betting on him.
It's up to Koivunen now to kind of answer the call, if you will.
The area where I kind of think the sticking point is for me is what kind of precedent does this set for some of the other younger players who are going to be due for contracts next year and the year after?
You know, if you're setting a precedent, pay a deal like Koivunen $4 million a year for eight years, what does Rucker McGorty want on his next contract?
What does Tristan Burrows want on his next contract?
Avery Hayes, Sergei Mireshov, you know, Harrison Brunick.
What's Ben Kindle going to get on his next contract?
I mean, they're going to pay Ben Kindle whatever, you know, they have to to keep him around.
But you're looking at some of these other fringe players.
Owen Pickering comes to mind too.
You know, several of these guys are RFAs next summer.
And if they're not RFAs next summer, then it's RFAs the summer after.
So this contract kind of sets a precedent for those guys.
Billy Koivunen has only played 47 NHL games.
And he's shown kind of limited potential in those 47 games.
If Rucker McGorty goes out there and has a pretty decent season, if Tristan Burrows goes out there and has a pretty decent season, Avery Hayes, they're all going to look to that Billy Koivunen contract and be like, all right, where's my eight years?
You know, where's my $4 million?
And that's kind of the inherent issue for me is what kind of precedent does this set?
If Sergei Mireshov goes out there, has an okay season, but not a franchise goaltender type season, do you commit to him long term seven years?
You know, and whatever money.
That's kind of the worry for me because it's one thing if you have a couple of these contracts on the book, you know, you have Billy Koivunen as taking a chance on a guy kind of contract.
You have Igor Chinikov as that kind of bridge take a guy or take a chance on a guy contract.
How many of those contracts can you fill up your NHL books with?
