Top-20 Penguins' Prospects 2026: No. 2: Young Netminder Establishes Himself As Potential Franchise Piece
At No. 2 on our 2026 Top-20 Penguins' Prospects list is a young netminder with franchise potential who should be in the NHL full-time next season.
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 gonna 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 gotta 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's gonna 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 kinda said the same thing on Locked On today.
We'll see.
Like, they're betting on him.
It's up to Koivunen now to kinda answer the call, if you will.
The, 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 gonna be due for contracts next year and the year after?
You know, if you're setting a precedent, paying a guy like Koivunen 4 million a year for eight years, what does Rucker McGorty want on his next contract?
What does Tristan Bros want on his next contract?
Avery Hayes, Sergei Mirchoff, you know, Harrison Brunick.
What's Ben Kindle gonna get on his next contract?
I mean, they're gonna pay Ben Kindle whatever, you know, they, 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 kinda sets a precedent for those guys.
Billy Koivunen's 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 Bros goes out there and has a pretty decent season, Avery Hayes, they're all gonna look to that Billy Koivunen contract and be like, "All right, where's my eight years?"
You know?
"Where's my 4 million?"
And, and, and that's kind of the inherent issue for me, is what kind of precedent does this set?
If Sergei Mirchoff 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, that's kinda, 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 a taking a chance on a guy kinda 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?
