{"id":262044,"date":"2026-08-09T09:50:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T09:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/262044\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T09:50:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T09:50:17","slug":"dubas-dishing-koivunen-contract-raises-a-lot-of-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/262044\/","title":{"rendered":"Dubas Dishing Koivunen Contract Raises a Lot of Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before establishing himself as a full-time regular at the NHL level, the Pittsburgh Penguins signed Ville Koivunen<\/a> to an eight-year contract worth $32 million. The same player who notched just nine points and scored two goals in 39 games last season was inked to a max term, and rather than optimism about the future, questions not balanced by answers but by greater confusion dominated discussion. <\/p>\n

The befuddling contract issued by general manager Kyle Dubas<\/a> is so far outside the norm for a player who has not yet become an NHL regular that it is easier to assume there are other factors at play or yet unseen moves coming rather than the simplest explanation: This was an unforced error.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake, PHN has put extensive work into analyzing Koivunen\u2019s game both in Pittsburgh and Wilkes-Barre, and has spoken to coaches and Koivunen himself about his NHL efforts. And PHN believes Koivunen has real NHL potential, but the contract did not match the current situation, which is where the confusion begins. <\/p>\n

During an email exchange with local outlets including PHN, Dubas cited the rapidly changing market forces as the impetus for the deal. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere 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,\u201d Dubas wrote. <\/p>\n

However, on Thursday the Philadelphia Flyers <\/a>re-signed 23-year-old RFA Nikita Grebenkin, who had 14 points in 55 games last season. It was his first NHL season and second in North America after a couple of KHL seasons and being named the 2023 KHL rookie of the year. <\/p>\n

Grebenkin signed for two years at $1.1 million per year, almost four times less than Koivunen. That signing seems to quickly defeat Dubas\u2019s fear of a new market for young player salaries. <\/p>\n

Indeed, such a deal was far closer to the expected\u2013and more appropriate\u2013for Koivunen. <\/p>\n

For the next three years, Koivunen, 23, will have a contract that pays him more than Nick Robertson and close to what Tommy Novak<\/a> signed for three more years with the Penguins. Publicly, Koivunen\u2019s disproportionate contract caused such surprise that the most discussed feature of the deal was how it could be cheaply bought out in a couple of years. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s not supposed to be a selling point for a new contract, but it highlights the risk.<\/p>\n

As for the player, Koivunen deserves more credit than Penguins fans were ready to give him before the eight-year deal. Some soured on his potential after a mere nine-point season and Dubas\u2019s admission that he didn\u2019t arrive at training camp in proper shape. <\/p>\n

On the ice, Koivunen has next-level playmaking ability, which he flashed when he notched seven assists in his first eight NHL games at the end of the 2024-25 season. Koivunen\u2019s offensive game is expansive, and he has a quality that Pittsburgh fans haven\u2019t yet seen. He can be an absolute nightmare of a pest. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s at his best when he\u2019s a prick,\u201d Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton Penguins coach replied to PHN in February during this website\u2019s scouting trip. <\/p>\n

Offensive skills and an ability to play a physical game make Koivunen an attractive prospect, and certainly worth a contract extension to see if the player can build upon his skillset for a regular NHL role. <\/p>\n

The obstacle to Koivunen planting his feet firmly in the NHL was his tepid approach to bringing the same gritty agitation to the NHL that he regularly displays in the AHL. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to do more. But I feel like if you see something first, you can do it. It feels like, if you don\u2019t do it enough first, then it\u2019s like no one cares. What are you gonna say there?\u201d Koivunen said in a talk with PHN. \u201cSo I think first you have to be better on the ice and stuff, and then you can maybe start doing that more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koivunen has talent. He might have earned an eight-year contract in a year or two, but with the contract Dubas assumed all of the risk now even though he didn\u2019t have to. A short show-me or bridge deal for Koivunen would have been more in line with conventional practice and wisdom. <\/p>\n

Now, there will be additional fallout. <\/p>\n

Fans who were fully supportive of Dubas are perplexed. The debate and questions are not about keeping Koivunen, but about the enormous contract and about Dubas\u2019s reasons for doing so. Further, other fans parsed his words regarding the seemingly contradictory answers that Dubas delivered to PHN and a handful of local outlets via email. Not only did Dubas concede that the massive contracts delivered this summer affected his thinking, but <\/p>\n

\u201cWe view the contract as a bet \u2013 on Ville, his potential, and our belief that he is going to do the work to reach that potential,\u201d Dubas wrote in one answer. <\/p>\n

However, in a follow-up question, Dubas wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Practically, Dubas\u2019s big bet on future production has one big problem. Where exactly does Koivunen fit into the lineup? Very few, in fact none, of the projected lineups show Koivunen. After all, the Penguins signed Andrei Kuzmenko on July 1 and traded for Nick Robertson. Dubas also succumbed to the current situation and extended Evgeni Malkin for one more year. <\/p>\n

Including Koivunen, the Penguins have 14 forwards who are no longer waiver-exempt and on NHL contracts (that number is 15 when including 19-year-old Ben Kindel, who is a near lock for the lineup). That\u2019s at least one too many, and probably two too many. That 15 total also doesn\u2019t include NHL-ready young players, such as Rutger McGroarty and Avery Hayes. <\/p>\n

Confusingly, the Penguins process has not exactly been a rebuild focused on youth. Typically, when a player signs such a contract, they are expected to be in the lineup, but Koivunen has not yet been able to establish himself, and the Penguins don\u2019t have room for him. <\/p>\n

So, Dubas signed a player to an eight-year deal who may not play on the NHL roster this season? <\/p>\n

\u201cWell, 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,\u201d wrote Dubas. \u201cHe will need to earn his roster spot and opportunity in training camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

But even if he earns a spot in the immediate, where would it be?<\/p>\n

Another overlooked problem is the salary cap structure that Dubas is promulgating for his team. Next summer, Owen Pickering and Rutger McGroarty will be RFAs, too. Is McGroarty worth $4 million, too? <\/p>\n

As for the well-traveled talk that the contract could be easily escaped in a couple of years if it doesn\u2019t work, the PuckPedia.com buyout calculator shows buyout cap hits below $500,000 for a few years, but then an annual hit of 729k until 2040. <\/p>\n

Yes, 2040. Of course, there is an asteroid that has a 3% chance of slamming into Earth in 2032 (2024 YR24), or maybe AI will take over the planet by 2040 and we\u2019ll all be working for giant data centers, but it would be less than ideal for a long-term dead cap hit of $729,167 annually. Certainly, the Penguins have butted up against the cap plenty of times in the salary cap era and needed every dollar available to ice a full team. <\/p>\n

If the deal completely collapses faster than the six years for Ryan Graves, the Penguins would still be out at least $15.1 million (two years at full salary and the one-third under-26 buyout). The risk just doesn\u2019t seem worth the potential future payoff of cap savings. <\/p>\n

Lastly, fair or not, Koivunen will now carry increased expectations from fans and some derision if the bet doesn\u2019t quickly pay off. <\/p>\n

Hopefully, Penguins fans won\u2019t hold the deal against Koivunen (as you\u2019ve done to others, and you know who I mean), and Koivunen finds his best game at the highest level to negate the talk of the worst-case scenario. <\/p>\n

But for now, it does raise an awful lot of questions. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTags: Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> Ville Koivunen<\/a> <\/p>\n

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