As is usually the case with most prospect development camps in the heat of summer, the Pittsburgh Penguins didn’t have many players with professional experience on hand earlier this month.

More often than not, these camps are populated with recent draft picks or hopefuls trying to earn NHL contracts.

Players with some professional mileage — such as those at the American Hockey League level — aren’t typically involved.

So, in that sense, Emil Pieniniemi, a third-round draft pick (No. 91 overall) in 2023, stood out a bit amongst his peers during the Penguins’ camp in Cranberry in the first days of July.

Including playoffs, the 20-year-old defenseman has 52 professional games on his resume, primarily in the Liiga, the top-tier league in his native Finland.

With that, he doesn’t expect to be caught off guard when he makes the jump to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL or Wheeling of the ECHL next season.

“I played pro in (Finland),” Pieniniemi said July 5. “So I already know what it is. Much stronger guys. Faster guys. It’s (a) big step.”

One could argue the left-handed Pieniniemi made a larger step last season when he left his home country to get acclimated to North America by playing at the junior level with the Ontario Hockey League’s Kingston Frontenacs.

Pieniniemi (6-foot-3, 180 pounds) wound up with the Frontenacs after they selected him 10th overall in the 2023 import draft of the Canadian Hockey League (the umbrella organization that oversees that country’s three major junior leagues).

Deployed on the Frontenacs’ top pairing as well as on special teams units, Pieniniemi was a potent producer, posting 60 points (10 goals, 50 assists) in 60 regular season games during the 2024-25 campaign.

HE’S ON THE BOARD FOLKS! ????

Emil Pieniniemi gets his first @OHLHockey goal off a seeing eye shot from the point! #SolidGold | @penguins | #LetsGoPens https://t.co/Vivjwj1Y6X pic.twitter.com/fYM8HCTOaw

— Kingston Frontenacs (@KingstonFronts) October 4, 2024

In the postseason, he added 10 points (four goals, six assists) in 11 contests.

Management was sated with how Pieniniemi handled so many responsibilities.

“A lot of ice time,” Penguins director of player development Tom Kostopulous said. “A lot of different roles for him and opportunity. I think his game grew. Defending the rush, his footwork, defensive skating. Then the opportunity he got on the power play and to kill penalties.

“To play on a competitive team — with a good coaching staff that was open to our development group to be in there — I think it was a good season for him. He learned a lot. … It was a good season for him overall. He’s coming along.”

Part of that adjustment involves life off the ice.

Kingston, Ontario, is not Kuopio, Finland, his hometown.

“Hockey is pretty much the same everywhere,” Pieniniemi said. “But moving away from home and living in (a) billet house, it was different off the ice.”

Language is part of that difference, and Pieniniemi has made considerable progress. When he was drafted by the Penguins in 2023 and spoke with reporters afterward at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., the exchanges were limited.

Today, he is comfortable speaking English with a Pittsburgh reporter (who speaks no Finnish).

“It was hard from the start,” Pieniniemi said. “But when you try to talk it, it gets better.”

Pieniniemi, who is entering the first year of a three-year entry-level contract, is equally confident he will pick up the professional game on this continent.

“I can play a lot of minutes in every situation,” Pieniniemi said. “It feels good.”

Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.