The Penguins have re-signed forward Joona Koppanen for the 2025-26 campaign, the club announced Tuesday. It’s an implied two-way deal with a $775K cap hit if he’s in the NHL.
After turning 27 in February, Koppanen was slated to become a bona fide unrestricted free agent for the first time. A Bruins sixth-round pick in 2015, Koppanen departed Boston for Pittsburgh in 2023 via Group VI UFA status, signing a two-year deal with only a partial two-way structure.
This season marked Koppanen’s third straight campaign with NHL ice time after playing the first five seasons of his professional career in North America without a call-up. He recorded an assist in five games for Boston in his NHL debut in 2022-23 before suiting up 15 times for the Pens over the last two years, including 11 showings late in 2024-25. The 6’5″, 215-lb Finn scored his first NHL goal in his first game of the season against the Islanders on March 18 but failed to get on the scoresheet the rest of the way.
The large, versatile winger doesn’t have much upside in the tank at this stage, but he remains a decent plug-and-play piece if injuries necessitate it and is sound organizational depth. He consistently hovers around the half a point per game mark in the AHL and had an 8-15–23 scoring line in 56 showings for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins this season, including 24 PIMs and a plus-five rating.
It’s commonplace to see a foreign-born player of Koppanen’s caliber return to Europe at this stage of his career, but he evidently likes the fit in Pittsburgh. With the club potentially looking to sell off additional pieces this summer, there could be more of an NHL opportunity for him in 2025-26 than he’s had in the past. It’s also worth noting that he’ll be taking a pay cut if he’s assigned to the minors at any point next year. His contract had a one-way structure in 2024-25, so he earned his full $775K league-minimum salary despite only spending a small portion of the season on the NHL roster. While his new two-way deal likely carries a high AHL salary and an even higher guarantee, it could still mean a reduction in Koppanen’s take-home pay if he logs more minor-league action.
Since arriving in the North American pyramid with Boston’s top minor-league affiliate in Providence in 2017-18, he has a 53-84–137 scoring line with 114 PIMs and a +32 rating in 359 AHL games. His signing brings Pittsburgh to having 39 out of 50 standard contracts on the books for next year.