These Pending UFAs Have Increased Their Stock
The 2026 UFA class had been highly anticipated for quite some time free agency even opened this year. That excitement only grew through July and August as many potential UFAs didn’t sign extensions with their current clubs. However, that feeling was quickly dampened in the fall as players like Kirill Kaprizov, Connor McDavid, and Jack Eichel began signing new contracts, taking the energy out of the 2026 free-agent frenzy. While many stars have signed new deals, a noticeable group of talented players is still set to hit the open market on July 1, 2026, with some having significantly boosted their stock after a strong start to the season.
Jack Roslovic has encountered two difficult situations in the UFA market, with the first ending in him signing a one-year, $2.8MM deal with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2024. His second attempt this past summer saw him join the Oilers for one year at $1.5MM. This year’s outcome was quite unexpected, given that Roslovic played well last season with 22 goals for Carolina, yet a multi-year deal that suited him never materialized. Roslovic was not alone this summer; defenseman Matt Grzelcyk also couldn’t secure a multi-year contract that met his expectations, despite having a career-best season last year in Pittsburgh.
This summer, however, Roslovic seems to be positioning himself for a multi-year deal that has eluded him. Injuries could affect his market value, but through 23 games in Edmonton this season, the 28-year-old has scored 10 goals and added eight assists. He’s also averaging over three more minutes of ice time per game compared to his career average. These impressive stats could spark a bidding war for his services if he stays healthy and maintains his current level of performance for the remainder of the season.
Nick Schmaltz is another forward whose performance this season has increased his value. The 29-year-old has 30 points (12 goals and 18 assists) in 34 games, and he will likely exceed his current $5.85MM cap hit when he signs his next contract next summer. Schmaltz’s impending free agency puts the Utah Mammoth in a tough spot, as Schmaltz has recorded back-to-back 60+ point seasons and is on track to do so again, which could raise his next cap hit to around $9MM annually.
The Mammoth might not want to commit to that kind of deal for Schmaltz, which means they will either trade him before the trade deadline or let him walk for nothing at the end of the year. Utah reportedly held trade talks for Schmaltz last summer, and it doesn’t seem likely that a deal will be finalized soon, meaning Schmaltz might enter the open market at the best possible time.
Another forward whose future remains uncertain is Alex Tuch of the Buffalo Sabres. Tuch has scored 11 goals and 17 assists in 31 games and initiated contract talks at the beginning of the season, which puts the Sabres in a difficult position. The Sabres find themselves in a familiar spot at the bottom of the standings, and while Tuch has done his part, the team appears to be heading nowhere. If Tuch continues at his current pace, his value will only increase, which might be what the Sabres want if they plan to trade the Syracuse, New York native.
Two veterans nearing the end of their careers are Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Artemi Panarin of the New York Rangers. Both entered this season with significant questions about their futures, and so far they’ve performed well, raising even more questions about what lies ahead for them.
Evgeni Malkin seems to have no interest in playing anywhere in the NHL other than Pittsburgh. This could lead to some interesting contract negotiations after the season if he maintains his current level of play. Malkin is in the final season of a four-year, $24.4MM contract he signed in the summer of 2022. Many believed last summer that the 2025-26 season could be Malkin’s last in the NHL and possibly his final season as a player at all. However, with the 39-year-old experiencing a significant resurgence this season with eight goals and 21 assists in 26 games, there’s a chance he continues playing, especially if Pittsburgh remains competitive and has a role for him moving forward. Nobody could have predicted that the Penguins would start the season as they have. With more young players emerging and an incredible amount of cap space next summer, the short-term future for Pittsburgh actually looks quite promising. It seemed unlikely that Malkin would receive a contract offer from Pittsburgh next summer, but now it seems like a real possibility he returns, assuming he can maintain his current work rate.
For Panarin, it’s not so much his play this season that has raised his profile, but rather the better options being taken off the table next summer. With many of the top pending UFAs now tied up in extensions, Panarin has risen on the list as one of the best offensive options available. The 34-year-old, for his part, remains a point-per-game player with 11 goals and 22 assists in 33 games, which should attract a healthy market despite his age by NHL standards. AFP Analytics is projecting a four-year, $41MM deal for Panarin, which, considering market conditions and his performance, looks pretty feasible.
On defense, arguably the top available player is Rasmus Andersson of the Calgary Flames. Andersson had a tough year last season but has bounced back in 2025-26, which should give him a strong market if and when he hits free agency. The Flames have started poorly this year, opening up the possibility that Andersson becomes a key trade piece before the NHL Trade Deadline, giving him a chance to play meaningful hockey in the spring if he joins a contender. The 29-year-old has been used in more defensive roles this season but has still managed 22 points in 33 games, after recording just 31 points in 81 games last season. If Andersson maintains this offensive level, his cap hit could rise closer to $9MM a season on his next contract, likely the last major deal of his career. Some teams might hesitate because of his less successful past seasons, but for now, Andersson is hitting his stride at just the right moment.
A couple of honorable mentions to round things out include forwards Victor Olofsson, Jaden Schwartz, and Kiefer Sherwood. Olofsson signed his second straight one-year “prove it” contract this summer, signing with the Colorado Avalanche for a $1.575MM AAV. Since then, Olofsson has been a steady performer for the Avalanche, recording seven goals and 12 assists in 32 games. AFP Analytics projects a three-year deal at $3.41MM per year, which would be a nice bump for the 30-year-old.
A year ago, Schwartz looked like a player who would need to accept a significant pay cut when his current contract ends. The 33-year-old is currently earning a $5.5MM AAV in the final year of a five-year deal. After scoring 49 points last season, Schwartz is on pace for a 65-point season this year, which would be a career best. Considering that level of production, AFP is predicting a two-year deal worth just under $10.8MM, which would be a slight decrease from his next contract but not the huge drop expected a year ago.
Sherwood has become a bit of a goal scorer since joining the Vancouver Canucks in the summer of 2024 as a free agent. He is on track to surpass 20 goals for the first time in his NHL career (after posting 19 a year ago), and the timing could not be better since he is expected to hit the open market next summer. His lack of long-term NHL experience may somewhat limit Sherwood’s market value, as he was a late bloomer, becoming a full-time NHLer at the age of 28. He has just one season with more than thirty points (last year), but if he can do that again, he should still attract a team willing to offer a multi-year deal at an AAV that might surprise some people.
Penguins Recall Sergei Murashov On An Emergency Basis
Dec. 15th: According to a team announcement, Skinner and Kulak have made it through the immigration process and have been added to the Penguins’ active roster. After doing that, Pittsburgh was able to assign Murashov back to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton from his emergency recall.
Dec. 13th: While Pittsburgh has a new netminder, they’ll have to wait a bit for his debut with the team. The Penguins announced (Twitter link) that both Stuart Skinner and defenseman Brett Kulak have been granted non-roster status while going through the immigration process. With the team needing a second goalie for tonight’s game against San Jose, Sergei Murashov has been recalled from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
Murashov was a fourth-round pick by the Penguins back in 2022 and he is in his second full season in North America. Last year, he split time between Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and ECHL Wheeling, doing well at both levels, including a .922 SV% in 26 games with the latter.
That moved him up the depth chart this season and earned him his first NHL action earlier on this season. Murashov has played in four games with Pittsburgh, posting a 1-1-1 record with his win being a shutout. He has a solid 1.90 GAA and .913 SV% in those outings which is certainly worthy of a longer look. However, with two other goalies on their roster, they’ve prioritized maximizing Murashov’s playing time in the minors. In 11 outings with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, he has been elite, compiling a 1.56 GAA and a .943 SV%.
It can take several days for a player to go through the immigration process and with applications typically not getting processed on weekends, it might take a few games before Skinner and Kulak get the green light to make their Penguins debuts.
Matt Dumba Clears Waivers, Assigned To AHL
Saturday: The team announced that Dumba has passed through waivers unclaimed. As expected, he has been assigned to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. It will be his first action at that level since the 2014-15 when he played in 20 games for Iowa.
Friday: The Penguins announced this morning that they will place defenseman Mathew Dumba on waivers today at 1:00 pm Central. He’s been placed on the non-roster list until his waiver period ends tomorrow. The move makes room for rearguard Brett Kulak to join the active roster after being acquired from the Oilers in today’s Tristan Jarry/Stuart Skinner goalie swap.
Dumba, 31, hadn’t been much of a factor to this point in the season. Acquired from the Stars over the summer in a salary dump, he’s been in the press box more than he’s been on the ice.
When dressed, he’s recorded a 1-2–3 scoring line and a -5 rating in 11 appearances. He’s averaging 14:56 of ice time per game, his lowest figure since averaging 12:27 in his first taste of NHL hockey as a 19-year-old with the Wild back in 2013-14. His poor two-way play is reflected in his 46.2 CF% and 47.9 FF% at 5-on-5, both the second-worst among qualified Penguins defenders, ahead only of Caleb Jones.
With Kulak in the mix, Jack St. Ivany returning to health, and Ryan Graves flourishing in a bottom-pairing role after starting the season on waivers, Dumba might have played his last game as a Penguin. At a $3.75MM cap hit, he won’t be claimed off waivers, even though he’s on an expiring deal.
If the righty is dead set on returning to the NHL this season, he could refuse to report to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, allowing the Penguins to terminate his contract. He’d be walking away from whatever he’s still owed of his $3.5MM salary but could catch on somewhere else for the back half of the season on a cheaper, prorated one-year deal. If he does clear waivers and opts to report to the minors, the Penguins will still be on the hook for a $2.6MM cap hit.
While Dumba may have been one of the more offensively dynamic defensemen in the league at his peak, those days are long in the rearview. Drafted No. 7 overall by Minnesota in 2012, he broke out for 50 points and 136 hits in the 2017-18 season, prompting the Wild to sign him to a five-year, $30MM deal the following summer. He racked up 12 goals and 22 points through the first 32 games of 2018-19 before sustaining a season-ending upper-body injury.
He hasn’t been the same player since. Dumba was still a minute-muncher for the rest of his tenure in Minnesota, averaging over 22 minutes per game between 2019-20 and 2022-23, but he never sniffed 30 points again – let alone 50. Still, he turned his reputation into a pair of relatively high-value, short-term free-agent deals. He first signed a one-year, $3.9MM pact with the Coyotes in 2023 and was flipped to the Lightning at the following year’s trade deadline.
Tampa didn’t show interest in retaining him, but he still landed a two-year, $7.5MM pact from the Stars. Dumba underwhelmed from the start, though, posting 10 points and a -5 rating in 63 games while averaging 15:18 of ice time per game. He was then a healthy scratch for Dallas’ entire playoff run. His cap hit quickly became untenable for the big-spending Stars, paying a 2028 second-round pick to unload the last year of his contract on the Penguins.
Oilers Working To Acquire Tristan Jarry
9:45 a.m.: All three teams have confirmed the trades. The Penguins confirmed that the draft pick acquired from the Oilers will be Edmonton’s 2029 second-round pick. No salary was retained in either deal.
9:02 a.m.: The Edmonton Oilers are reportedly close to making a pair of significant trades today. According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Oilers are working to acquire netminder Tristan Jarry from the Pittsburgh Penguins and defenseman Spencer Stastney from the Nashville Predators. Shortly thereafter, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun confirmed that Jarry is heading to Edmonton.
At any rate, while they acquired a pair of pending unrestricted free agents in Skinner and Kulak, it’s nothing but a win for the Penguins to receive a second-round pick for Jarry’s services. One year ago, Pittsburgh placed Jarry on the waiver wire, meaning the Oilers could have had him for free had they been able to make the money work. The fact that the Penguins were able to get actual assets for Jarry a year later is a testament to their patience.
Lastly, as a part of the Jarry trade, the Penguins have finally moved on from Poulin. The 24-year-old had appeared in a few games for the Penguins this season, but failed to do much with his opportunity despite being given middle-six minutes. Still, he’s been on a tear in the AHL, scoring nine goals and 20 points in 22 games. He’ll likely report directly to the Oilers, considering the number of injuries they’ve had to their depth forwards this season.
Penguins Activate Rickard Rakell, Loan Harrison Brunicke To Team Canada
As expected, the Pittsburgh Penguins have thinned out their defensive core in favor of their forward group. The Penguins announced that they’ve activated forward Rickard Rakell from the injured reserve and have loaned defenseman Harrison Brunicke to U20 Team Canada for the 2026 World Junior Championships.
Rakell returns after more than a month-long absence. The top-six winger broke his left hand in the Penguins’ October 25th matchup against the Columbus Blue Jackets and was given a six-to eight-week recovery timeline after undergoing surgery. That recovery timeline was accurate, as Rakell will return having missed seven weeks.
Before exiting the lineup, Rakell played a large role in the Penguins’ 6-2-1 start to the 2025-26 campaign. Typically playing on a line next to Sidney Crosby, Rakell scored three goals and eight points in those nine contests, averaging 17:44 of ice time per night.
While remaining competitive in a tightly wound Eastern Conference, Pittsburgh has clearly suffered without its top winger. There have been several additional injuries, but the Penguins have managed an 8-6-6 record in the 20 games without Rakell, falling to the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Fortunately for Rakell, his return game will be against an organization with which he has had plenty of success throughout his career. Largely due to his time with the Anaheim Ducks earlier in his career, Rakell has scored 16 goals and 33 points in 39 games against the Sharks since the 2012-13 campaign. Additionally, Rakell has scored 13 goals and 28 points in 35 games against the Edmonton Oilers, who Pittsburgh plays on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Brunicke will officially join Team Canada for the World Junior Championships after spending the last few weeks with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins over the last few weeks. Brunicke, 19, tallied four assists in five games for the AHL Penguins with a +2 rating.
As one of several projected players with NHL experience, it’s nearly a given that Brunicke will remain with Team Canada after they cut their roster down. Cracking the Penguins’ roster out of training camp this season, Brunicke has scored one goal in nine games, averaging 15:43 of ice time per game. He’s two years removed from playing with Team Canada’s U18 team, scoring one goal and four points in seven tournament contests.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.
Penguins Activate Jack St. Ivany
Before yesterday’s contest against the Montreal Canadiens, the Pittsburgh Penguins announced that they had activated defenseman Jack St. Ivany from the season-opening injured reserve. He had been recovering from a foot injury suffered in a preseason contest in early October.
Despite being on the SOIR, St. Ivany has been playing for the last few weeks, albeit for the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. A few days before American Thanksgiving, the Penguins had loaned St. Ivany to the baby Penguins on a conditioning loan. He performed very well over that stretch, scoring one goal and five points in five games with a +3 rating.
Still, it’ll be interesting to see what the Penguins do in the next few days to thin out their defensive core. They dressed six for last night’s game, but have nine on the active roster. Last night, Harrison Brunicke, Matt Dumba, and St. Ivany were all scratched.
Being named to Team Canada’s preliminary roster for the 2026 World Junior Championships, Pittsburgh already knows that Brunicke will be off the roster for a few weeks, assuming he makes the final roster. However, the WJC doesn’t begin until the day after Christmas, and the Penguins have seven games between now and then.
Considering that all four of Filip Hallander, Blake Lizotte, Evgeni Malkin, and Rickard Rakell remain on the team’s injured reserve, it would make sense for the Penguins to switch a defenseman with an AHL forward to have an additional body up front. If they’re set with having St. Ivany on the roster for the time being, the team could try to pass one of Connor Clifton or Dumba, each of whom has been limited in playing time this season, through waivers.
Pittsburgh Penguins Reassign Samuel Poulin
Samuel Poulin‘s recent recall with the Pittsburgh Penguins will only last one day. The Penguins announced they’ve assigned the former first-round pick to the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins earlier today.
Even with the injuries to Evgeni Malkin and Blake Lizotte, Pittsburgh chose not to dress Poulin for yesterday’s shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks. Unless he’s recalled after the AHL Penguins game this evening against the Hartford Wolf Pack, Poulin will finish the first two months of the NHL season with zero points in two games, averaging 13:49 of ice time per contest.
Despite the Penguins’ unexpected competitiveness this season, it’s somewhat surprising they haven’t given Poulin a longer look on the NHL roster. In what’s shaping up to be his best professional season to date, Poulin has scored nine goals and 20 points in WBS’s first 21 games with a +8 rating.
It’s not a lone bright spot on a disappointing team either. The AHL Penguins currently hold a one-point lead over the Providence Bruins for the top team in the Atlantic Division and the entire Eastern Conference.
Given that he’s leading the team in scoring, let alone on the top team of the Eastern Conference, Poulin has likely earned a longer stay in the NHL at this point. However, being that the Penguins hold the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and are two points away from being in a divisional spot in the Metropolitan Division, they’ll likely stay the course for the time being unless another significant injury hits the roster.
Penguins Recall Danton Heinen, Sam Poulin; Evgeni Malkin Out Week-To-Week
9:04 a.m.: Malkin and Lizotte are destined for longer absences than the minimum ones required by IR. The team later announced both have been downgraded to week-to-week with their upper-body injuries.
8:55 a.m.: The Penguins announced they’ve again added forwards Danton Heinen and Samuel Poulin to the NHL roster, marking each player’s second recall of the season from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. They placed forwards Evgeni Malkin and Blake Lizotte on injured reserve in corresponding moves.
Heinen was one of the most surprising training camp cuts across the league. The 30-year-old is in the back half of a two-year, $4.5MM deal he signed with the Canucks as a free agent in 2024. After scoring six goals and 18 points in 51 games for Vancouver, he was sent to Pittsburgh in the deal that saw the Nucks acquire Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’Connor. Heinen was a familiar pickup for the Pens, having scored a career-high 18 goals for them in the 2021-22 season.
For his $2.25MM cap hit, he was reasonably productive down the stretch. He totaled a 3-8–11 scoring line in 28 games and was viewed as likely trade bait entering this season as the Pens looked to clear out some veterans. After all, the 2014 fourth-round pick has been an NHL fixture for years now and hadn’t seen extended time out of the lineup since spending most of 2016-17, his first professional season, in the minors.
Pittsburgh hasn’t shown a propensity to keep veterans in the lineup for the sake of doing so this season, though. With Heinen not serving as much of a fit in their long-term plans – or short-term ones, for that matter – they opted to waive him at the beginning of this season with no desirable trade options on the table. The 6’2″, 187-lb forward has proved he still has NHL talent, lighting up the scoresheet in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for a 6-12–18 scoring line in just 12 appearances.
Heinen spent most of November on the NHL roster as a result of injuries to Noel Acciari and Justin Brazeau, both of whom were recently activated from IR. He was returned to WBS on Nov. 30 after scoring one assist in nine games. He saw 12:15 of ice time per contest, getting some occasional reps on both special teams. While his production wasn’t impressive, his two-way impacts were spectacular. Among players with at least 50 5-on-5 minutes for the Pens this year, Heinen boasts the highest share of shot attempts (58.2%), expected goals (59.7%), scoring chances (60.0%), and high-danger chances (61.1%). He managed that with a 43.8 offensive zone start percentage, 17th out of 26 skaters.
Poulin has been similarly productive in the minors. He’s the only WBS skater with more points than Heinen this season, on track for a career year with nine goals and 20 points in 21 games. The 2019 first-round pick is now 24 years old and has aged out of being a top prospect, but he’s proving he can hold down a job as solid organizational depth and be a reliable call-up. He got into two games for the Pens last month on his call-up, recording a -2 rating and six shot attempts while averaging 13:49 of ice time.
Both will be on hand to add to their games-played totals this season tonight against the Ducks as the injury bug continues to bite Pittsburgh’s forward group. Malkin already missed Sunday’s game against the Stars with an upper-body injury and remains listed as day-to-day. Before landing on IR, the future Hall-of-Fame had rattled off two goals and three assists in his last two games. The IR placement technically only rules him out of tonight’s game. Since his last appearance was on Dec. 4, he’ll be eligible to be activated ahead of Thursday’s game against the Canadiens.
Lizotte’s IR placement comes as a surprise. He played nearly 14 minutes in Sunday’s shootout loss in Dallas, recording an assist in the process. He didn’t leave the game, and it’s unclear when he got banged up. The team hasn’t assigned any injury designation other than his IR placement. He’s not eligible for reinstatement until Dec. 14, so whatever’s going on with him will cause him to miss at least three games.
Lizotte, who turns 28 on Saturday, signed a two-year, $3.7MM pact with Pittsburgh in 2024 after being non-tendered by the Kings. He tied his career-high 11 goals last season despite being limited to 59 games and has continued to be quite valuable in a fourth-line role this season. He’s managed a +1 rating despite being used almost exclusively in the defensive zone at 5-on-5 and has contributed a 3-2–5 scoring line in 27 showings. He’s averaging 13:57 of ice time per game and is the Pens’ top penalty-killing forward, likely influencing their decision to add Heinen back into the fold. With Joona Koppanen in the minors and Filip Hallander and Rickard Rakell still on IR, Heinen is ticketed for a job on Pittsburgh’s top two shorthanded units.
Penguins Activate Justin Brazeau, Noel Acciari From Injured Reserve
The Penguins announced they’ve activated forwards Noel Acciari and Justin Brazeau from injured reserve. They’ll be available for this evening’s game against the Stars. They had one open roster spot after Joona Koppanen cleared waivers and was reassigned to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton yesterday, and they opened the other by reassigning winger Bokondji Imama to WBS in a corresponding move. The team also announced that defensemen Harrison Brunicke and Jack St. Ivany have been recalled from their conditioning loans to the Baby Pens. However, St. Ivany will remain on the injured non-roster list for the time being. Brunicke still counted against the active roster while in the minors, so there’s no other move required there.
Brazeau is a key reinforcement, particularly as the Pens said that Evgeni Malkin will be held out of the lineup tonight due to an upper-body injury and is day-to-day. The 27-year-old was an understandably overlooked free agent pickup, signing a two-year deal worth $1.5MM annually after notching 11 goals and 22 points in 76 games last season with the Bruins and Wild.
An injury to top prospect Rutger McGroarty, though, meant Brazeau got a look on Malkin’s wing to start the year with fellow UFA reclamation project Anthony Mantha on the left flank. The line immediately had some of the best offensive chemistry in the league. Brazeau opened the season with a two-goal performance against the Rangers, and by the time October drew to a close, he was still clicking at a point per game with a 6-6–12 scoring line.
In that final game in October against Brazeau’s former team in Minnesota, he sustained an upper-body injury. He was initially ruled day-to-day, but during the first week of November, the Pens said they were shutting him down for the next four weeks. Today is four-and-a-half weeks from that announcement, so his reinstatement doesn’t come too far behind schedule.
Although he won’t have Malkin to center him to start, Brazeau looks to help rejuvenate a Penguins offense that’s cooled off considerably since clicking at 3.67 goals per game in October. They’re only scoring 2.79 per game since – 20th in the league – but are on the upswing, scoring at least four goals in four of their last five outings.
Acciari is the much more established of the two names, with 531 games of NHL experience compared to Brazeau’s 107. He’s played lower in the lineup, averaging 12:56 of ice time per game, but the pending unrestricted free agent has quietly been solid down the middle on Pittsburgh’s fourth line. He had three assists and a +3 rating through 13 games before an upper-body injury he sustained against the Maple Leafs took him out of the lineup on Nov. 3.
Pre-injury, Acciari was winning 60.4% of his faceoffs while centering a line with Connor Dewar and Blake Lizotte. They weren’t generating much offensively but were limiting opponents to 2.30 expected goals per 60 minutes, the lowest figure among Pittsburgh’s four forward lines to see at least 50 minutes together at 5-on-5.
Imama was recalled along with McGroarty last Monday as the Pens did a bit of roster shuffling. Pittsburgh has only played twice since then, and the 29-year-old enforcer suited up on both occasions. He landed a fighting major against the Lightning’s Curtis Douglas in Thursday’s win and laid three hits while registering two shots on goal, averaging what would be a career-high 7:39 of ice time per game if he doesn’t land another recall this season.
If the 19-year-old Brunicke gets back into the lineup for the Pens anytime soon, it will be his first NHL appearance since Nov. 3. The 2024 second-round pick was a healthy scratch in seven consecutive contests before Pittsburgh sent him down for conditioning two weeks ago. He’s not eligible to be removed from the NHL roster without being returned to his junior team, the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, hence the conditioning-stint workaround to get him some action in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. In five appearances, the 6’3″ righty managed three assists with a +2 rating.
St. Ivany’s last two weeks in the AHL marked his first action of the 2025-26 season. The steady depth D-man sustained a lower-body injury late in the preseason that kept him from making the Pens’ opening night roster. While his conditioning stint had to end today as it hit its two-week limit, they don’t have a roster spot for him so he has to remain on the non-roster list for now. They can make a corresponding move to activate him tomorrow or place him on waivers. In the latter scenario, they can give him a non-roster designation until his waiver period ends.
The 26-year-old looked ready to go in his AHL stint, though. He notched a 1-4–5 scoring line with a +3 rating in five outings and, at that rate, will make a legitimate push to unseat the far more expensive Connor Clifton as the righty on the Pens’ third pairing.
Joona Koppanen Clears Waivers
Saturday: Koppanen has passed through successfully for the second time, Friedman reports. The team announced that he was subsequently sent down to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
Friday: The Penguins placed forward Joona Koppanen on waivers Friday, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. He’ll be assigned to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton if he clears.
It’s Koppanen’s second time on the wire this season. He cleared during training camp and began the campaign in the minors before Pittsburgh recalled him in early November as the corresponding move for Filip Hallander‘s blood clot diagnosis.
The 27-year-old played 10 games on his recall, just enough to require waivers again to return to the minors. Now in his ninth year in North America and third in the Penguins organization, he recorded one assist and a -1 rating with six shots on goal during his recent stint in the lineup. Those 10 appearances were consecutive after his recall; he was then scratched for their win over the Flyers last Monday and missed Thursday’s win over the Lightning with an illness.
Koppanen was a fifth-round pick by the Bruins back in 2016. He remained in the Boston organization until 2022-23, making his NHL debut for the B’s that year, before reaching Group VI unrestricted free agency and signing in Pittsburgh. He initially inked a two-year deal but re-upped with them on a two-way extension in June of this year.
The big 6’5″ center is a competent piece of organizational depth and a good middle-six producer in the minors, scoring 139 points in 365 career AHL appearances. He hasn’t been able to stick as a fourth-line piece in several NHL tries now, though. He averaged north of 12 minutes per game on this call-up and even received some penalty kill deployment – he also did in 11 games for the Pens last year. His possession impacts and lack of offense (one goal, three points in 30 career NHL games) haven’t offered enough justification to keep him in the lineup. Among 25 qualified Pittsburgh skaters this year, Koppanen’s 47.2 xGF% at 5-on-5 ranks 20th. After playing a physical brand with 40 hits in 11 games last season, he only recorded nine hits in 10 appearances this time around.
Teams who are in dire need of center depth could take a long look at placing a claim for Koppanen, but in all likelihood, he shouldn’t have much trouble clearing.