Pittsburgh brings back winger through 2026
The Penguins have re-signed another free agent. Pending free agent Valtteri Puustinen is back in the fold for two more seasons at a league minimum salary.
The Penguins have re-signed forward Valtteri Puustinen to a two-year contract.
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) May 10, 2024
The contract runs through the 2025.26 season and carries an average annual value of $775,000 at the NHL level.
From the team:
The Pittsburgh Penguins have re-signed forward Valtteri Puustinen to a two-year contract, it was announced today by President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Kyle Dubas.
The contract runs through the 2025-26 season and carries an average annual value of $775,000 at the NHL level.
Puustinen, 24, split the 2023-24 season between Pittsburgh and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League. With Pittsburgh, the forward led all rookies with five goals, 15 assists and 20 points in 52 games played. Puustinen, who recorded an assist in his NHL debut on March 11, 2022 against the Vegas Golden Knights, has registered 21 points (5G-16A) and a plus-6 in 53 career NHL games.
The 5-foot-9, 183-pound forward tallied five goals, eight assists and 13 points in 24 games in his third season with the WBS Penguins. In total, Puustinen has recorded 49 goals, 65 assists and 114 points in 169 career AHL games. The forward led his team in points during each of his first two seasons in the AHL in 2021-22 (42) and ‘22-23 (59).
Prior to making his North American debut, Puustinen played three seasons with HPK of Liiga, Finland’s top professional league, from 2018-21. In 152 career Liiga games, he tallied 48 goals, 46 assists and 94 points and won the league championship in 2019.
The Kuopio, Finland native is currently representing his home country at his second World Championship after he previously won a silver medal in 2021. Puustinen also won a gold medal at the 2019 World Junior Championship with Team Finland.
Puustinen was originally drafted in the seventh round (203rd overall) of the 2019 NHL Draft by Pittsburgh.
Puustinen worked his way into being a lineup regular in 2023-24 for the first time. Due to his age and lack of career NHL games he was set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Recognizing his value and growing profile, the Pens acted quickly to give him a second season on a contract offer and get him tied to the club for the future.
