Pittsburgh Penguins Reassign Ville Koivunen

The Pittsburgh Penguins announced today that forward Ville Koivunen has been reassigned to the team’s AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

Koivunen, 22, was a healthy scratch for Pittsburgh’s last two games. The trickle-down effect of Sidney Crosby‘s return from injury on the rest of the lineup appears to have pushed Koivunen out of head coach Dan Muse’s regular set of forwards. Since the young forward is still a developing player, the Penguins likely prefer he play a regular top-line role in the AHL rather than serve as a regular healthy scratch at the NHL level – hence today’s transaction.

A 2021 second-round pick, Koivunen was acquired by the Penguins as part of the Jake Guentzel deal at the 2024 trade deadline. The Penguins acquired him as he was in the midst of a stellar season with Kärpät in Liiga, one where he scored 56 points in 59 games. Since then, he crossed the Atlantic to join the North American pro ranks full-time, and has been an instant high-end AHL scorer. In 91 career games with the AHL Penguins, Koivunen has scored 32 goals and 89 points.

Koivunen got a taste of NHL action last season and acquitted himself well, scoring seven points in eight games. He looked promising enough for the team at Elite Prospects to rank him the No. 2 prospect in the Penguins’ system entering the season, projected as a likely top-nine forward with top-six upside if things break right in his development.

This season, Koivunen has improved upon his already-stellar track record in the AHL, but found more difficulty than last season’s limited sample at the NHL level. Through 33 games, Koivunen has just seven points, and is averaging 12:38 time on ice per game. That’s not entirely out of the ordinary for a young forward, though, as translating AHL scoring to the NHL level is a difficult task posed to just about every premier AHL scorer whenever they’re called up.

With today’s reassignment, Koivunen will get the chance to string together some productive games at the AHL level, likely with the hope of earning another NHL recall this season. With Pittsburgh likely playoff-bound this year, though, it’s possible Muse may prefer a more experienced player in the NHL role once occupied by Koivunen.