Another quiet day throughout NHL circles yesterday, but the Penguins handled some important business, business that only means something if it sets up a Penguins Jason Robertson trade.
Yesterday morning the Penguins signed recently acquired Nick Robertson to a 2-year deal worth 3.25 million per season. After the signing of Robertson, the Penguins are left with only one RFA to sign (and two who will be unsigned playing in Russia next season), Ville Koivunen. The Robertson deal is great for the Penguins because the term and money are pretty fair. I had projected Robertson to get somewhere between 2.8 and 3 per season but don’t feel as if 3.25 is too much for a guy who scored 16 goals last season playing primarily 12 minutes a night on the 4th line. By the way, that was insanely bad usage by Toronto. The Leafs were devoid of goal scoring last year and had a kid who could clearly score, and skate, but they constantly buried him in the lineup. After the signing, the Penguins officially have their entire NHL roster set unless a prospect were to force their way onto the team.
We all assumed that this signing would take place well before the arbitration hearing and it did. However, I am more interested in the fact Koivunen is left unsigned. I think Ville has a chance at being a decent NHL player despite his shortcomings last season. We saw it during the end of the 2025 season that the potential lives inside him. We also saw him torch the AHL for most of the year. Management has said that conditioning coming into the season was a problem for Koivunen and that he needed to work on adding muscle throughout the offseason. It was easier for him to create space and win battles in the AHL because the talent level is significantly lower when you are playing down a league. At the NHL level that isn’t the case because everyone is more physically mature and we saw it frustrate Ville constantly during his time with the parent club. His lack of open space really highlighted his slight delay in thought processing as he regularly took an extra second to shoot the puck which will never cut it at the NHL level. If Ville were to add to his frame and quicken his release, he could very much become a productive NHL winger. I am just not sure if he will accomplish those things in Pittsburgh. I find him being left unsigned interesting because he would be a perfect piece to trade and the acquiring team may want control over what his contract looks like next season. He should be an easy player to sign so if he isn’t being used as trade fodder it doesn’t make much sense. A guy who struggled at the NHL level, is under team control lacking arb rights, and has a desire to play in North America should’ve made this a quick signing. McGroarty would be the other prospect who could be on the chopping block. Both players are guys seemingly ready to make the jump and contending teams trading away a star would likely prefer a younger player who isn’t a 2-3 project. For Pittsburgh, they would likely prefer to move Ville for the simple fact that he requires waivers this season and could be lost for free before the season starts.
The Penguins Jason Robertson Trade Runs Through Detroit
If Ville were to be moved, it would make sense for him to be a part of the package to acquire the other Robertson. We will continue beating this drum until some sort of conclusion is reached. It’s been reported yesterday that the Stars are willing to do a Robertson for Larkin swap. The only issue is that Detroit seemingly has no interest in the star winger. Once again, I believe this is where Pittsburgh can step in to help the situation along. Detroit trades Larkin to Pittsburgh for some package they are comfortable with, one that likely includes Koivunen as a piece, and then Pittsburgh trades Larkin to Dallas for Robertson. Detroit is likely going to ask for Kindel, which isn’t happening. The Penguins have other pieces that Detroit would need to level with and many of them have ties to the area such as Zam Plante (his brothers are both in the Detroit system), Horcoff, and Rust. I am not sure what the package would look like without Kindel, but the Penguins don’t necessarily need to be overly aggressive because it’s Detroit and Dallas in a bind, not Pittsburgh.
As we pointed out yesterday, there is a deadline looming over Dallas’ GM to come to some sort of resolution with Robertson. It’s not best for the player, or the team, to see this go to arbitration which may ultimately result in the 45-goal scorer to leave after the 26-27 season for free as a free agent. Jason’s brother just received his contract yesterday, and it’s hard to believe that Jason himself wouldn’t mind signing in the same place. Even if the trade doesn’t come to fruition, the Penguins are not in a bad spot as they have taken care of the entire roster while sitting on over 13 million in cap space.
