Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Ville Koivunen certainly left a strong first impression during his full professional season in North America this past campaign.

Koivunen spent the bulk of the season in the AHL with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and undoubtedly made a big impact. In 63 games with the AHL squad in 2024-25, he recorded 21 goals, 35 assists, and 56 points. With numbers like these, he demonstrated his offensive upside. 

Koivunen also ended the regular-season at the NHL level with Pittsburgh, and it could not have gone much better for the 2021 second-round pick. In eight games with Pittsburgh, he recorded seven assists. This included him ending the season on a five-game point streak, where he posted six assists over that span.

Overall, Koivunen has shown early on that he has the potential to become a solid NHL forward, and he certainly could take a major step forward in his development next season because of it. When looking at the Penguins' current group, he has a strong chance of playing in their middle six and getting power-play time. This could end up benefiting a young and skilled player like Koivunen tremendously.

It is going to be very interesting to see what kind of season Koivunen can put together for the Penguins in 2025-26. If he continues to trend in the right direction, he could cement himself as a big part of Pittsburgh's roster moving forward. 

Penguins Have Interesting Goalie Battle To WatchWith it now being the middle of August, NHL training camps are not too far away, and the Pittsburgh Penguins are gearing up for an interesting one. After bringing in several new players this off-season, there will be plenty of players fighting for spots on their NHL roster.