This one was a no-brainer.
Ron Hextall announced on Tuesday that the Penguins signed forward Lukas Svejkovsky, their 2020 fourth-round draft pick, to his entry-level contract.
The three-year deal begins next season and has an average annual value of $859,167 at the NHL level.
Svejkovsky, 20, is a right-handed shot and has moved between center and wing this season. He began the season playing for the WHL's worst team in the league this year, the Medicine Hat Tigers, and he put up strong numbers with 13 goals and 17 assists in 24 games. He was traded midseason to a contender, the Seattle Thunderbirds. After getting COVID and needing weeks to recover, he made his Thunderbirds debut and has been on a tear after settling in, with 19 goals and 24 assists in 31 games.
Between those games with Medicine Hat and Seattle, Svejkovsky has set career highs in goals (32) assists (41) and points (73) in 55 games.
These three goals came in a hat trick last month:
These two goals were both on a power play in another recent game:
This goal came shorthanded over the weekend:
Penguins director of player development Scott Young has made a couple of trips out west this season to see Svejkovsky in person.
"We were all excited about this trade to Seattle, because now he's with better players on a good team," Young told me. "He's tearing it up. It's something we expected when he played with better players. His former team was toward the bottom of the league, there weren't a lot of guys for him to play with. He's got such a high skill level, he had a really good camp for us. He's got a very high skill, a really good skater."
At 5-foot-10 and 165 pounds, Svejkovsky is on the smaller side. But as young is he is, that's something that the Penguins hope to help change once Svejkovsky makes the jump to pro hockey next season.
"There's a lot to really like about him," Young said. "We've got to get a little more muscle on him. And always the case is going to be making sure with the transition that he pays attention to the details in the defensive zone. But there's a high ceiling there."
Svejkovsky was one of the three remaining players whose exclusive signing rights expire for the Penguins this season. The others are Penn State defenseman Clayton Phillips, the Penguins' 2017 third-round pick. Following Penn State's elimination, Phillips signed an AHL tryout contract with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and has yet to appear in a game. The other player whose rights expire is QMJHL forward Raivis Ansons, the Penguins' 2020 fifth-round pick. Ansons has 13 goals and 35 assists in 45 games this season.
