The Penguins signed forward prospect Raivis Ansons to a three-year entry-level contract, Ron Hextall announced on Monday.
Ansons, a 20-year-old winger, was the Penguins' fifth-round pick in the 2020 draft. The Penguins had until June 1 of this offseason to sign Ansons before losing his exclusive signing rights.
Ansons, 6 foot 1 and 191 pounds, began this season with the Baie-Comeau Drakkar in the QMJHL, and scored six goals and 18 assists in 19 games before being traded to the Saint John Sea Dogs midseason. He's scored 12 goals and 24 assists in the 37 games with Saint John since the trade.
Two of those goals for Saint John came shorthanded in back-to-back games:
The Sea Dogs announced the recipients of their individual team awards last week and Ansons was named the team's top defensive forward.
Ansons attended the Penguins' development camp and training camp before the season began but was unable to participate in on-ice sessions due to injury.
Ansons has represented his native Latvia in various international tournaments, including in the Division 1A World Junior Championship this season. He scored four goals and five assists in five games in that tournament as Latvia went on to win silver. He scored the game-winner in Latvia's 5-4 win over Denmark in Game 2 of the tournament with 1:26 remaining in regulation:
Ansons will finish out the remainder of this season with the Sea Dogs, who are the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference for the upcoming QMJHL playoffs. Ansons and the Sea Dogs will also be competing in the Memorial Cup, a four-team tournament comprised of the winners of the QMJHL, OHL, WHL and the host city. The Sea Dogs earned a spot in the tournament as the host city this season.
The Memorial Cup will be held from June 20-29, so Ansons won't report to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at any point to finish this season, given that the AHL playoffs are expected to end by June 23. He will likely make his professional debut with Wilkes-Barre next year.
Ansons, forward Lukas Svejkovsky and defenseman Clayton Phillips were the three prospects whose exclusive signing rights for the Penguins expired this summer. Ansons and Svejkovsky signed entry-level deals, while Phillips signed an AHL tryout with Wilkes-Barre.
