One of the Penguins' top prospects is now locked in to his entry-level deal.
The Penguins on Wednesday signed 21-year-old goaltending prospect Joel Blomqvist to a three-year entry-level contract that begins next season and runs through the 2025-26 season.
Blomqvist is a left-catching goaltender who is listed at 6 foot 2 and 183 pounds. He's a native of Uusikaarlepyy, Finland but has a name that is of Swedish origin. His nickname in Finland is 'Blomma," which is the Swedish word for "flower" -- fitting for a Penguins goaltender.
Blomqvist, the Penguins' 2020 second-round pick, already signed an amateur tryout contract this week with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton that allows him to finish the season in the AHL without eating into any of his entry-level contract.
In case you missed it last week, I did this feature on Blomqvist after a phone interview with him, and he made it clear that he was ready to make the jump from Finland to North America.
"Oh yeah, I would be interested in coming over," he said without a millisecond of hesitation when I asked. "For sure. Yeah."
Blomqvist's 2022-23 season was full of adversity. It was supposed to be his first full season as the No. 1 goaltender for his Liiga club Karpat, after serving as backup in 2021-22 and taking over the starting role in the playoffs. He suffered one concussion in October that sidelined him for four weeks, then sustained a second concussion two months after returning from his first one. He was shut down for the remainder of the regular season then made his return for Game 1 of Karpat's first-round series in the Liiga playoffs. He started all three games as Karpat was eliminated in the best-of-five series.
Blomqvist went 6-5-8 in the regular season and recorded a 2.29 goals-against average, a .907 save percentage and one shutout. In his 45 career Liiga games he has gone 14-9-12 and recorded a 1.92 goals-against average with a .917 save percentage and six shutouts.
Signing Blomqvist to an entry-level contract doesn't ensure that he will 100% be making his permanent move to North America next season -- he could be on his entry-level contract but still be assigned to a Liiga team. But signing him to an entry-level contract now is a pretty solid indication that the Penguins plan to have him in Wilkes-Barre next season. The Penguins had Blomqvist's exclusive signing rights until next summer, so they didn't have to sign him until then.
The remaining prospects whose rights expire with the Penguins in the summer of 2024 are Providence College center Chade Yoder (sixth round, 2020), OHL Sudbury Wolves defenseman Nolan Collins (sixth round, 2022) and Swedish-second league defenseman Thimo Nickl (acquired in Judd Caulfield trade).
Blomqvist coming to North America could mean the end of goaltending prospect Filip Lindberg's time in the organization. All of these goaltending prospects need somewhere to actually play. Taylor Gauthier, a 22-year-old rookie with Wilkes-Barre this season after being signed as an undrafted free agent last spring, is under contract through 2024-25. He's having a pretty strong rookie campaign, with a 2.75 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage through 19 games on a sub-.500 Wilkes-Barre team. Lindberg, 24, is a restricted free agent this summer. After missing all but seven games of his rookie 2021-22 campaign with an ankle injury, Lindberg has been sidelined for much of this season with multiple other injuries. He has been out with an upper-body injury since Feb. 11. He suffered a lower-body injury on Dec. 21 that had him sidelined until Jan. 14. Even when Lindberg has been healthy, his season has been underwhelming, with a 3.13 goals-against average and a .896 save percentage in 19 games.
The Penguins could go into next season with Gauthier and Blomqvist as a tandem in Wilkes-Barre, or potentially sign a veteran goaltender to be in the rotation with the two young netminders.
