Development camp: Koivunen ready for move to North America

CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Finnish winger Ville Koivunen got the briefest of tastes of the AHL last season.

Koivunen, who just turned 21 in June, spent last season playing for Karpat of the top Finnish league, and he had a dominant season. He set career highs with 56 points (22 goals, 34 assists) in 59 games, the most by a 20-year-old player in nearly 30 years in the Finnish league. From December until the end of the season, Koivunen lead the entire league in points.

Koivunen had a strong playoffs too, with five goals and eight assists in 12 games before his team was eliminated in the second round. Not long after, Koivunen hopped on a plane and flew across the Atlantic to head to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for the AHL playoff run.

It wasn't quite his AHL debut -- that came in the 2022-23 season, playing 12 games with the Chicago Wolves when he was still a member of the Hurricanes organization, an underwhelming stint in which he picked up a solitary point, a goal in that 12th game.

Making his AHL playoff debut in Game 1 of Wilkes-Barre's best-of-three first-round matchup with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, things went much better. He scored the Penguins' lone goal in the second period of a narrow 2-1 loss:

With the season on the line two nights later in Game 2, Koivunen had the primary assist on defenseman Jack Rathbone's second-period goal:

Wilkes-Barre ultimately lost the game in overtime, ending the season. Koivunen finished with the goal and assist in his two-game stint. But he felt good about the experience he gained.

"It was fun, of course, it helped a lot," Koivunen said. "You think about next season. So, it was fun and good."

Coming from Finland, where the ice surfaces are bigger, Koivunen said the biggest things he learned in his time in the AHL were that "it's going north and south a little bit faster, and puck controlling isn't so big of a thing here."

Koivunen knows now that before he moves to North America next season, he needs to work on his skating and get faster. He also wants to get stronger, adding strength to help him win more battles. He has good height at 6 feet, but he remains on the slender side at 172 pounds.

In all likelihood, Koivunen will start the year in Wilkes-Barre next season as he settles into the North American game. But Kyle Dubas said after acquiring Koivunen in the Jake Guentzel trade that they fully expect Koivunen to "contend for the roster next year." The whole organization really likes him.

"Hockey sense would be his biggest thing," assistant general manager Jason Spezza said at development camp of what the Penguins are getting in Koivunen. "He thinks the game at a very high level. I think he's able to manipulate defenders with his subtle movements, and he's very dangerous in the power play coming downhill."

Spezza acknowledged that Koivunen would have benefitted from a longer playoff run with Wilkes-Barre, but said he "showed well" in those two games.

"He's able to make plays at a quick pace," Spezza said of what they saw from Koivunen. "I think the important part of development for him would be just getting the pace of his skating up stronger. You're now stepping into playing against men all the time, and even though he did that in Finland, the rink closes a little quicker on you in the American League and the NHL."

Koivunen enjoyed his time in the Penguins' development camp, saying the city is "pretty good, rink is good, equipment and gyms are very good." He called the team-building trip to the Pirates game "fun," but quipped that there's "not going to be many of those anymore."