BREAKING NEWS: Penguins re-sign a key player to two-year deal, with $775,000 cap hit through the end of the 2025-26 season.

A youthful forward will remain in Pittsburgh for another two years. The Pittsburgh Penguins confirmed on Friday that Valtteri Puustinen has signed a two-year contract starting from next season. The contract will have a cap hit of $775,000 until the conclusion of the 2025-26 season.

The Penguins have re-signed forward Valtteri Puustinen to a two-year contract.

The contract runs through the 2025.26 season and carries an average annual value of $775,000 at the NHL level.

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) May 10, 2024

Puustinen played under a one-year contract last season with an average annual value (AAV) of $775,000. The native of Kuopio, Finland, had his longest stint with Pittsburgh, appearing in 52 games. During this time, he scored five goals and 20 points, with his first NHL goal coming on Dec. 27 against the New York Islanders.

Selected by the Penguins in the seventh round of the 2019 NHL Draft, Puustinen joined the team after winning the Liiga with HPK in Finland and helping Finland secure gold at the IIHF World Junior Championship. He moved to North America in 2021 and made his NHL debut on March 11, 2022. Puustinen spent the entire 2022-23 season and the first two months of last season with the Penguins’ AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

He was called up in December and remained with Pittsburgh for most of the 2023-24 season. Puustinen has scored 50 goals and 120 points in 177 AHL games.

Currently, Puustinen is in Czechia representing Finland in the 2024 IIHF Men’s World Championship.

With this signing, the Penguins now have 32 standard player contracts for next season. According to CapFriendly, Pittsburgh is expected to have a little over $12 million in cap space for the 2024-25 season.