Penguins re-sign forward Kasperi Kapanen, avoid arbitration
The Penguins have re-signed restricted free agent forward Kasperi Kapanen to a two-year contract that carries a salary cap hit of $3.2 million.
Reaching an agreement avoids a salary arbitration hearing that was scheduled for July 30.
Kapanen, who turns 26 on Saturday, appeared in 79 games last season and scored 32 points (11 goals, 21 assists) while averaging 14 minutes, 32 seconds of ice time per contest.
A first-round pick (No. 22 overall) in 2014, Kapanen often was his harshest critic throughout an underwhelming 2021-22 campaign.
“I kind of let (the Penguins) down this year and didn’t produce as much as I wanted to,” Kapanen said during a season-ending media availability in May. “Hopefully, after (what was) probably my worst professional year, I can bounce back and have a tremendous year next year.”
Penguins management acknowledged Kapanen’s struggles but still professes faith that the talented winger can realize his potential.
“I wouldn’t say maybe his play hasn’t been up to his standard. I think it’s clear that it hasn’t. His play has been well below what we’ve expected and hoped for,” Penguins president of hockey operations Brian Burke said in a telephone interview with the Tribune-Review earlier this month. “That being said, he’s a really good person. We think he can bounce back. And he’s going to bounce back.”
Curiously, Kapanen’s new contract carries the same exactly salary cap hit as the three-year contract he just completed.
Even more curious is what the Penguins must now do with regard to their roster. Following Kapanen’s contract, they are now $480,175 over the upper limit of the NHL’s salary cap of $82.5 million according to Cap Friendly. NHL teams are not required to be compliant with the salary cap until the first day of a new season.
An obvious portion of the roster that could be looked at to bring some relief to the salary cap is the blue line as the Penguins currently have nine NHL-caliber defensemen under contract. NHL teams rarely carry more than eight during the regular season.
With Kapanen re-signed, 13 players who finished the 2021-22 season under NHL contract to the Penguins remain unsigned with regards to an NHL club:
Forwards: Justin Almeida, Jordy Bellerive, Kasper Bjorkqvist, Brian Boyle, Michael Chaput, Jan Drozg, Danton Heinen, Evan Rodrigues
Defensemen: Niclas Almari, Nathan Beaulieu, Cam Lee, Will Reilly
Goaltender: Alex D’Orio
Kapanen is a restricted free agent.
Almari, Almeida, Bellerive, Drozg, D’Orio, Heinen, Lee and Reilly became unrestricted free agents after the Penguins opted not to extend qualifying offers to them.
Bjorkqvist and Almari have signed with teams in Europe, though the Penguins opted to retain Bjorkqvist’s NHL rights as a restricted free agent and extended him a qualifying offer.
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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