Penguins sign pair of draft picks

Pittsburgh signs some young defensemen for next season

The Penguins have started the process of filling out the organization for next season by signing some draft picks as we get to the point in the year where college hockey seasons begin to end for some of them out there.

Yesterday, defenseman Chase Pietila was signed.

A defender with some snarl, Pietila’s season was summed up by his team like this:

Pietila, a 6-foot-3, 195-pound defenseman, was named to the coaches and the media’s Preseason All-CCHA Team before his sophomore season. As an alternate captain this season, Pietila skated in all 36 games and tallied 22 points with seven goals and 15 assists. He scored the game-winning goal against Alaska (Oct. 12) and had three power-play goals. He registered 68 shots on goal and blocked 32 shots defensively. Pietila led the CCHA in penalties (21) and penalty minutes (50) during the regular season.

Pietila, now 21, was drafted as an overage player last summer by the Penguins in the fourth round of the 2024 NHL entry draft. They liked him a lot to jump up and grab him in that spot, and now they’ll bring him pro. Pietila ranked 21st in last summer’s Pensburgh Top 25 Under 25, and honestly it’s going to be an uphill battle for him to keep a spot in the top-25 as more and more young talent continues to be added to the organization. Pietila could be something of a fan favorite in the minors, he’s a “rough around the edges player” that has no problem mixing it up — as his penalty minutes note from this year.

That said, as something of more of a long shot, Pietila has played a mean game and at least has generated some offense while in the NCAA ranks. He’s not going to be known for his offensive abilities going up the ranks, but it’s nice to see that he is capable as a player to have some of that element to his game. Another player that doesn’t have that, Daniel Laatsch, got signed by the Pens today.

While Pietila scored 22 points for Michigan Tech in 2024-25, Laatsch generated just 26 total points over a full four seasons with the Badgers. Laatsch was an honorable mention in the T25U25 series last summer.

Laatsch was drafted back in the seventh round of the 2021 draft, and despite all the changes in the Pittsburgh front office, scouting and player development areas in the last four years, the current administrations saw enough potential to give him a pro deal. That in and of itself is fairly impressive, since no one would have blinked at a new GM and scouting crew opting not to sign a seventh round pick of the previous regimes.

Entry level deals are automatically configured based on the age of the player signing and Laatsch, 23, gets a two-year deal (one year shorter than the majority of ELC terms, due to players usually being younger than 23).

It’s easy to see what the Pens hope Laatsch can bring: he’s 6’5” (though just 190 pounds). They’ll hope he can play in the style of a Marcus Pettersson or Rob Scuderi type of responsible defender that can use reach to block shots and shutdown the defensive zone to make his mark on the game.

Both of these signings are long-term projects for the NHL level with high chances to fail to amount to much of an impact at the top level, but they will add some depth to the minor leagues in the seasons to come and a franchise needs that. As rebuilders/retoolers/whatever you want to call it, player development is a key for the Pittsburgh organization. Ideally they need to turn some of these young prospects into success stories to fuel their organization down the line. It remains to be seen when or if either of these two will get there, but they’ll get their shot and that will start with the 2025-26 season to see where they’re at and how much they develop down the line.