Kral is a new member of the organization after signing this past offseason as an unrestricted free agent.
The 2024 version of our PensBurgh Top 25 Under 25 countdown continues with the an unrestricted free agency addition into the organization from this offseason.
Graduates and departed players from last year’s list
The best of the rest
#25: Raivis Ansons
#24: Kirill Tankov
#23: Isaac Belliveau
#22: Taylor Gauthier
#21: Chase Pietila
#20: Emil Jarventie
#19: Kalle Kangas
#18 Joona Vaisanen
#17: Filip Kral, LHD
2023 Ranking: N/A
Age: 24 (October 20, 1999)
Acquired Via: Unrestricted free agency
Height/Weight: 6-foot-2, 198 pounds
The No. 17 player on our Top-25 list is another player that just barely makes the cut off.
It is also a new member into the organization, as Kral, who actually turns 25 in October, signed with the Penguins as an unrestricted free agent this past summer after spending the 2023-24 season playing in Finland.
Kral has a history with the Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas, having spent several years in the Toronto organization and continuing the pipeline of former Toronto players to follow him into Pittsburgh.
Kral played in the Toronto organization — mainly for the AHL’s Marlies — between the 2020-21 and 2022-23 seasons, getting one brief two-game cup of coffee in the NHL.
During his AHL team he scored 29 total points (seven goals, 22 assists) in 92 total games over parts of three seasons.
He had zero points in two NHL games during that time.
Following his stint in Toronto he played this past season for Pelicans in the top Finnish league where his offensive game really took off on the larger ice surface. He finished the season with 37 points in 46 games and was the fourth-highest scoring defenseman in the league despite missing 14 games of the season due to injury.
His offensive performance is noteworthy because he has long been an admirer of his new Penguins teammate, Erik Karlsson, as he told Pelicans website in an interview this past year. Now he might have an opportunity to be his teammate.
Barring some sort of trade or surprising roster move between now and the start of training camp it seems likely that Kral will open the 2024-25 season in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton where he should be the team’s top defensemen. The NHL roster is already pretty full on the blue line with Karlsson, Kris Letang, Marcus Pettersson, Ryan Graves, Matt Grzelcyk, Ryan Shea and Sebastian Aho under NHL contracts. Perhaps he can beat out Shea or Aho for a spot out of the gate, but the other five spots seem pretty locked in.
The most likely outcome is that he opens in Wilkes-Barre and is the first defender to get a recall whenever one of the aforementioned players is inevitably injured and has to miss some time.
At his age, and with his track record in North America, it is unlikely that he is going to establish himself as a top-pairing, or even top-four defenseman in the NHL at this point in his career, but he still has a chance to be a useful depth player as a third-pairing or seventh defenseman. Especially if he is able to settle into a role where he gets sheltered minutes and can play to his strengths in an offensive role.