Pensburgh Top 25 Under 25: #21 – Chase Pietila

The overage defenseman took huge steps in 2023-24 to get on the NHL radar. Now that he’s there, what can he do with it?

The 2024 version of our Pensburgh Top 25 Under 25 countdown list continues on with a 2024 draftee that found his third time eligible for the NHL draft to be the charm.

Graduates and departed players from last year’s list
The best of the rest
#25: Raivis Ansons
#24: Kirill Tankov

#21: Chase Pietila, RHD
2023 Ranking: unranked
Age: 20 (Mar 3, 2004)
Acquired Via: 2024 NHL Draft (Round 4- No. 111 overall)
Height/Weight: 6-foot-2, 187 pounds

Elite Prospects resume:

A late-bloomer, Pietila went undrafted to the NHL in 2022 and 2023 as he came up through the ranks of the USHL. This past season in 2023-24 he took a step up in competition to the college level at Michigan Tech and got on the NHL radar when the Penguins selected him in the fourth round.

How did he make such strides? It was a great year at Michigan Tech, were Pietila was the team’s fourth leading scorer and played with an edge as a big role as a freshman.

Former Pittsburgh scouting director Nick Pryor had this to say at last month’s draft.

Pistils can credit his big freshman year for his career taking a huge leap forward.

“I thought it went really well,” Pietila said. “I’m really happy with how it went. Whenever they put me in a huge role, I feel I fit in pretty well. I would say I’m a two-way defenseman that plays with some tenacity and some grit and kind of stirs things up. I can add offense when needed.”

The Elite Prospects draft guide described his game as the following:

Pietila defends well through the neutral zone and in space, leveraging good habits and a decent defensive skating posture to keep the play in front of him and get stops. During in-zone play, he scans off-puck, tries to make proactive reads, and always stays on the right side of his check. He isn’t physically punishing, striking up a more suffocating posture to disrupt plays. The Howell-born blueliner is just solid.

The player self-scouted in the following way:

“I’m a two-way d-man,” Chase said. “I like to play pretty aggressive and play in the D-zone first, but add offense when it’s needed, for sure. Then I’m trying to work on my skating a little bit in transitioning and just obviously working on the little details, like stick position.”

Getting Pietila to the Pens was a cloak and dagger operation, one where Kyle Dubas get the last laugh on Toronto (for this matter at least). Pietila told the Livingston Daily that his advisors were telling him he could be a fifth to seventh round pick, and the Maple Leafs were one of the teams most interested in him. With the industry expectation shaping up in that way, Pittsburgh saw the need to swoop in and take Pietila a little earlier than that in the fourth round — before the projection window of when Toronto, Tampa or another team was preparing to draft him.

“I talked to Toronto and Tampa the most,” Pietila said. “Pittsburgh never called me once. I was surprised when they drafted me. When the (general manager) called after they picked me, he said, ‘We didn’t talk to you as soon as we knew we wanted you.’ They wanted to keep me under the radar and try to sneak me in in the early rounds. He told his people, ‘Don’t talk to Chase, don’t talk to Chase. Don’t talk to his advisor. We don’t want anybody to know we’re going to draft him.’”

The gambit worked, the Pietila camp was shocked to see that the Pens were the ones that cut the line on the rest of the league to draft him. When Pietila was picked it was something of a surprise and “reach” go observers on the outside based on pre-draft rankings. But knowing the detail about other teams targeting this player in the fifth round, it comes into focus more about why the Pens felt motivated to make this selection in the fourth round. (Questions on the wisdom and necessity of grabbing a twice passed over defensive-minded defender will still linger for a while, though again, in the fourth round such a move ought not make anyone lose sleep).

Perhaps it shouldn’t have been such a big surprise that the Penguins were high on the Pietila boys. Chase’s broth Logan, 24, signed an AHL contract with Wilkes-Barre after playing on Michigan Tech last season as well (if nothing else proving that the Pens watched a lot of Michigan Tech last year and undoubtedly liked what they saw).

From being off the radar completely to a successful transition to the NCAA level last season and being scooped up mid-rounds of the draft before another team could get him later on, it’s been a big step forward for Pietila. At 20, he’s older than most draftees, but still likely has a couple more seasons of collegiate hockey ahead of him to give time to see how much more improving he can do and what level of player he’ll be at when the decision to turn pro comes.

By virtue of the fourth rounder they used on him, Pittsburgh sees some hope and potential that Pietila can continue on the ascent and perhaps be a Jack St. Ivany+ type of player for them in the years to come as a two-way defender with a bit of an edge. Pietila’s development and timing will require patience and giving it time but