The NHL draft is eleven days away and the Penguins continue to shuffle the roster ahead of it. Over the weekend, they acquired the rights to forward Oliver Okuliar, a restricted free agent, from the Florida Panthers in return for disgruntled defenseman Emil Pieniniemi, who was the team’s 2023 third round draft choice. Pieniniemi was unhappy with his failure to advance quickly through the Pens’ minor league system, and particularly with his assignment to Wheeling rather than Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. The 26-year-old Okuliar played last season in the Swedish Hockey League.
Defenseman Sebastian Aho will leave the Penguins and play in Sweden next season. He never got to Pittsburgh after spending two seasons at Wilkes.
The Pens will have the 22nd overall selection in the first round of the draft. They have all seven of their draft picks plus an extra pick in the third round and a conditional pick from the Blackhawks in the seventh round.
NHL
The Carolina Hurricanes shut out the Vegas Golden Knights 3-0 in Game Six to win the Stanley Cup Final, four games to two. It’s the first Cup for Carolina since 2006 and their captain, former Penguins Jordan Stahl, became the oldest player ever to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP. He is also the player who played the most seasons between his first and second Stanley Cup wins, winning in 2009 with the Penguins and in 2026 with the Hurricanes, a gap of seventeen years.
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