Amidst the flurry of contracts handed out by the Pittsburgh Penguins yesterday, the team made a rather intriguing signing out of Finland.

The team announced the signing of Filip Kral to a one year deal worth $775K at the National Hockey League level for the 2024-25 season.

Kral is a 24 year old defenseman who just wrapped up a stellar season in Liiga, Finland’s top professional league.

It shouldn’t be much of a surprise at this point that Kyle Dubas, the former general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, signed a guy with a Leafs connection.

We saw that last year with Noel Acciari, Andreas Johnsson, Marc Johnstone, Radim Zohorna, and several others. Kyle Dubas LOVES his guys.

Kral was a 2018 fifth round pick (149 overall) by the Leafs in 2018. He did spent three years in Toronto’s organization before becoming a free agent and departing for Finland.

But Kral could be more than just the typical Dubas-player signing.

From the blue line, he scored 5 goals and added 32 assists for the Lahti Pelicans in 46 games played. He led all Pelican defensemen in both assists and points.

On the defensive side, he won the league’s Matti Keinonen Trophy, which is given to “the most effective player” with the winner having led the league in +/- and became the first player in Pelicans history to win the award. Kral posted a +28 on the season.

Kral is not the only player in the Finnish league that the Penguins could have coming over. Forward prospect Ville Koivunen, who played for Kärpät and led the league in points from Christmas to the end of the season, could also be coming over to North America and attempt to make the team.

But back to Kral, who does already have North American experience.

Before and after he was drafted, Kral played three seasons in the junior league WHL, totaling 154 games and recording 120 points. He was a +44 in his WHL career.

In addition to that, he got professional experience within the Maple Leafs organization. He played 10 games for the AHL’s Toronto Marlies in 2020-21, where he scored twice. The bulk of his play that season however came in his native Czechia, playing for HC Kometa Brno.

Kral spent significantly more time in 2021-22, where he played 58 games for the Marlies and had 21 points with a -1 rating.

In the 2022-23 season, he recorded 24 more games for the Marlies. He also made his NHL debut last season with the Leafs, playing in back to back games in late October before being re-assigned.

With his young age, an NHL future is definitely still possible for Kral. It should be incredibly interesting to see how he performs now that he’s back in North America.

At his best, he could be a puck moving defenseman for the Penguins who knows how to provide some offense, but also can hold his own on defense. He very likely would not be in a top four role with Pittsburgh next season, but should he stand out in training camp and the preseason, a third pairing role could suit him well.

He does add to a bit of a logjam in terms of left-sided defenseman in the Penguins organization. At the NHL level, the Penguins still have three LD under contract for next season (with P.O. Joseph as a restricted free agent).

In the system, the Penguins have several additional LDs, including pending free agent Ryan Shea, who appeared in the third pair down the stretch last season with Jack St. Ivany, who was just re-signed yesterday.

Success in the European leagues and how it will translate to the NHL (or even the AHL for that matter) is always a tricky to thing to calculate, but after a year like Kral had, it’s definitely worth a shot to bring him in and see what he can do.

It’s a no risk deal for the Penguins, and depending on how a lot of other factors go, it could be Kral’s ticket to an NHL job.

(Feaured photo by David Kirouac-USA TODAY Sports)