The Penguins re-signed forward prospect Sam Miletic to a one-year, two-way contract, Jim Rutherford announced on Saturday.
The contract is worth the league-minimum $700,000 at the NHL level. He'll again be a restricted free agent next offseason.
Miletic, 23, scored nine goals and 23 assists in 62 games last season, two points shy of tying Adam Johnson as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's leading scorer. He was the team's only representative in the All-Star game, replacing Andrew Agozzino who was in Pittsburgh at the time of the event.
Miletic was originally an undrafted free agent signing in Sept. 2017 after impressing at the Penguins' annual prospect development camp and training camp. He went back to the OHL for an overage season that year before turning pro in 2018-19. He had a successful rookie AHL season, scoring 12 goals and 23 assists in just 49 games.
When Mike Vellucci was named an assistant coach for Pittsburgh last month, he pointed to Miletic as one of the players he coached in WIlkes-Barre who could push for an NHL spot at some point next season.
Miletic, who is 6-foot-1 and 196 pounds, plays a two-way game as a forward who can put up points but is also solid defensively. He told me that he models his game after that of Winnipeg's Blake Wheeler, because "he's kind of a gritty guy, but also can put the puck in the net."
Miletic was the last of the Penguins' restricted free agents who is expected to be re-signed. The only other unsigned restricted free agent is forward Pontus Aberg, who was acquired in the Kasperi Kapanen trade. Aberg is spending the full 2020-21 season in the KHL and would be unable to move back to North America even if the Penguins offered a contract, and because he is 27 years old he'll be an unrestricted free agent next NHL offseason regardless of what the Penguins did this offseason.