PENGUINS

Penguins defense prospect Emil Pieniniemi said that if he could go back to the start of the season, he would have handled things differently.

Pieniniemi, 21, was preparing for his first pro season in North America in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's training camp when he was assigned to the Nailers in the ECHL.

He didn't go. He stayed in Wilkes-Barre, hoping Penguins management would change their mind, before eventually flying back home to Finland in late October, where he was able to skate and work out on his own.

Pieniniemi and his agent believed that if he couldn't start in the AHL, then they wanted him in the top Finnish league over the ECHL. But because he was under contract, he couldn't just opt to sign with a Finnish team, and the Penguins would have had to loan him. His side thought that if he flew home to Finland, it would put pressure on the Penguins to agree to the loan. Kyle Dubas and Jason Spezza strongly believed in using Wheeling as a legitimate development step, thought it was genuinely best for Pieniniemi, and didn't think that bending would be fair to the players like Sergei Murashov, Finn Harding and Chase Pietila who did start in the ECHL and had a good attitude about it.

By mid-December, Pieniniemi caved. He flew back from Finland and reported to Wheeling, and made his debut several weeks later.

"I just thought, me and my agent, we thought it would be better playing in the Liiga," Pieniniemi told me after the Nailers' elimination on Saturday. "I mean, it was not the best decision."

I asked if that meant in hindsight, he would have reported when the Penguins initially re-assigned him, he didn't hesitate -- "Yeah."

Nailers head coach Ryan Papaioannou told me that the situation made it a real challenge to get Pieniniemi acclimated mid-season, but he doesn't blame the player for the way it all transpired. 

"I think it was maybe a little bit out of (Pieniniemi's) control, just with outside influences," Papaioannou told me. "It wasn't easy. I think just in terms of physicality, he wasn't in game shape when he got here, so he had to get up to speed that way. He had to learn the North American pro game. He had to learn the system we were playing. There were a lot of challenges for him."

Pieniniemi played in 26 regular-season ECHL games to finish the season, recording six goals, five assists and a plus-2 rating. Pieniniemi had played North American-style hockey before, spending a year in the OHL. He played professional hockey in Finland, too. But moving to professional hockey in North America was a real adjustment period and coming in the way he did didn't help.

"It's faster hockey, more physical," Pieniniemi told me. "It was pretty hard. Like mid-season, usually guys are in the best shape there, so the start was pretty hard."

Pieniniemi played well enough to earn nine AHL games, too, where he recorded one goal, two assists and a plus-5 rating. But when Wilkes-Barre's blue line got healthy again, he got sent back down. 

"I think I could play there," Pieniniemi said of his takeaway from those games. "But I mean, there's really good team there, too."

So, that left Pieniniemi in the ECHL for the Nailers' run to the Eastern Conference final, where he scored a goal and seven assists in 15 games. His goal came in Game 6 of the second round, an overtime winner that forced a Game 7, which the Nailers won to punch their ticket to the semifinals:

"I think I got better games than in the regular season," he told me of his postseason. "So yeah, I was pretty happy."

What changed for Pieniniemi in the playoffs, Papaioannou thought, was the effort level.

"I think for him, his compete level was good in the playoffs," Papaioannou told me. "I think that's something that, like, his skill level is undeniable. I think it's always the compete level. Is it there? Is it at a high enough level? And I think he showed that he can do it here. I thought his playoff was good, he had huge goal in Game 6 against Maine."

Pieniniemi genuinely seemed to have fun in Wheeling once he reported, telling me the "good guys" on the team helped make it a good experience.

After Wheeling's elimination, Pieniniemi was one of a few players called up to join Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Toronto to serve as insurance for the remainder of their run. When he does go home for the summer, improving his physicality and getting faster are his biggest priorities as he gets ready for his sophomore season.

Had Pieniniemi started the year in Wheeling and had a normal development year, maybe he would have been up in Wilkes-Barre for good by season's end. Hard to say. He definitely missed out on some development opportunities, but the team doesn't exactly fault him for what happened, understanding the influence his agent had on his decision to sit out.

Wilkes-Barre's blue line remains pretty crowded for next season, with Owen Pickering, Jake Livanavage and Daniel Laatsch under contract and in competition for the left side, and captain Phil Kemp right-handed but capable of playing on the left.

Still, there could certainly be a path for Pieniniemi to stick in the AHL, especially if Pickering clears a spot by moving up to the NHL. He still has potential, even if his rookie year was a rocky one.