Rarely, if ever, in hockey history has a season as disappointing as the one recently authored by Ville Koivunen resulted in lifetime wealth.

But here we are.

The deal, announced Thursday by the Pittsburgh Penguins and paying Koivunen $4 million per season for eight years, has triggered more questions than answers.

Koivunen started last season on Sidney Crosby’s line, but that configuration lasted precisely two games because Koivunen looked utterly out of sorts playing with the Penguins captain.

In fact, during his time in Pittsburgh, he’s looked out of sorts in general.

Koivunen, 23, scored two goals in 39 NHL games last season. He finished with seven points. While he didn’t necessarily look out of place, he certainly wasn’t productive, nor did he look like a player who was on the verge of production.

And production is everything with Koivunen. He’s unlikely to be a penalty killer; he isn’t physical, and his size — generously listed at 6 feet and 184 pounds — was a detriment last season. He’s a top-line-style player who didn’t produce. In fact, he seemed to regress from his seven-point, eight-game cameo at the conclusion of the 2024-25 season.

So, why on earth would the Penguins give him an eight-year contract? While $4 million annually isn’t what it once was because of the rising salary cap, I will defy the common standards of grammar by saying it’s not nothing.

Here is what Penguins president and general manager Kyle Dubas said in an email to local reporters on Thursday afternoon: “We view the contract as a bet — on Ville, his potential, and our belief that he is going to do the work to reach his potential.”

Two team sources, speaking under condition of anonymity to detail private discussions, told me that Dubas views this as a “low-risk, high-reward” contract.

In other words: If Koivunen is ultimately a bust, $4 million annually isn’t a big deal. Perhaps more to the point, because Koivunen is under 26, the Penguins can theoretically buy him out and only 33 percent of that money would count against their salary cap moving forward. If you look at it in those terms, the contract doesn’t seem quite as risky financially.

The Penguins obviously like him. He’s a 2021 second-round pick and one of the key return pieces in the Jake Guentzel trade in 2024. In 97 career games with AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Koivunen has produced 97 points. He’s already proven himself to be a very good AHL player.

With all due respect to Dubas, whom I believe has done superb work for most of his tenure in Pittsburgh, I simply can’t get behind this deal.

• In 47 career NHL games, Koivunen has scored two goals. He doesn’t have a particularly threatening shot, he’s easily boxed out because of his smallish frame and he’s never looked like a player capable of scoring 20-plus goals.

• He plays like an especially annoying pest in the AHL, which is great, but there has never been a hint of that attitude in the NHL, where he often looks timid.

• I haven’t seen a member of the Penguins get knocked off the puck as easily as Koivunen since Conor Sheary, but at least Sheary scored on occasion.

• I don’t love the message it sends to young players. If someone who has a profoundly disappointing season is rewarded with $32 million, what is Ben Kindel thinking right about now? Is Rutger McGroarty going to demand a lucrative raise after scoring his fifth goal next season? And could you blame him, now that this standard has been set?

• Couldn’t you have given him a small bridge deal, and then, after a year or two, given him a bigger, longer contract if warranted?

• I sensed that Koivunen felt a little overwhelmed mentally by life in the NHL last season and that he just wasn’t ready for it. This contract is going to follow him everywhere. Do we think he’s up to dealing with that kind of pressure daily?

While I greatly appreciate the honesty and straightforwardness in Dubas’ thoughts on this deal, I don’t think it’s typically wise to make eight-year, $32 million bets. In this case, I don’t really think the Penguins are betting on Koivunen at all. I think Dubas is betting on his analytics and player development team. Lots of people in the organization like Koivunen and think the offense will come around. And that’s fine. I get it.

But what’s the rush? If $4 million annually is no big deal, why not make him earn it and, if needed, give him $5 million annually in a year or two?

I can confidently say that Koivunen isn’t going to erupt into a $15 million-per-year player the Penguins can’t afford.

The move is even more puzzling considering I have no clue where Koivunen fits on this team. I’ll present you with 12 names: Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell, Egor Chinakhov, Tommy Novak, Ben Kindel, Nick Robertson, Andrei Kuzmenko, Connor Dewar, Blake Lizotte and Elmer Söderblom. Who, among those 12, is coming out of the lineup so Koivunen can play? Remember, he probably won’t kill penalties in Pittsburgh, which makes it a lot more difficult to justify him on the third or fourth line.

I didn’t even mention Justin Brazeau, McGroarty or Avery Hayes.

That’s a lot of forwards, and the one who produced the least impressive 2025-26 season just got handsomely rewarded.

No, Dubas isn’t betting on Koivunen. He’s betting on what the Penguins believe his path will be. He’s betting on what the hockey analytics community enjoys referring to as the “underlying numbers.” He’s betting on his front office being correct.

Good for Koivunen, who is a very nice young man. Word is he’s been working relentlessly to get stronger this summer. Good. Good for Dubas and the Penguins if they’re right about this guy. I suppose it will look genius and ahead of its time if Koivunen blossoms. But the problem with betting is that there’s a good chance you’ll be wrong.

Dubas did marvelous work during the 2025-26 season and should have been named the NHL’s GM of the Year.

This summer has been a downer. Dubas wasn’t able to move up in the draft; he wasn’t able to make an impact trade; he dealt one of their most steady players, Parker Wotherspoon, and let another get away in Ryan Shea. Giving the steady-but-unspectacular Tommy Novak a three-year contract extension raised some eyebrows.

Thursday’s move did nothing but drop jaws around the hockey world.

It seems to me that Dubas feels handcuffed by the older players on his roster and is taking some curious chances further down the lineup because he has nothing better to do until this team ages out organically, at which point the real work will begin.

Having to grapple with this contract once the real work begins seems unnecessary. It’s a bet I wouldn’t have made.