Hockey IQ and plenty of offensive production. The Pittsburgh Penguins targeted more of those attributes when they signed NCAA free agent defenseman Jake Livanavage to a two-year entry-level contract Friday.
Livanavage, 21, is an Arizona native who came up through the Jr. Coyotes program, spent a few years in the USHL with the Chicago Steel and then a few seasons with one of college hockey’s most storied programs and arenas at the University of North Dakota. This season, the left-handed Livanavage scored five goals with 20 assists, 25 points and was plus-15 in 39 regular-season games.
When you are cutting the Jake Livanavage tape and you come across a sequence so good you have to stop and tweet it pic.twitter.com/KrTrDwRB03
— Jesse Marshall (@jmarshfof) April 11, 2026
The contract will begin immediately and run through the end of next season, the 2026-27 season. Livanavage will not report to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, but instead report to directly to Pittsburgh.
The Penguins may have gotten a better look at the D-man as they scouted their own 2024 seventh-round pick, Mac Swanson, who is also a member of the UND squad. Livanavage also played for the U.S. Collegiate Selects with fellow Penguins prospect Zam Plante at the 2026 Spengler Cup.
The 5-foot-11, 190-pound blueliner spent three seasons (2023-26) at UND, playing in 117 games, scoring 14 goals, 68 assists and 82 points.
While many reports indicate his size is an issue, 190 pounds isn’t slight. Scouting reports from his drafts years also indicate a strong hockey IQ, which fits the motif of Wes Clark and Kyle Dubas, who gravitate toward those types of players in hopes of working on their physical skills.
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