Pittsburgh Penguins sign defenseman Sebastian Aho

The Pittsburgh Penguins have announced the signing of defenseman Sebastian Aho to a two-year contract worth $775,000 per season.

The 28-year-old was drafted by the New York Islanders in the fifth round of the 2017 NHL Draft. Aho has spent his entire career to date with the club, registering 11 goals and 50 points in 190 regular season games. He set a personal best with 18 assists and 23 points in 2022-23 while skating in 71 games.

Aho struggled last year, scoring just two goals and nine points in 58 games. He missed eight games with an upper-body injury in the winter. He was a healthy scratch on other occasions, sitting for the entirety of the 2024 playoffs against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Before coming to North America, Aho was a prominent player with Skelleftea AIK in the Swedish Hockey League. He finished his last year there in 2016-17 with 30 points in 50 games while also getting into his first men’s national team action in Euro Hockey Tour play that year.

Additionally, Aho has 105 points in 156 games in three years with the AHL’s Bridgeport Sound Tigers, earning a spot in the all-star game each year.

Aho gives the Penguins some extra veteran depth, with the team sitting at six defensemen signed for $24.425 million, per CapFriendly. The team also signed Matt Grzelcyk on Monday to a one-year deal worth $2.75 million, among other signings.

The Penguins missed the playoffs for the second consecutive year, the first time that’s happened since Sidney Crosby broke into the league in 2005-06. They last won a playoff series in 2018 when they beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-2 in the first round, one season removed from their second consecutive Stanley Cup.