On June 13, the Florida Panthers acquired 21-year-old defenseman Emil Pieniniemi from the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for Oliver Okuliar.
Pieniniemi is coming off his first season of professional hockey in North America, skating with the Wheeling Nailers in the ECHL and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the AHL. In a combined 35 games, he had seven goals and 14 points with eight penalty minutes and was plus-7.
We have acquired defenseman Emil Pieniniemi from the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for the rights to forward Oliver Okuliar. pic.twitter.com/dZ5aLGxwXh
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) June 13, 2026
Here are five interesting facts about one of the newest young defensemen in the Panthers’ system.
Earned a World Juniors Silver Medal in 2025
After one year with Finland’s U18 team, where he won a bronze medal at the 2022 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, Pieniniemi earned a spot on the country’s U20 team in 2025. During his first appearance at the World Juniors, he helped Finland secure the silver medal, which fell to the United States in overtime 4-3.
Internationally, Pieniniemi has played in three IIHF tournaments, scoring two goals and four points in 18 games. At the latest World Juniors tournament, he served as an alternate captain for his team.
Pieniniemi was a point-per-game player in the OHL
In 2024-25, Pieniniemi came to North America and made his OHL debut with the Kingston Frontenacs. Despite being a defenseman, he tallied 60 points in 60 games, with 10 goals and 50 assists. He finished fourth on the team in scoring and was one of only two defenders to surpass 30 points.
According to his Elite Prospects profile, his one-season stint in the OHL is the most productive stop in his career, almost more than doubling or tripling his averages in Liiga, AHL, and ECHL.
The third round pick that turned into Pieniniemi was traded twice
Pieniniemi could have played for the Colorado Avalanche or the New York Rangers. Still, he ended up wearing a Penguins jersey at the 2023 NHL Draft after the Penguins selected him with the 91st overall pick in the third round.
Initially, the Avalanche traded their third-round pick, along with a 2022 second-round pick and a 2023 fifth-round pick, to the Rangers on July 7, 2022, for goalie Alexandar Georgiev.
At the 2023 NHL Draft, New York made a pick swap with Pittsburgh, sending their third-round (from Colorado) and seventh-round selections in exchange for a third-round selection.
Pieniniemi’s father was an Olympic hockey coach
Mika Pieniniemi began his coaching career at 32, when he accepted an assistant coach role with Kärpät. He also served as the team’s team manager for one season in 1998-99 before moving on to earn a head coaching gig with KalPa in 2002-03.
He’d remain in that role for five seasons, accepting an assistant coach job with Ässät for two years, ending his time in Liiga in 2009. However, Mika came out of semi-retirement in 2012-13 to lead Finland at the World Championships, in preparation for serving as head coach at the 2014 Olympic Games.
Despite boasting the tournament’s MVP, Teemu Selänne, Finland lost to rival Sweden in the Semi-Final, failing to capture a medal after a 2-0-1 round-robin record.
Pieniniemi doesn’t have an English Wikipedia page
If someone were curious to learn more about Pieniniemi, they’d be hard-pressed to find out anything about the kid from Kuopio, Finland. Usually, a quick Google search about a player will yield a link to their Wikipedia page, but for some reason, he doesn’t have one in English. Instead, one of the top links will take a fan to his Finnish Wikipedia page.
Aside from using a translator to get through the text, someone can scroll to the bottom and check one of the 33 articles and references, some of which are in English, to look back at his career. Hopefully, if Pieniniemi makes his NHL debut in the near future, someone will quickly piece together an English page.
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