The Pittsburgh Penguins have signed forward Mikhail Ilyin to a three-year entry-level contract. The announcement was made by President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Kyle Dubas.
Ilyin’s contract will start in the 2025-26 season and extend through the 2027-28 season.
During the 2024-25 season, Ilyin, aged 20, played primarily with Severstal Cherepovets in the KHL, Russia’s premier professional league. The forward, standing at 6-foot-3 and weighing 191 pounds, participated in 64 regular-season games where he scored seven goals and made 23 assists for a total of 30 points, achieving a plus-minus rating of plus-9. His assist and point totals marked new personal bests for a single season and ranked him third overall on his team.
In his 19-year-old season (he turned 20 in February 2025), Ilyin became one of only eight players in KHL history to achieve over 30 points as a teenager in a single campaign. This accomplishment ties the record set by Pavel Buchnevich for Cherepovets during the 2014-15 season when he was also 19 years old.
A native of Cherepovets, Russia, Ilyin has spent the last three seasons playing in the KHL with his hometown team. He debuted professionally at age 17. Over his career spanning 150 regular-season games, he has recorded 19 goals, assisted on another 42 goals for a total of 61 points, and achieved a plus-minus rating of plus-22. In addition to regular-season play, Ilyin has appeared in ten playoff games within the KHL where he contributed five assists.
Ilyin also played parts of four seasons with Almaz Cherepovets in the MHL, Russia’s leading junior league. There he accumulated eight goals and thirty-two assists over fifty-five regular-season games.
The Pittsburgh Penguins selected Ilyin during the fifth round (142nd overall) of the NHL Draft held in 2023.
