The Penguins are expected to sign former Yale forward Luke Stevens according to a report from Jeff Cox of the New England Hockey Journal on Monday.
Stevens, 23, was the Hurricanes' fifth-round pick in 2015. After completing his senior season with Yale in the spring, he did not sign with the Hurricanes by the Aug. 15 deadline and became an unrestricted free agent.
Hearing Yale and Nobles alum Luke Stevens will sign NHL entry level deal with Penguins. The Carolina pick became a free agent August 15th.
— Jeff Cox (@JeffCoxSports) August 17, 2020
Penguins special assignment scout Kevin Stevens has probably scouted Luke a fair amount over the years -- Luke is Kevin's oldest son.
Stevens, 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, told Massachusetts newspaper The Enterprise back in March that he was weighing his professional options and deciding whether he would sign with Carolina.
“My dad has been through a lot of these things,” Stevens said. “So I’ve been talking to him. Obviously, with the coronavirus situation, it kind of twists things up. Things don’t run as smoothly as they probably would have. ... It’s kind of hard to say exactly what I’m going to do right now, because there is some time before I can make a decision. Right now I’m just going day by day, talking to people, trying to get the best advice on what to do next year.”
Apparently those talks with his dad helped lead him to the Penguins.
Stevens set career highs in goals (7) and points (12) with Yale as a senior. He amassed a total of 19 goals and 16 assists in 101 games over his four collegiate seasons.
Other than his father, Stevens has a few connections in the Penguins organization already. He was drafted by Carolina during Mike Vellucci's tenure as assistant general manager. Stevens was teammates with recent Wilkes-Barre/Scranton signing Billy Sweezey for three years in high school and all four years at Yale. He also works with the same skills coach as John Marino, with whom he used to play youth hockey.
Jim Rutherford told Dave Molinari on Monday morning that the Penguins were interested in one of the 21 college players who hit free agency on Aug. 15, but that "it sounds like we are probably not in the hunt for him. He has his mind set on another team.” If the player he was talking about was Stevens, it seems like Stevens had a late change of heart.
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