The Pittsburgh Penguins have signed forward prospect Mikhail Ilyin to a three-year entry-level contract.

The contract will begin in the 2025-26 season and will run through 2027-28.

Ilyin, 20, spent the majority of the 2024-25 season with the Severstal Cherepovets of the KHL, Russia's top professional league. 

Billed as a 6-foot-3, 191-pound forward, this past season, he appeared in 64 regular-season games, where he recorded seven goals, 23 assists, and 30 points. Ilyin's assist and point totals were new single-season career highs and ranked third overall on Severstal, per a news release from the Penguins.

His 30 points during his 19-year-old season (turned 20 in February 2025) make him one of just eight players in KHL history to accumulate 30-plus points in a single campaign as a teenager, and ties the Cherepovets team record set by 19-year-old Pavel Buchnevich in 2014-15, the news release added. Ilyin made his professional debut in the KHL as a 17-year-old.

In 150 career regular-season games, Ilyin has tallied 19 goals, 42 assists, 61 points, and is plus-22. He's also played in 10 career KHL playoff games, recording five assists.

Ilyin has also spent parts of the last four seasons with Almaz Cherepovets of the MHL, Russia's top junior league, where he accrued 40 points (eight goals, 32 assists) in 55 regular-season games.

Ilyin was drafted by the Penguins in the fifth round (142nd overall) of the 2023 NHL Draft.