Penguins sign defenseman Olli Maatta to extension

Defenseman Olli Maata has signed a six-year, $24.5 million contract extension with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Defenseman Olli Maata has signed a six-year, $24.5 million contract extension with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the team announced on Friday.

The contract will take effect for the 2016–17 season, preventing Maata from becoming a free agent this summer, and will pay him an average of $4.1 million per year. 

Maata, 21, has been with the Penguins since they selected him in the first round of the 2012 NHL draft. In his three seasons with the team he has logged 16 goals and 38 assists in 151 games, scoring six of those goals this season. In November 2014, he was sidelined by surgery on a cancerous thyroid tumor, but made a full recovery.

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The Penguins have a 30–21 record and are in fourth place in the Metropolitan Divison.