Vitals
Player: Ilya Solovyov
Born: July 20, 2000 (25 years old)
Height: 6’3”
Weight: 208 pounds
Hometown: Mogilev, Belarus
Shoots: Left
Draft: Seventh round pick (205th overall) in 2020 by the Calgary Flames
2025-26 Statistics: 0 goals and 5 assists for 5 points in 14 regular-season games; 0 points in three playoff games.
Contract Status: Signed through 2026-27 ($850,000 cap hit)
Story of the Season
The Penguins acquired Solovyov’s expiring contract in January by sending Valtteri Puustinen and a 2026 seventh-rounder to the
Colorado Avalanche.
At the time Solovyov had skated in 16 games with the Avalanche and three games with the team’s AHL affiliate.
The trade came around the time Kris Letang was sidelined for two games with an upper-body injury. He suffered a fractured foot about a week and a half later that gave Solovyov a chance to slot into the lineup.
Solovyov spent most of his time in the regular season the bottom pairing with Connor Clifton.
He made his playoff debut in Game 4 as a substitute for Clifton on the right side of Ryan Shea. The Flyers never scored a goal with Solovyov on the ice, which was enough for head coach Dan Muse to keep dressing him over Clifton until the Penguins’ Game 6 elimination.
The Penguins re-signed Solovyov in May to keep him under contract for one more season before he hits unrestricted free agency in 2027.
Monthly Splits
via Yahoo
Solovyov was traded to the Penguins on Jan. 20. He saw his ice time climb after the trade from 11:34 per game in Colorado to over 14 minutes per game in Pittsburgh.
Regular season 5v5 advanced stats
Data via Natural Stat Trick. Ranking is out of 11 defensemen on the team who qualified by playing a minimum of 150 minutes.
Corsi For%: 52.21 (2nd)
Goals For%: 51.85 (3rd)
xGF%: 57.16 (1st)
Scoring Chance%: 56.84 (1st)
High Danger Scoring Chance%: 56.99 (1st)
5v5 on-ice shooting%: 15.56 (1st)
On-ice save%: .833 (11th)
Goals/60: 0
Assists/60: 1.57 (1st)
Points/60: 1.57 (1st)
These numbers come with the major caveat that Solovyov played just 14 games this season with the club. Within that small sample size, however, Penguins were generally excellent at generating scoring chances and poor at stopping opponents from scoring when Solovyov (generally paired with Clifton during the regular season) was on the ice in a sheltered role.
Charts n’at
Via Advanced Hockey Stats and NHL Edge
Solovyov is dealing with a limited sample, but he is a player that WAR sees some positive and encouraging signs for the minutes that he has played by being able to put a nice impact offensively and defensively overall in what he’s been asked to do. The goals and finishing will likely come down in time once he plays more, but it shows some tools. One possible issue is taking penalties, Solovyov was called for five minor penalties in 15 games with the Penguins (and three more in 16 games with Colorado), he’ll want to cut down on the amount of times he gets whistled for infractions relative to the small amount of time he’s played in the future.
Solovyov does have some power on his shots and as shown in the lower left chart, had the versatility to spend time on the left and right points during different stretches. He doesn’t have a lot of dynamic puck skills but that nice shot power could be part of the reason to get him into games in the future.
Solovyov’s skating is functional, he’s good in short areas and making pivots when needing to defend. His straight-line speed and acceleration is in-line with his 6’3, 210 pound frame to not exactly be thought of as one of the speedier skaters in the league.
Highlights
Solovyov assisted on a Ryan Shea goal in his Penguins debut on Jan. 29.
He later fed Avery Hayes for the breakaway that allowed Hayes to score in his own NHL debut on Feb. 5.
Questions to Ponder
After extending Solovyov, the Penguins have Sam Girard, Ryan Graves, Parker Wotherspoon, Caleb Jones and Owen Pickering as some of the left-shot defensemen signed through next season.
With Shea hitting free agency and potentially set for a raise that could push him out of the Penguins’ pay range, will Solovyov be able to win a more regular roster spot in training camp? If not, he could be set to head into next season in a similar seventh-defenseman role to what Clifton (also a pending free agent) played last season.
Ideal 2026-27
Solovyov spent three seasons as a fringe roster player and part-time AHL player with the Calgary Flames and Colorado Avalanche. His ideal 2026-27 season would likely include him earning a spot in training camp and playing his first full-time campaign in the NHL.
Bottom line
The Penguins saw Solovyov in a limited sample size and mostly in a sheltered role last season, but he served as a largely reliable bottom-pairing option when called into the lineup. There’s a chance a strong training camp could earn him a longer look at the NHL next season.
Pensburgh Grade: B
