With the Pittsburgh Penguins entering the offseason after a brief return to the postseason, TribLive will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 53 individuals signed to an NHL contract — including those whose deals do not begin until future seasons — with the organization.
Starting with veteran Noel Acciari and going on through to prospect Bill Zonnon, every player will be profiled in alphabetical order.
This series is scheduled to be published every day until June 24, two days before the start of the NHL Draft. In the event of a transaction, that schedule will be altered as necessary.
(Note: All contract information courtesy of Puckpedia.)
Sebastian Aho
Position: Defenseman
Shoots: Left
Age: 30
Height: 5-foot-10
Weight: 180 pounds
2025-26 AHL regular season statistics: 29 games, 14 points (two goals, 12 assists)
2025-26 AHL postseason statistics: Two games, zero points (zero goals, zero assists)
Contract: In the final year of a two-year contract with a salary cap hit of $775,000. Pending unrestricted free agent on July 1.
Acquired: Unrestricted free agent signing, July 2, 2024
This season: When the Penguins signed Aho, it was largely assumed he would be a viable option as a seventh defenseman, especially since he could play both sides of the blue line with ease.
And considering he had a fair amount of NHL experience in the form of 190 career games, he was seen as a reliable veteran the team could turn to should the need arise.
Nearly two years later, Aho still has 190 career NHL games after a pair of injury-filled seasons spent primarily at the American Hockey League level.
This past fall, Aho appeared in a single preseason game, then was assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton after clearing waivers on Oct. 3.
After being a scratch for the first three games of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s season, Aho suffered an undisclosed injury in his season debut on Oct. 18 and wound up being sidelined for nine games.
Back in the lineup by mid-November, Aho scored his first goal of the season during a 5-3 home win against the Bridgeport Islanders on Nov. 14.
Seb’s first of the season couldn’t come at a better time pic.twitter.com/fLs3tUQ2Ta
— x – Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) November 15, 2025
Aho’s season largely followed an “in-and-out” dynamic as he was frequently scratched due in part to the AHL’s rules on how many veterans can be in a lineup. But ultimately, injuries were the biggest reason he was an infrequent presence in the lineup.
After another malady he suffered on Dec. 27 wound up costing him 19 games, Aho was back in the lineup by Feb. 18 and remained there in a somewhat regular basis, dressing in 18 of the team’s final 22 games of the regular season, primarily on the left side of the bottom-two pairings.
During the ongoing Calder Cup playoffs, Aho has dressed for both of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s games on the left side of the third pairing.
The future: Of immediate concerns, Aho has carved out a pretty regular role at the bottom of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s lineup for the postseason.
Beyond that, there doesn’t appear to be much of a future for Aho with the Penguins.
He was brought in as a reserve and beyond a handful of paper transactions during the 2024-25 season, he has barely sniffed the NHL roster. If Aho has any hopes of returning to the NHL, it won’t be with the Penguins.
Whatever the Penguins and Aho hoped this union could offer, it just never panned out.