With the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2023-24 season coming to an end without any postseason action, the Tribune-Review will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 49 individuals signed to an NHL contract — including those whose deals do not begin until next season — with the organization, from fourth-line center Noel Acciari to reserve winger Radim Zohorna.

This series is scheduled to be published every weekday leading into the NHL Draft on June 28.

(Note: All contract information courtesy of Cap Friendly.)

Raivis Ansons

Position: Left winger

Shoots: Left

Age: 22

Height: 6-foot-1

Weight: 186 pounds

2023-24 AHL statistics: 34 games, seven points (two goals, five assists)

2023-24 ECHL statistics: Eight games, three points (two goals, one assist)

Contract: In the second year of a three-year entry-level contract with a salary cap hit of $$844,167. Pending restricted free agent in 2025.

(Note: Ansons is exempt from waivers for any assignments to a minor league affiliate.)

Acquired: Fifth-round draft pick (No. 149 overall), Oct. 7, 2020

This season: The comparisons are easy to make (and probably a little bit lazy).

Raivis Ansons is a lot like Teddy Blueger, a fellow Latvian.

The lazy part of that notion comes from their common heritage.

Blueger, before leaving the Penguins via trade in March of 2023, provided something of a mentorship to Ansons through occasional phone calls providing guidance.

Like Blueger, Ansons has carved out a steady role with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton as a steady defensive center and has become a valued contributor on that team’s penalty kill.

But before settling into that steady role this season, Ansons had to overcome an undisclosed injury he suffered late in the 2022-23 season. His convalescence forced him to miss all of training camp and roughly the first month of the regular season.

Assigned to the Wheeling Nailers, Ansons made his season debut with that club and put up three points (two goals) in six games before being recalled to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Nov. 22.

Ansons primarily served as either the third- or fourth-line center for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for the next six weeks with the most prolific outing of his season coming during a 5-3 home win against the Cleveland Monsters on Dec. 8 when he posted a goal and an assist.

By late December, a suspected knee injury sidelined him for all of January before he was sent back to Wheeling on Feb. 8. After a two-game spell with the Nailers, he was recalled to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Feb. 12.

From that point on, Ansons was healthy enough to play in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s final 24 games of the regular season, primarily as a third- or fourth-line center. He posted three assists over that span with none coming after Feb. 23.

The future: Ansons will presumably be bolted on as a shutdown bottom-six center to open the Calder Cup playoffs during a first-round best-of-three series against the rival Lehigh Valley Phantoms beginning Wednesday.

Beyond that, he seems to be on a satisfactory trajectory in his development, even with the considerable injuries he had to overcome in his second full professional season.

There will always be comparisons to Blueger given their nationalities and their defensive games. But the correlation ends when it comes to offense. Blueger had a pair of 21-goal seasons with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton before graduating to the Pittsburgh roster.

Even in the junior ranks, Ansons’ offensive figures were Lilliputian and that hasn’t changed for him in the professional ranks.

Defense remains his route to the NHL.

Follow the Penguins all season long.

Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.

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