[Signing] Pens sign Jack Johnson (5 yrs, $3.25 mil AAV)

[sureLoss]

Pittsburgh Penguins @penguins
now
The Penguins have signed defenseman Jack Johnson to a five-year contract for an average annual value of $3.25 million. Welcome to the team!

[agulati]

How has he been lately? He used to be a decent Top 4 a couple of years back. If he can slot in to a prominent Top 4 role, that is a good contract.

It does take him till he is 36 years old though.

[flamesfan1297]

That's a good deal, cheaper than I thought he'd go

[GoJetsGo]

Cheaper AAV than was being bantered about.

Seems like an odd one on the surface but a lot of things seem to come up Millhouse for the Pens.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by agulati

How has he been lately? He used to be a decent Top 4 a couple of years back. If he can slot in to a prominent Top 4 role, that is a good contract.

He's been playing hard shutdown minutes in Columbus on one of the top shutdown pairings in the league.

HOWEVER - he's been the "sidekick" on his pairing to David Savard and he's had the luxury of playing in front of Bobrovsky. Think of all those times you wondered "Who played with Chris Pronger that one year?" - and Jack Johnson ends up being that other forgotten guy.

[agulati]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

He's been playing hard shutdown minutes in Columbus on one of the top shutdown pairings in the league.

HOWEVER - he's been the "sidekick" on his pairing to David Savard and he's had the luxury of playing in front of Bobrovsky. Think of all those times you wondered "Who played with Chris Pronger that one year?" - and Jack Johnson ends up being that other forgotten guy.

That makes this a solid contract for the Penguins then.

[sureLoss]

Kekalainen and Torts are mad after comments made by Johnson and Rutherford.

Read the entire article if you can Torts really went on a rant

https://theathletic.com/415536/2018/...n-penguins-gm/

The​ Blue Jackets​ weren’t interested in​ signing​ defenseman​ Jack​ Johnson to a contract extension, and they​ didn’t seem too​ upset at​​ the thought of him signing with the rival Pittsburgh Penguins.

But that all changed Sunday with two comments — one by Johnson, the other by Penguins GM Jim Rutherford — as Johnson was introduced in Pittsburgh after signing a five-year, $16.25 million contract with the Penguins.

Johnson, who spent seven seasons in Columbus, said of his new organization: “I’ve been looking to be in a winning culture.”

Rutherford, who has taken heat from fans in Pittsburgh as word of Johnson’s long-term deal leaked, made a cryptic comment about why Johnson was a healthy scratch for the Blue Jackets during their first-round loss to Washington in the playoffs.

“I don’t think he had a bad year,” Rutherford told reporters in Pittsburgh. “He was a healthy scratch at the end of the season. I know the reason why. It wasn’t because of how he was playing.”

Those comments irritated Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen, who said he’d be calling Rutherford for an explanation in coming days.

But they infuriated Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella, who wanted to vent.

“All I know is, this organization, from the lawyers, the front office, J.D. (John Davidson), the managers, the coaches, players … has done nothing but try to help Jack,” Tortorella told The Athletic. “And for him to backhand slap us like this is utter bull####, and he should know better.

“No one wishes anything bad to happen to him and his family. We wish him the best. But for him to put it the way he put it today is bull####. And to have a general manager question our decision-making from three hours away, he must be a ####ing magician.”

[Ashasx]

Johnson wasn't playing because he's just not good.

[kyuss275]

Does he get the money from this contract or does most of it still go to creditors?

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by kyuss275

Does he get the money from this contract or does most of it still go to creditors?

According to articles on his bankruptcy, creditors get 10% of this contract only if it exceeds $4.5 million per year. Which it does not.

So this should be all his.

[browna]

Yeah pretty cheap by Johnson himself and the Pens (who should’ve just kept their mouth shut).
With all the troubles and scrutiny he’s had off the ice, the Jackets have had to do a lot behind the scenes for the player over the years...to comment about being happy to join a winning culture, is low. Although I am sure the Pens will now take that burden too, grass isn’t always greener and the player should be greatful for CLB for the support they’ve provided him off the ice so he can maintain a career on the ice.

It’s somewhat akin to Fleury ripping the Flames owners on the way out to Colorado, and in the months and years ahead as his career skidded downhill playing in NYC and Chicago. If the owners didn’t do an extraordinary amount of protecting and insulating the player off ice when he was here for a decade+ with all his demons, he would have crashed out of the league long before and been in a pretty bad spot for life in general. Without that insulation the Flames gave him, in NYC he took a pretty deep fall pretty quick.

[sureLoss]

Johnson clears the air:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1013586087103655941

[Erick Estrada]

Not sure what the Penguins brass is thinking here taking shots at the Blue Jackets. They signed a guy that hasn't been playing well to a five year deal and start pointing fingers at his old team? They better hope Johnson isn't terrible next season as it could be egg on their face.

[jlh2640]

Suck it Columbus haha

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Not sure what the Penguins brass is thinking here taking shots at the Blue Jackets. They signed a guy that hasn't been playing well to a five year deal and start pointing fingers at his old team? They better hope Johnson isn't terrible next season as it could be egg on their face.

Rutherford is kind of sensitive to criticism. Remember a few years ago he went on a public diatribe against a Pens beat writer who trashed Rutherford's moves.

I can see all the negative feedback on this signing from the fanbase and media getting to him.