The Penguins have re-signed forward Adam Johnson to a one-year contract extension, Jim Rutherford announced Friday.
The contract is a two-way deal and is worth the league-minimum $700,000 at the NHL level. The 2019-20 season will be Johnson's last year of waiver-exempt status.
Johnson, 25, made his NHL debut last season and recorded two assists in his six games in the NHL. He finished fourth in scoring for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton with 18 goals and 25 assists in 67 games.
Johnson's greatest asset is undoubtedly his speed:
"Adam has definitely put the work in. He's a great skater and has worked extremely hard to get to another level of strength and conditioning, which certainly helped him in his second pro season," said Bill Guerin. "I think he proved, not only to us but also to himself, that he can play in the National Hockey League."
Johnson, at 6 feet and 175 pounds, has been focusing on adding strength since the Penguins signed him out of the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 2017. He works on adding good weight, some lean muscle, so he doesn't take away from his speed. That means he still has to watch what he eats, even if it does mean eating more often and seeing the results come more slowly.
“I try to eat really healthy,” he told me last season. “Some people can just go hammer McDonald's and put on easy weight, but I try to do it in a healthy way. It might make it a little tougher eating healthy, but I think the main thing is just working out and being healthy and getting stronger, even if you’re not putting the weight on.”
Johnson was one of the Penguins' four restricted free agents. Teddy Blueger, Marcus Pettersson and Zach Aston-Reese remain unsigned. Because Aston-Reese filed for salary arbitration, he will be signed by July 24 at the latest, 48 hours after his hearing on July 22.
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