Penguins and Jack Johnson are not Better Together

The Pittsburgh Penguins ended up signing defenseman Jack Johnson on July 1, and everything about the contract seems very unnecessary.

Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford said before free agency started that his team was in the market for a defenseman in order to get deeper at the position.

Outside of John Carlson, there wasn’t much on the market. Mike Green went back to the Detroit Red Wings, Thomas Hickey went back to the New York Islanders, and after that, it was basically just New York’s Calvin de Haan, who still hasn’t signed yet.

The Penguins opted to sign Jack Johnson to a five-year deal averaging $3.25 million per year. He will likely be on the bottom pairing, as he’s just not good enough to earn even second-pairing minutes anymore. Here are some thoughts on the move and whether or not he can help Pittsburgh win.

Too much money, too much term

This much is obvious. Giving a five-year term to a 31-year-old defenseman coming off the worst season of his career isn’t good. He was a healthy scratch during the season and during the playoffs as John Tortorella didn’t think he was playing well enough to crack the lineup.

During this past season, Johnson had three goals and 11 points in 77 games. His 11 points are the least amount of points he’s had in a season since he was on the Los Angeles Kings in 2009. Over his career, his overall Corsi For percentage is 47.2, which is not good at all. There’s also this:

Being 49th out of 57 defensemen in 5 vs. 5 points per 50 over this period of time doesn’t bode well for Johnson these next five years, either.

$3.25 million per year is a lot to give to a bottom-pairing defenseman but the contract also seems like it’s a bit front-loaded:

They’d definitely be able to get out of the contract if he struggles, since his total salary goes down after his second year with the team.

If this was a short-term deal, it wouldn’t be so bad because Johnson would have to prove during that time that he belongs on the team and that there’s a role for him. By committing to him for five years, Pittsburgh is saying that they believe he can be a real difference-maker — and I have my doubts that will be the case.

Gonchar might not be able to help

Another part of the reason that the Penguins signed Johnson is that, because he had a bad year, Sergei Gonchar will be able to fix him. Gonchar is one of the defensive coaches for the Penguins and is responsible for helping turn around Justin Schultz, Jamie Oleksiak and Trevor Daley. In this case, though, it’s not nearly the same.

Johnson is 31 and has been the same player he’s been his entire career. Schultz was still in his twenties and had shown flashes offensively but was just playing too many minutes and in an awful situation in Edmonton. The same can be said for Oleksiak, whose defensive game improved mightily when he was acquired and showed more offensive flash. Oleksiak is also only 25 and was getting third-pairing minutes.

Gonchar and head coach Mike Sullivan said that they’ve watched Johnson’s film and believe that he can improve, but again, he’s on the wrong side of 30 and he’s been trending downhill for a few seasons now. Johnson had 40 points in 2014-15 but since then, his highest is 23 during the 2016-17 season.

The one skill the team likes about Johnson is that his transition game is amazing. Jim Rutherford said that’s one of the biggest reasons that Pittsburgh won the Cup in 2016, as the defensemen were able to get the puck quickly to the forwards in the defensive zone and the neutral zone.

If you look at some passing data, Johnson would’ve ranked second last year behind Kris Letang in transition passes per 60. But, if this is all that he’s good at now in his career, is there any hope for the rest of his game getting on track?

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Everyone would love for this signing to work and for his game to be fine-tuned a bit. Most people would eat their words (I know I would) if he ends up playing much better than he’s shown the past few seasons. It’s just hard to see it happening, and it feels like Pittsburgh is making a bigger mistake with Johnson than it made with Matt Hunwick last offseason.