Penguins Re-Sign RFA Adam Johnson to One-Year Deal

The Penguins re-signed restricted free agent forward Adam Johnson to a one-year contract, the team announced on Friday.

The contract is a two-way deal that will pay him $700,000 at the NHL level. He will be eligible for Group VI unrestricted free agency at the end of the contract unless he plays 74 NHL games in this coming season.

Johnson, 25, just competed his second year of professional hockey and saw his first action at the NHL level, skating in six games with Pittsburgh while collecting two assists.

A 6-foot, 174-pound forward that has played center and left wing, Johnson spent most of the last two seasons with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League. In 2018-19, he had 18 goals and 25 assist for 43 points in 67 games with the AHL Penguins, finishing third on the club in goals and assists and fourth in total points.

“Adam has definitely put the work in,” Penguins assistant general manager Bill Guerin said in a press release. “He’s a great skater, and has worked extremely hard to get to another level of strength and conditioning, which helped him in his second pro season. I think he proved not only to us, but also to himself that he can play in the NHL.”

A native of Hibbing, Minnesota, the Penguins originally signed Johnson as an undrafted free agent in 2017 after he had played just two seasons of college hockey at Minnesota-Duluth.

Johnson is the second of the Penguins’ tendered restricted free agents to sign a contract, joining forward Joseph Blandisi. Forward Zach Aston-Reese is moving forward with the arbitration process, while Marcus Pettersson and Teddy Blueger remain unsigned.