Penguins Sign G Brent Johnson; Prospect Camp Begins

It's good to have some news to write about in Penguin world.

Yesterday, the Penguins signed goaltender Brent Johnson to a one-year contract. Terms were not released, but Johnson will come into camp competing with John Curry for the backup position behind starter Marc-Andre Fleury.

Johnson, 32, was pretty effective last season for the Washington Capitals before suffering a hip injury in the early spring that fairly derailed the remainder of his year. He was 12-6-2 with a 2.81 GAA and .909 SV%. He has a 2.61 career GAA spanning 9 years with the Caps', St. Louis Blues and Phoenix Coyotes, and is almost 20 games over .500 in that span. He also has on several occasions posted more than 3 consecutive games of shutout hockey. He even did it in the post-season once.

In short, Johnson is a very capable backup. He's a big guy (6' 3") that covers a lot of the net and moves well. He's a veteran but not over the hill. Personally, I'd rather see him in the relief role than Curry. And that's not to say that I dislike Curry. But Fleury has a little bit of a history of being hurt and I feel better having a veteran behind him. Johnson appears healthy and ready to go for the coming season. He's not a guy that many people connected to the Penguins' backup goaltender opening, but was, in my opinion, always a solid option. I'm glad the Penguins' looked his way.

Meanwhile, the Penguins began their 2009 Prospect and Conditioning camp yesterday at Southpointe. These camps are great for the kids coming up in the Pittsburgh system and I continue to be very pleased that the Penguins' are an oranization who does something like this. I remember when they first announced that they were going to start doing it several years ago. When they did, I only wondered why they weren't doing it before. By continuing these camps, the Penguins remain an organization on the cutting edge of development.

Of course, these sessions are also a great chance to get a look at almost all of the Penguins' better prospects, including Eric Tangradi, Luca Caputi, Dustin Jeffrey, Kevin Vellieux, Nathan Moon, Nick Johnson, Casey Pierro-Zabotel, Alex Grant, Brian Strait, Carl Sneep, and new draft picks Ben Hanowski and Simon Despres, among others.

After doing strength and conditioning testing, the 26 rookies took to the ice for a one-hour session yesterday afternoon, led by Wilkes Barre Coach Todd Rierden and now Special Assistant to the GM Tom Fitzgerald.

Apparently, the emphasis was on skating and puck movement, not atypical for a team led by HCDB.

By all accounts, top propsect Eric Tangradi looked pretty good, showing skill and size around the net and with the puck. It seems that he's going to have a quick, second surgery on his left hand -- which he injured in the playoffs this past season -- in several weeks to release some scar tissue that is causing a little bit of tightening in the thumb, but he says he should be ready to go for training camp without any issues.

Nick Johnson and Kevin Vellieux also looked good yesterday, I'm told. Vellieux, in particular, was one of the better forwards on the ice. He appears to be eyeing up the roster vacancy that will be available for the first month or two thanks to Max Talbot's shoulder injury.

Someone who apparently got mixed reviews yesterday was defenseman Brian Strait. Strait, it seems, showed what he can do with his size defensively, but also had trouble with his lateral mobility and was beaten wide several times in one-on-one drills.

We'll see how things go during the remainder of the camp. I'll try to get another report out within a few days addressing how the prospects have been doing on the ice.