Penguins Sign Winger Aaron Asham

With approximately one month until Training Camp 2010 -- and the first in the Consol Energy Center -- the Penguins made a very interesting signing this evening, inking 32-year old veteran unrestricted free agent winger Aaron Asham to a 1-year, $700,000 contract.

Asham, who played last year with the arch-rival Philadelphia Flyers, contributed 10 goals and 14 assists during the regular season to go along with 4 goals and 7 points in 23 post-season contests.  He added 126 penalty minutes.  He will give Pittsburgh a rugged, up-and-down game with some underrated offensive skill.

"He plays a style we like to play", said Penguins' GM Ray Shero.

Asham apparently was mulling over several contract proposals, including a few that put more money on the table than what the Penguins offered, but Asham was lured more by the chance to win with a Penguin team that again projects to be a Cup contender. 

What I think is most curious about Asham's signing is that it fills one of what was expected to be 2 forward jobs up for grabs in camp -- spots that were expected to be filled, with any luck, by some of the younger players in the organization.

Going into training camp, and after not replacing several of their departing unrestricted free agent forwards, it seemed that guys like Nick Johnson, Dustin Jeffrey and Eric Tangradi were going to be given the first chances to fill those holes.

However, signing Asham reduces by one the number of those holes and, if RW Bill Guerin is brought back -- something that Shero is expected to settle sometime next week -- the Penguins will then just have about taken all opportunity for an impact role with the team away from their prospects.

Of course, another potential consequence of bringing in Asham would be to open up an opportunity to make a trade. 

While I'm unaware of any rumblings about that at this juncture, I wouldn't rule it out entirely.  A guy like Asham is a character guy who plays a lot like Max Talbot, for example.

Could Asham's signing portend moving Talbot?  Maybe.  But it could just as much be an indication that they are bringing in Asham to play Talbot's role and are counting on Max to instead play a more scoring role on one of the top 2 lines.

Again, a very interesting move.  But a good one, in my estimation. 

It's been a slow August, as it typically is, but I'll be ramping things up here in the near future, including a post containing my long-awaited analysis of how the Penguins' new blueline stacks up against the rest of the league.  Look for that next week.

NOTES:

The Penguins' organization also announced in the last day or so that they have hired former defenseman Allan Nasreddine to be their assistant coach in Wilkes-Barre with the Baby Penguins.  Nasreddine spent 4 or so years in the organization -- most of them in the AHL -- and he was well-respected with the team there and franchise as a whole.   This will be his first foray into coaching and he shapes up as a good contrast with the new head coach (and former assistant), John Hynes, who is an up-tempo teacher that's probably better served focusing more on the forward group.  I'm anxious to see what impact Nasreddine has on the organization's blueliners.