Penguins sign F Jason Williams

It's a two-way contract for one year, worth $600,000.

Williams is not big (5'11"), but he can play several positions and is a right-handed shot.

Jason can provide some excellent depth at the forward spot. He has been a decent goal scorer in his career. In fact, he was a very good player for Columbus in 2008-09 for the second half of the year and then signed with Detroit in 2009-10. He fractured his fibula on November 9th of 2009 and his numbers haven't been the same since then.

He didn't sign a contract in 2010 until December, and then it was with Connecticut of the AHL. Dallas signed him last February and he played 27 games for them to close out the season.

When you see such a quick, sharp drop off for a guy, you have to wonder if it was the circumstance in Columbus that allowed him to succeed, or if the injury to his leg changed his game.

Either way, this is a great low-risk move by Ray Shero. Williams will have a chance to make the team in training camp, I'm sure, and will be one of the first considerations if there's an injury.

Draft picks on display at 2011 Development Camp

Of the 28 players that were invited to the 2011 Development Camp, 17 are draft picks from the past 5 drafts. That list includes the past three #1 picks (Morrow, Bennett and Despres), along with some guys that we could see in Pittsburgh over the next few years like Kuhnhackl, Veilleux and Petersen.

The entirety of the 2011 draft class will also be there, along with everyone from 2010 except Kenneth Agostino, who is enrolled at Yale, and (I believe) would have to pay his own way to the camp.

Here's a list of the draft picks attending, broken out by draft year:

2011 Round 1 - Joe Morrow

2011 Round 2 - Scott Harrington

2011 Round 5 - Dominic Uher

2011 Round 6 - Josh Archibald

2011 Round 7 - Scott Wilson

2010 Round 1 - Beau Bennett

2010 Round 3 - Brian Rust

2010 Round 4 - Tom Kuhnhackl

2010 Round 6 - Joe Rogalski

2010 Round 6 - Reid McNeill

2009 Round 1 - Simon Despres

2009 Round 2 - Phillip Samuelsson

2009 Round 4 - Nick Petersen

2008 Round 6 - Patrick Kileen

2008 Round 7 - Nicholas D'Agostino

2007 Round 2 - Kevin Veilleux

2007 Round 4 - Alex Grant

Penguins prospect Tomas Kuhnhackl to return to OHL

Tomas Kuhnhackl, a 4th round draft choice in 2010, is eligible to play in the AHL this season at the age of 19. He'll spend another season in the OHL, however, playing for the Windsor Spitfires, according to this article from the Windsor Star.

Kuhnhackl led the Spitfires in scoring last season with 39 goals, including 15 on the power play, and 68 points. He was just a +4 on the year, which suggests he may need to work on his defensive game. Overall, it was a nice transition from the European game.

Given the lack of scoring at the forward spot, you have to hope that Kuhnhackl can continue to develop all areas of his game since the scoring touch seems to be there right now.

Kuhnhackl will be in Pittsburgh for the 2011 development camp.

Penguins sign D Alexandre Picard

I'm a few days late with this, but the Pens added some more depth to their defense by signing Alexandre Picard to a one-year, two-way contract worth $600 K if he plays in the NHL.

I've seen a few folks writing that this makes the Pens likely to deal Matt Niskanen, but I don't see it. Picard, while still young (he's 26), has never been an every day player in the NHL. He has averaged just under 50 games per year for the past three years, and this is the second straight year he signed a two-way contract.

Sounds like he'll be the first call-up if someone gets hurt and the Pens don't want to play Engelland every game.

Penguins sign D Boris Valabik

The Pens added some depth on the blue line by signing D Boris Valabik to a one-year, two-way contract for the league minimum.

Valabik is a former top pick (#10 overall in 2004) who has great size (he's 6'7"). He spent 2010-11 in the AHL. He has 80 total games in the NHL over three seasons.

Valabik's profiles as a "mean" defenseman (meaning, he's a thug). He racks up penalty minutes like Sid racks up accolades.

He might not be the first call-up from Wilkes-Barre, but he's the first one to call if rough stuff is expected (like against the Isles or Flyers).

Penguins sign F Colin McDonald

The Pens added some intriguing depth to their forward ranks by signing forward Colin McDonald to a two-way contract. He'll almost certainly start the season in Wilkes-Barre.

What makes Colin a really interesting signing is that he suddenly started to score goals last year - lots of them. He led the AHL in goals with 42 last season. In two previous seasons in the AHL, he managed 22 goals in total.

McDonald also has good size (6'3").

The Pens had someone that profiled in a similar fashion - Tim Wallace. Though Wallace never reached the 40 goal mark, and doesn't have McDonald's size, he did jump to 27 goals two seasons back. Unfortunately that didn't translate to any prolonged NHL playing time (or success).

If McDonald really has started to figure it out, it's not too late for him to contribute at the NHL level, but at the age of 26, he's going to need to take advantage of any chances he gets with the big club.

Given the Pens' need for size and scoring from the wings, this was a great move by Ray Shero.

Penguins sign F Steve Sullivan

The Pens added some scoring punch today with the addition of Steve Sullivan from Nashville for one year at $1.5 million.

Sullivan has had some injury issues the past few seasons, and he didn't play much in the second half of the season last year.

The Pens are giving Sullivan the chance to show he can be a healthy, productive player in the NHL for a few more seasons.

Sullivan is giving the Pens some proven scoring punch, especially on the power play.

I'm excited about this move from the power play perspective. If Sullivan can stay healthy, he has the chance to really elevate the Pens with the man-advantage. He's certainly one of the smallest players (listed at 5'8") and he's not physical, but he still manages to be a positive on the plus / minus and contribute on the score sheet.

Penguins re-sign F Tyler Kennedy

The Pens bolstered their forward ranks by coming to terms with RW Tyler Kennedy.

The deal is for two years and $4 million.

This is a quality, low risk move by Ray Shero, given how much of other scoring wingers received today on the open market (Leino, Upshall, Ryder, Cole, etc).

It's also a strong statement by Kennedy that he wants to be a part of what is happening here in Pittsburgh. I think he should be congratulated for it.

With the signing of Sullivan, Kennedy may be ticketed for the third line, where we know he's worked well in the past with Matt Cooke (and maybe Jordan Staal, depending on how the team deploys their lines).

#jagrwatch - This is starting to get dumb...

A decision within one hour of landing in the US has turned into hours upon hours of stalling by Petr Svoboda and Jaromir Jagr.

Either he's really as indecisive as he seems, or it's a cheap ploy to try to get the Pens to raise their offer, because if money was the only factor, he'd have agreed to go elsewhere by now. Detroit, for instance, has much more money to throw at him.

You have to think that Svoboda is a bit embarrassed every time he talks with Ray Shero... I mean, how can those conversations go?

Svoboda: Hey, Ray! We have nothing new to report, except that Jaromir hasn't made up his mind. Several more teams have stepped up to volunteer more money. Any chance you guys could do the same?

Shero: Hi Petr. No more money is available, but we will provide free soft-serve ice cream after the game in the locker room if it will make Jaromir feel better.

How many times can they go over "options"? How many times can Svoboda tell Jagr what teams are offering?

Svoboda: Jaromir - no more money from Pittsburgh, but they will provide soft-serve.

Jagr: Chocolate, Vanilla or Twist?

Svoboda: Which one do you prefer?

Jagr: I'm not sure - let me think about it. And find out what my options are for the cones.

Svoboda: (sigh)

You'd have to think things like this happened back in the day, but that we all never heard about them because Al Gore hadn't invented the marvel that is the Internet yet.

The worst part about all of this is that even though it's annoying to watch this as a fan of the Pens (and Jagr), I'll still cheer my guts out for him if he signs in Pittsburgh.

Penguins re-sign F Aaron Asham

In a sign that they may be moving away from Mike Rupp, the Pens re-signed Aaron Asham to a one-year contract worth $775,000.

This is a solid low cost move for a team that is amazingly low on the grit factor. Asham didn't inspire much during the regular season, but he did step it up during the playoffs. Let's hope he can carry that effort over into October.

The Pens now have 10 forwards under NHL contract with Eric Tangradi and Dustin Jeffrey both possibilities to make the roster.

According to CapGeek.com, they have about $5.6 million left under the cap with 20 players signed (if you count Tangradi). The maximum they can carry is 23.

#jagrwatch - No update tonight, per The Pensblog

The guys over at the Pensblog were streaming on uStream when they managed to get Petr Svoboda (Jagr's agent, in case you didn't know) on the phone.

How did they do that, exactly?

They pretended to be Ron Cook from the Post-Gazette.

A little social hacking never hurt anyone, right?

Anyway, Svoboda was unhappy with the call after 9:30 pm at night, but he did state that no news would be forthcoming this evening.

This will be interesting to see what Ray Shero does. He's on the record as saying that the decision would be made today (and so was Svoboda, for that matter).

Seems that this will all stretch into another day.

Penguins re-sign Pascal Dupuis

According to IPS, the Pens have Pascal Dupuis locked up for two more years at a cap hit of $1.5 million per season.

This was a great move by Ray Shero. Dupuis can play on any line, kill penalties and put up some points every so often. If he scored 15-20 goals and kills penalties, he'll be worth every penny.

The Pens now have 9 forwards under an NHL contract, with Jeffrey and Tangradi both yet to make the NHL roster (though certainly Jeffrey could at the very least).

That leaves about $6 million to sign 3-4 players (likely all forwards). Depending on who is available and how they play this, one of those guys could be a certain Mr Jagr.

Dan Bylsma - Jack Adams Award Winner

Congratulations to Dan Bylsma on winning the Jack Adams Award as the top coach in the NHL for the 2010-11 season.

The way the Pens played after losing both Sid and Geno is a testament to the system put in place by HCDB as well as the positive attitude that he seems to espouse.

Now let's see if he can get better results when more talent is around for the whole season (hopefully).

Pen re-sign Craig Adams

The official announcement is here.

Its a two year contract with $675,000 per year. That's a slight raise over the $550,000 he was making last year.

Of all of the free agents on the Pens, you probably would not think that Craig Adams would be the first one to get a deal done. He gets a slight raise and the Pens lock up a key fourth line guy that plays on the PK. The fact that he's right-handed only adds value.

I'm glad he's back for two more years.