Aaron Johnson Has An AHL Deal

A bit of news broken today by our colleague Pat Steinberg, via his Twitter.

Johnson is in town on a professional try-out (PTO), but apparently he has inked a fall-back deal that will see him stick with the organization regardless.

Johnson, 32, is a native of Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia – the town on the very southwestern corner of Cape Breton right across from Antigonish, for the curious. He’s played 291 NHL games between Columbus, the NY Islanders, Chicago, Calgary, Edmonton and Boston, but injuries have slowed his career down a bit. He’s best known around these parts as part of the first-ever Flames/Oilers trade in March 2010 that saw Steve Staios join the Flames.

He played just 13 games in 2012-13, but he’s a veteran player and could provide some nice leadership for Stockton this season. Because of the AHL’s development rule, it’s unlikely he’ll take ice-time away from a young player that needs to develop, so there’s little downside to this deal.

By my recollection, he joins Louick Marcotte, Mitchell Heard, Michael Kirkpatrick, Ryan Lomberg, Blair Riley, Dustin Stevenson and Kent Simpson as players with AHL deals for this coming season.