Blues Re-Sign Johnson

Well, in a matter of a day, my top 11 RFAs list has been shaped a little differently, now with the signing of Erik Johnson to a new 2-year deal on Monday morning. Johnson's new deal will see him earn $5.2 million over the two seasons, working out to a cap hit of $2.6 million for each season, far from what I thought the Blues would have to pay for their number one blueliner.  This really does look like one hell of a deal for the Blues and their team.

Johnson only managed to play in his 2nd full season with the Blues after missing the 2009 season with a knee injury, thanks to a freak accident, but came back pretty strong in the 2010 season, scoring 10 goals and 29 assists in 79 games for the Blues.  That was good enough to have him ranked 25th among all blueliners and puts him in prime picking position for the 2011 season pools, as he is only going to get better from here.

Forwards	Defense	Goalies
Andy McDonald	Erik Johnson	Jaroslav Halak
T.J. Oshie	Carlo Colaiacovo	Ty Conklin
David Perron	Roman Polak
David Backes	Barret Jackman
Alex Steen	Eric Brewer
Brad Boyes	Alex Pietrangelo
Jay McClement
Patrik Berglund
B.J. Crombeen
Vladimir Sobotka
Brad Winchester
Matt D'Agostini
Cam Janssen

The Blues are definitely buying at a budget team pace in this off-season, having only 21 players signed on to their potential roster at an annual cap hit of $46.5 million, including one buyout on their books.  As you can see in the team table above, I don't think there should be any issue with the direction the the team is moving in, especially after snagging Jaroslav Halak from the Canadiens and re-signing all of their key restricted free agents.  The team is really starting to grow together and the inclusion of Alex Pietrangelo, they should be in great shape in the 2011 season.

I am a fan of this signing and I am going to try and make Johnson one of my priorities when looking for a defenseman in the pool this year.  Thankfully, this post is way too early for some of my poolies to read and find my strategy, so I feel comfortable in saying this.  I don't think I'll tell you how high I'm going to put him, but it's fairly significant and I suggest that you might want to do the same.