Pens acquire, sign goalie prospect Mattias Modig

From the team:

The Pittsburgh Penguins agreed to terms with Mattias Modig to a two-year entry level contract after acquiring the goaltender from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for a 2010 sixth-round draft pick, it was announced by executive vice president and general manager Ray Shero.

Modig, 23, played the last four seasons with his hometown team Lulea HF of the Swedish Elite League. He has carried the bulk of the netminding duties in the last two years, playing 74 games and posting a 2.35 goals-against average with a .913 save percentage and six shutouts.

The 6-foot, 163-pound goaltender was originally drafted by Anaheim in the fourth round (121st overall) of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft.

The Penguins traded a sixth-round pick to Anaheim, which was obtained from Montreal. Pittsburgh now has seven draft picks remaining in 2010 with a first-, third-, fourth-, fifth-, two sixth- and a seventh-round selection.

As reader AronV points out, this may not hold good news for goalie John Curry.

If you're keeping track at home, Pittsburgh has two NHL goalies under contract next season (Marc-Andre Fleury and Brent Johnson), and a bunch of minor leaguers (Curry, Brad Thiessen, prospect Patrick Killeen and now Modig).  The plan may be to start the two rookies in Wheeling of the ECHL, but it seems unlikely Modig would leave the Swedish Elite League to come play in such a low American minor league. 

Given Curry's disastrous one game performance in the NHL this season, and the fact that Thiessen took his starting job in the AHL by season's end, this could very well be the beginning of the end for Curry's stint with the Penguins organization.

Modig is interesting, he's posted decent numbers in Europe, where like it or not a lot of great goalies are coming from these days.  It's unknown if that will translate to the North American professional leagues, but for a 6th round pick, it's well worth the risk.  Kind of like if you found a dollar on the street and purchased a lottery ticket.  Maybe you won't win the jackpot, but at least you have a chance to have something good happen.

Interestingly, as the team points out, they received a 6th round pick in 2010 for Montreal in exchange for a 7th round pick last year (the last pick of the draft) where the Habs apparently just had to have Finnish goalie Petteri Simila.  It remains to be seen if either Modig or this Simila character ever pan out, but Pittsburgh is the only team in the trade to already sign a relatively established goalie, so we'll take it and see where it goes.