From the team:
The Pittsburgh Penguins have re-signed forward Dustin Jeffrey to a two-year contract, it was announced today by executive vice president and general manager Ray Shero.
Jeffrey’s contract is a two-way deal in 2011-12 and a one-way deal in 2012-13. The contract has an average annual value of $575,000 at the NHL level.
Jeffrey, 23, is coming off a season where he saw the most extensive NHL action of his professional career. The 6-foot-1, 205-pound forward established NHL career highs across the board in games played (25), goals (7), assists (5) and points (12) before his season was cut short due to a torn ACL March 24 at Philadelphia.
A good deal for player and team and one we figured was coming sooner than later.
It's unknown when Jeffrey's recovery from ACL surgery will be done, it seems unlikely at this point that he'll start training camp on time. This deal is set-up seemingly with him starting out back in the AHL as he plays himself back in shape and a full recovery. When that happens, I would think that there's not much for Jeffrey to accomplish in Wilkes-Barre and he'd certainly have to be considered a top mid-season call-up candidate.
With the contract out of the way, Dustin Jeffrey can focus on just that: getting back to 100% and eventually finally becoming a full-time NHL player. By all accounts it's going to happen sooner than later.