Penguins re-sign Daniel Sprong and Dominik Simon for two years a piece

The Pittsburgh Penguins are already getting to work on the easier end of their restricted free agent list, taking care of forwards Daniel Sprong and Dominik Simon today. Each player signed two year extensions, and each contract is worth $750,000 per season. Depth defenseman Kevin Czuczman was also re-signed.

From a team release:

The Pittsburgh Penguins have agreed to terms with forwards Dominik Simon and Daniel Sprong on two-year contracts, it was announced today by executive vice president and general manager Jim Rutherford.

Both contracts will run through the 2019-20 season, and each contains an average annual value of $750,000.

Defenseman Kevin Czuczman was re-signed to a one-year, two-way contract that contains an average annual value of $650,000 at the NHL level.

Good ones to get out of the way, as neither Sprong nor Simon have arbitration rights and were considered easy negotiations, thus the early signings. In some ways, especially the Sprong deal, this looks like when the Pens signed Brian Dumoulin to a two-year deal worth $800,000 a few years back and then he blossomed into a top-pairing guy.

Surely Pittsburgh hopes a similar career path could be in store for Sprong. Thanks to his age and playing NHL games in 2015-16, Sprong can not be sent to the AHL this season without passing waivers, which wouldn’t happen. He must be on the NHL roster, and now he’s got a contract worked out to be there. Now the hard part becomes waiting to see what he can do with the opportunity.