The first day of July marks the beginning of free agency in the National Hockey League, and the start of the official new league year. But this year, July 1st represents something else for the hometown Pittsburgh Penguins.

A journey eight years in the making is finally coming to an end. On noon today, the Jack Johnson contract will officially be off the books in Pittsburgh.

The last remaining dollars of Johnson’s contract, which was signed all the way back in 2018 by then-general manager Jim Rutherford and bought out two years later, are expiring today.

Eight years ago exactly, the Penguins and Rutherford signed Johnson to a five-year, $16.25 million deal in free agency. The veteran defenseman was brought in to help shore up the blue line just months after Pittsburgh’s bid for a Stanley Cup three-peat was upended by Washington.

The deal carried a lot of risk. Johnson, 32 at the time of the signing, was coming off a down year production wise in Columbus. His three goals and eight assists (11 points) were the lowest total of any of his six years with the Blue Jackets.

Defensively, he had also taken a bit of a step back, posting a -6 while averaging 19:33 a night, almost a two-minute drop from the season prior.

To bring Johnson in, the Penguins also had to clear out contracts to help get under the cap. Days before the July 1st signing date, Pittsburgh dumped the contract of Matt Hunwick (a failed free-agent defenseman signing from the summer of 2017) in Buffalo, throwing forward Conor Sheary in as a sweetener to convince the Sabres to accept.

The Penguins, meanwhile, received a fourth-round pick which eventually ended up in the hands of Arizona. The Coyotes used that pick to select forward Matias Maccelli, who now is a free agent and could come Pittsburgh’s way.

More importantly, however, the Penguins cleared out Hunwick’s $2.25 million and Sheary’s $3 million to help bring Johnson and his new $3.25 million cap hit in.

At the time of his signing, that salary was worth 4.09% of the team’s total cap. For reference, the exact same deal, percentage wise, would be just a hair over $4.25 million today.

This would be a deal the Penguins would come to regret.

In his first year in Pittsburgh, Johnson played a full 82-game slate. That was a positive, and he was one of just three Penguins to play every game for the club that year. Unfortunately, he put up just one goal and 12 assists (13 points) in said 82 games, and was a -4. The 19:17 he averaged each night was also the lowest of his NHL career. He appeared in three of the team’s four postseason games, scoring no points and putting up a -3 en route to a sweep at the hands of the New York Islanders.

The following year didn’t get much better. Johnson, whose ice time increased only 11 seconds to 19:28 a night. He figured into 67 games, scoring three goals and eight assists (11 points) and was a -1. That was the 2019-20 season, cut short by the Covid pandemic and resumed in August with that 24-team playoff bubble.

Pittsburgh suffered a quick exit, losing 3-1 in a five-game qualifier to Montreal, the 24th ranked team in the tournament. Johnson didn’t help things, putting up no points and a -4 through four games.

It just wasn’t working out. Johnson wasn’t providing the Penguins with the blue line play they were looking for, and as the financial toll of the pandemic stalled the salary cap, Johnson’s contract looked worse and worse.

Finally, just two years into a five-year idea, Rutherford bought out the remaining three years of Johnson’s deal. The penalty put a cap hit on the books for twice the remaining time on the contract, meaning the Penguins would be paying a price for the next six years to move his deal off then.

Despite the pain of that lengthy of a buyout penalty, the actual money was rather reasonable. Johnson’s buyout cap hit was $1,166,667 for the first two years, giving the Penguins an extra $2 million in cap space. In year three, it spiked to $1,916,667, dropping the savings to about $1.3 million.

In the final three years, however, the penalty was $916,667, under a million and easily manageable, especially as the Penguins took greater caution to avoid spending directly to the cap.

The 2025-26 season was the last of Johnson’s cap hit penalty, meaning that tomorrow, once this official league year is all wrapped up, Johnson officially as no more ties to the Penguins.