The Penguins have worked out a contract agreement with Paul Martin, arguably the best two-way defenseman on the free-agent market. The contract is for five years and $25 million, an annual cap hit of $5 million.
Martin, 29 and late of New Jersey, was signed shortly after Sergei Gonchar accepted a three-year deal worth $16.5 million with Ottawa.
Martin is 6 feet 1, 200 pounds and has excellent mobility and instincts. He, like Gonchar, doesn’t play a particularly physical game and he won’t necessarily be the front-runner to replace Gonchar as quarterback of the power play.
Michalek and Martin didn't come cheap, and there won't be a ton of money left over to pursue offensive reinforcements, but the Pens got two of the better defensemen available on the free agent market, filling the biggest hole on their roster.