When Sidney Crosby called up his old pal Jack Johnson last week, the conversation went a little differently than the Penguins captain anticipated.

Crosby was prepared to give Johnson a sales pitch. He was ready to tell his classmate from Shattuck St. Mary's prep school in Minnesota all about the benefits of living and playing hockey in Pittsburgh.

Johnson cut him short. He already thought it was a good idea, too.

A few days later, the deal was done. Johnson signed a five-year, $16.25 contract Sunday, earning the biggest haul general manager Jim Rutherford has given out July 1 in his four-year tenure with the team.

“I've been really wanting to be a part of a winning culture and a place where the expectations to win are as high as they can be,” Johnson said Sunday afternoon while stopping by the team's practice facility in Cranberry during a house-hunting trip with his wife. “I don't think I could have asked for a better opportunity here.”

Rutherford also brought back Matt Cullen for another tour of duty with the Penguins on Sunday, signing the popular 41-year-old center to a one-year deal worth $650,000.

Between Johnson and Cullen, Rutherford said he accomplished his offseason goal of crafting better balance among his team's defense pairs and forward lines. The Johnson signing figures to be at least somewhat controversial.

Based on the hefty paychecks NHL general managers were handing out to free agents leaguewide Sunday, Johnson's $3.25 million salary hardly seems out of line, but giving a five-year deal to a 31-year-old player could raise some eyebrows.

Rutherford dismissed those eyebrows Sunday afternoon.

“I did it, so I must be comfortable with it,” he said.

He also brushed off concerns the analytics community often voices about Johnson, although the general manager did so in a far less dismissive fashion.

Rutherford knows Johnson's advanced stats profile isn't pretty. The Indiana native hasn't finished a season with a shot-attempt ratio better than 50 percent in his 11-year NHL career. But he also knows what his scouts saw when they watched Johnson live: a 6-foot-1, 227-pound athlete who can skate, hit and shoot. Rutherford weighed the available information and offered a contract.

“We use analytics as one of the checkpoints, and we use our people who go and watch the player,” Rutherford said. “We try to separate things out as to why the analytics say one thing and why the guys say one thing. Before we signed him, the coaches were looking at video all the time and there was a real comfort level there.

“None of this is foolproof. As humans watching players, we make mistakes on them sometimes, and the analytics are not always accurate, but we're very comfortable that Jack's going to help our team.”

Rutherford said the addition of Johnson, who has topped the 30-point mark four times in his career, will give his team a puck mover on each of its three defense pairs.

He said any rough edges that need to be smoothed out can be addressed by assistant coach Sergei Gonchar, who has had a hand in rehabilitating the careers of defensemen such as Justin Schultz, Jamie Oleksiak and Trevor Daley over the past few years.

“I'll always put my money on Sergei Gonchar,” Rutherford said. “He is a real special person when it comes to one-on-one with these guys.”

Rutherford and Johnson downplayed the way the defenseman's last season ended in Columbus. They said coach John Tortorella made him a healthy scratch in the playoffs not because of his performance on the ice but because of unspecified off-ice concerns.

“There were a few things that didn't go according to plan. Some of those things I prefer not to discuss in the media,” Johnson said. “I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. Not coming to an extension in Columbus just led me to this opportunity, and I couldn't be happier. I wouldn't trade a thing that happened to be standing here right now.”

Jonathan Bombulie is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at jbombulie@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BombulieTrib.

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