Hello, #1 Defensive Pairing.

Blues' Johnson and Pietrangelo are ready - STLtoday.com

Good to see that not signing Woywitka (good luck on the Stars, buddy) has left a bit of an open spot on defense. Petro and Johnson will be at prospect camp this week with the young guys, and I'm sure will garner most of the attention. Johnson sounds like he is in top condition, as does Pietrangelo. They're both complimentary of each others' playing styles, and when you have Johnson saying something like this, well...

Regarding his pairing with Pietrangelo, Johnson said: "We want to be like (Al) MacInnis and (Chris) Pronger when they were here ... to have that tandem that everyone fears to play against."

No, we have nothing to look forward to at all with these two young kids. Healthy EJ, mono-free Petro... A lot of people point to Chicago as the youthful success story of the league. That's all well and good, but when they can't afford to sign their youth after next season, I think more people will be taking notice of a team that includes these two guys, Oshie, Perron, Berglund, and whoever else works their way up through the system. Our prospect system was rated #1 in the league by Hockey's Future for a reason.