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Turns out size really doesn’t matter. It’s length that counts. When Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Ray Shero is building a team, anyway.

He continued doing that Friday working on a contract the Penguins hope to finalize today with free-agent winger Janne Pesonen, the 2007-08 scoring champion in Finland’s top league. But it was the moves Shero made Wednesday that captured the essence of his philosophy. He completed a seven-year, $35 million agreement with goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, then struck a pair of one-year deals with free-agent wingers Miroslav Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko.

Fleury joined Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Ryan Whitney and Brooks Orpik on the list of young players who are under contract for extended periods and make up the nucleus around which the team is assembled. Conversely, Satan and Fedotenko joined a revolving cast of complementary players who were brought in on short-term deals and are far from certain to be retained after those contracts expire.

Pesonen, 26, had 34 goals and 44 assists in 56 games with Karpat in Finland’s SM-Liga and is in line for just a one-year deal. That’s mandated by the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement, which. requires players his age to get a one-year, two-way deal. In addition to being the league’s current scoring champion, Pesonen was the SM-Liga Rookie of the Year in 2003-04, has been a member of four league-championship squads and was the playoff MVP in 2007. His size is a bit suspect — he’s listed as 5 foot 11, 179 pounds — but his speed, skill and instincts make him an intriguing prospect if he can adapt to the smaller rinks and more physical play of North America.

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