Aug 17: The Blackhawks have made it official, announcing Johnson’s one-year deal.
Aug 16: According to several reports including Peter Baugh and Scott Powers at The Athletic, the Chicago Blackhawks are signing Stanley Cup champion Jack Johnson to a one-year, $950K contract for the upcoming season.
This follows the Blackhawks’ offseason plan so far of accumulating talent that could be worthwhile trade chips at the deadline, while also not filling the NHL roster with enough to push them out of the bottom of the standings.
While Johnson did play a role in the recent Colorado Avalanche championship run, it was a limited one as a support piece for one of the best defensive corps in the NHL. That won’t be the case in Chicago, where the team is quite clearly looking to finish with a high lottery chance while accumulating more future assets.
Notably, an addition like Johnson also points to another strategy for the Blackhawks new front office. It appears, at least, as if the team is not going to carry as many young players as most rebuilding teams do. Instead, they have loaded up their minor league depth with talented veterans and could be trying to give their top prospects a chance to “experience winning” with a top AHL club instead of thrusting them into the NHL spotlight on a losing roster.
With deals for players like Johnson, Colin Blackwell, Max Domi, Andreas Athanasiou, and Alex Stalock, the team has acquired quite a few veteran names that will fill out the roster but not move the needle very much.
A good example of this may present itself with Alex Vlasic, who played 15 games at the end of last season with the team after signing out of Boston University. The Blackhawks now have six defensemen on one-way contracts (with Johnson being the cheapest), and a player in Nicolas Beaudin who is no longer waiver-exempt. Vlasic then might be on his way to the minor leagues for a good portion of the season, if not all of it, as he starts his true rookie campaign.
It is a good opportunity for Johnson to continue his career at age 35, especially after finally winning it all this year. The third overall pick from 2005 has 1,024 regular season games to his name but just 30 playoff appearances before his stint in Colorado. You can bet his name will be thrown around at the deadline as a potential depth addition for another playoff team, though what he can bring to the table is obviously limited at this point.
Very good news for Stanley Cup Champion Jack Johnson. He can now play everyday donning a jersey of a historic franchise. Very good for Jack.
Yeah, Pittsburgh, LA and the Avs franchises have zero history.
Well, pretty historic. Definitely not “Original 6” type of history, but both PIT and LA have had two of the best players to ever play the game play for those franchises. And a team that has had arguably the best goaltender to ever play the game play for them, not to mention players like Sakic and Forsberg to name a few, isn’t too shabby either.
Can I also mention that PIT has 5 Stanley Cups, LA have 2, and COL have 3 since the 90s. AND both PIT and LA were both founded after the Original 6 expansion in ‘67. So yeah, thanks for the fake news though, @Polish.
I’m pretty sure @Polish was being sarcastic.
So yeah, thanks for the history lesson, you should’ve put down your coloring pencils and paper and spent that time looking up the history of sarcasm though, @ColoredPaper.
Stanley Cup Champion Jack Johnson.
Crazy what can happen when you don’t make a guy your whipping boy before he even plays his first shift.
I’m fairly certain public opinion was not the culprit behind Jack Johnson’s ineptitude in The Steel City.
How many more years does he have to work to get his money back?
Avs should have kept him. He was extremely high value for the money he makes.
They’re deep on defense and tight on cap space, but to keep a veteran at under $1mil wouldn’t have been a bad move. May just maybe they’re trimming every penny to find a way to get Kadri back. I doubt it, but he’s still unsigned.
If they were really committed to getting kadri back, Girard would be gone.
I’m just guessing, it’s an extremely small chance but if true maybe moving Gerard out too is part of it.
Kadri to Calgary $49mil/7 so scratch that thought.
Colorado showed if used in right role. he can still play. Admit will always cheer for this guy after all he went through with his family.