Article: Wild Sign Jack Johnson to PTO

[Thomas Williams]

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[Citizen Strife]

If the Wild have to use Johnson for more than an occasional injury replacement, the season has already gone sideways.

[mnfaninnc]

Ok, so Lambos now has the standards bar ahead of him. He must beat out Johnson for a spot on the opening day roster. My hope is he takes this as a challenge and works very hard to claim the spot. 

Hopefully, Johnson plays well, but not well enough and gets a contract from a separate organization. I think Johnson should be preparing for his upcoming coaching days, as that is very close in his timeline. 

I do think we are at the point where we need to use the PTOs. This is a good way of putting competition on the ice during camp, and at the same time not have a roster commitment for them. It gives the kids something to shoot for, and still they have that roster spot available. This is part of the evolution of the cycle we're in. It's time for the youth movement. 

[bisopher]

1 hour ago, Citizen Strife said:

If the Wild have to use Johnson for more than an occasional injury replacement, the season has already gone sideways.

Agreed. He should be #8 on the depth chart, at best, or it's going to be a long season. 

[MrCheatachu]

It's just a PTO.  These things typically have a pretty low conversion rate

That said, when SillyG still laced them up, he signed a PTO with the Flyers only to get cut prior to opening night.  He's on record saying he doesn't want to give them to guys who have no shot.

 

[0 Stanley Cups]

Probably a smarter decision to sign him to PTO as insurance than to re-sign Merrill to more money & term

[Scalptrash]

Quote

recalling an ill-prepared Carson Lambos or David Spacek

Zero trust in your prospects. Sad.

[MrCheatachu]

23 minutes ago, 0 Stanley Cups said:

Probably a smarter decision to sign him to PTO as insurance than to re-sign Merrill to more money & term

Yeah...i'd 110% prefer Merrill back than Jack Johnson.

Last season with the BlueJackets:

Jack Johnson (38 years old) was a sub 12 minute defenseman, with really bad advanced statistics. He also did that playing 50% of the games (41) last season.

EV TOI/GM11.17

G60 0.00

P60 0.79

GF% 35.30

DFF% 42.00

REL DFF% -9.10

CF% 45.60

REL CF% -4.80

Merrill's currently unsigned, and probably isnt going to get much better than a league min salary contract.  He's at least 5 years younger than Johnson and was able to leg out 70 games last season.

The corpse of Jack Johnson that skated for the blue jackets last season isnt the same guy that the Av's fans constantly complained about in their '22 cup run, or the guy who hoisted it in Pittsburgh.

[0 Stanley Cups]

3 minutes ago, MrCheatachu said:

Yeah...i'd 110% prefer Merrill back than Jack Johnson.

I agree Merrill currently is the better player than Jack Johnson, but Merrill would block any potential call ups for Lambos, Peart, etc. from Iowa.  Jack Johnson at league minimum would not, it's a stop gap until Brodin's return, but could be serviceable depending on how he looks at training camp.  I would also assume Merrill would want more than a 1 year contract at league minimum right now.  They can also release Jack Johnson from his PTO, so we still have some flexibility.