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.

[MrCheatachu]

2 hours ago, 0 Stanley Cups said:

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.

....what kind of contract do you think Merrill would command, he's currently unsigned in notably weak UFA class?  I'd imagine he's going to be a league min player unless he retires.

If you're thinking Brodin is going to be out an extended stretch at the start of the season, the PTO→Release path doesnt hold much water here as you'll need him to play some games to start the season.

If that's the case, I'd argue that having Merrill sitting in the pressbox and filling in as needed is a much much much better deal at league min contract than Johnson is

This season the only way a player is going to be 'blocking' an Iowa callup is because of their level of play.  We've got $9.4M in cap space (pending Rossi's deal) so we have plenty of room in the pressbox to handle dead weight.

Besides, what i've always argued with Merrill/Mojo/Etc, is that you can bury $1.1M of their contracts in the AHL, so if you really dont like their play put them on waivers and bury it...unless you dont think your guys in the AHL are going to be a better player, or you lose the player to a waiver claim.

[MNCountryLife]

Defensemen:  Brodin, Spurgeon, Faber, Mids, Jiricek, Buium, Bogo.  That's 7.  Even with Brodin on IR we have a full spread of D.  JJ would make 8.  

I assume BG wants more legs on the ice during preseason and this is just a PTO going nowhere.  I suppose JJ could be signed on as an 8th in case of another injury.  That would make sense if Lambos or somebody had a bad summer.

[MNCountryLife]

I will raise a mug of beer in delight if Jiricek and Buium show up ready to play after a productive summer.  🍻

[MrCheatachu]

5 minutes ago, MNCountryLife said:

I assume BG wants more legs on the ice during preseason and this is just a PTO going nowhere.  I suppose JJ could be signed on as an 8th in case of another injury.  That would make sense if Lambos or somebody had a bad summer.

From Russo:

Quote

Guerin, who signed a PTO with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2010 before being released and retiring two months later, typically doesn’t believe in PTOs unless there’s a clear shot for a veteran to make the team. He doesn’t want to lead them astray if there’s little chance.

I might be pessimistic, but this smells like a Goligoski-esque deal where SillyG falls in love with a guy who's hoisted the cup (twice with Pittsburgh, no less!) and gets blinded by if they're actually going to be making the team better.

Johnson stunk in 41 games with Columbus last season, and nearly EVERY fan base he's played with in the last decade have complained about him, yet SillyG has brought him in for some reason...

[MNCountryLife]

9 minutes ago, MrCheatachu said:

SillyG falls in love with a guy who's hoisted the cup

Boy I hope that isn't the case.  Ugh.