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  • Wild Sign Jack Johnson to PTO

    Thomas Williams

    By Thomas Williams -

    The Minnesota Wild are bringing a very experienced, veteran defenseman to training camp and it is most likely just out of precaution.

    Announced by the team on Monday afternoon, the Wild have signed defenseman Jack Johnson to a professional tryout and the 38-year-old blueliner will be reporting to training camp this fall.

    Johnson has a total of 1,228 NHL games played under his belt, through a total of 19 seasons for six different organizations. As of late, he's been bouncing around from team-to-team -- but that did include a stop with the Colorado Avalanche where he played a depth role and won the Stanley Cup in 2022.

    Last season, Johnson returned to the Columbus Blue jackets, where he played in 41 games and earned six assists while averaging just 12:52 TOI. He is a somewhat below-average NHL depth defenseman right now, but he does bring a whole lot of experience and it is clear why the Wild are bringing in Johnson next month.

    Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin underwent surgery in late June to fix an upper-body injury he was experiencing but given the timeline of recovery, he might miss the start of the season. Johnson provides a little bit of insurance and prevents the team from overstretching and recalling an ill-prepared Carson Lambos or David Spacek to replace someone. Instead, if Johnson is eventually signed to a contract and everything looks halfway decent in camp, Johnson provides a buffer between the NHL lineup and the still-developing young blueliners down in the AHL.

    • Our top prospect ranking is starting and the first post is going to all the honorable mentions -- the players that just missed the cut. [Hockey Wilderness]
    • More details on the Wild bringing in Jack Johnson. [The Athletic]

    Off the trail...

    • The Ottawa Senators are finally moving out of their weirdly located arena. Now, there is some new land being prepared closer to downtown for a new arena. [TheScore]
    • Matthew and Brady Tkachuk talk about the 2026 Olympics, the upcoming season, the new CBA, and more. [ESPN]
    By Thomas Williams  

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    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. 

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    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. 

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    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.

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    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.

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