The five-year, $16.25MM contract that the Penguins gave defenseman Jack Johnson last summer drew some immediate ire. Considering that the team is still tight against the cap even after dealing away Olli Maatta over the weekend, some may be wondering if Johnson could also be on the move at some point. GM Jim Rutherford poured cold water over that idea, telling Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the Maatta swap means that Johnson will be sticking around:
“We certainly had to make a move from a cap point of view. … We were getting ourselves to a point where we might have been in a little trouble. It was going to be either Johnson or Maatta to open up the necessary cap space and open up the logjam at defense. And as it turned out, it ended up being Olli.”
The 32-year-old logged over 19 minutes a game for the Penguins last season although his offensive output continued to drop as he scored just a single goal. It appears as if Johnson will be resuming his role on their back end when the puck drops on next season in October.
Elsewhere in the East:
- While Bruins forward David Backes has been brought up as a speculative candidate to leave Boston, it doesn’t appear as if that will be the case. Speaking with reporters including Joe Haggerty of NBC Sports Boston (Twitter link), GM Don Sweeney stated that Backes will not be going anywhere this offseason. The 35-year-old has two years remaining on his deal with a $6MM cap hit and a partial no-trade clause but because of the structure of the contract, a buyout wouldn’t save Boston much on the cap. Instead, it appears they’ll ask him to hold down a spot in their bottom six once again next season.
- Lightning free agent defenseman Anton Stralman will be participating in the UFA interview window which begins next week, agent Marc Levine told Joe Smith of The Athletic (Twitter link). That suggests that there hasn’t been much progress made in discussions about a possible contract extension. Stralman, 32, is coming off an injury-plagued 2018-19 campaign but still logged over 20 minutes a night and with the market for right-shot defenders dwindling quickly, he should have plenty of suitors if he does indeed make it to the open market next month.
Sweeney would trade Backes in a heartbeat if he could. His contract & modified no-trade clause makes it unlikely.
Backes and a solid sweetener for Eriksson
Think bout it
Jim would dump Johnson if he could. That was the absolute worst deal he has made as the Pens GM. Everyone knew that was a disaster prior. Now, JR is going to have to move players making north of 4 million to create some cap space to improve the roster.
Pens fans need a (at least one) whipping boy at all times. Johnson’s deal is too long and the cap hit is a bit too high, but…he’s not Matt Hunwick (JR’s actual worst deal as Hunwick was useless) or anything.
He had a few bad stretches, but when Letang was hurt, Johnson and Schultz played as a top pairing and were really good.
Also, Johnson would not have fetched a quality young player like Kahun.
I agree entirely – the only reason Johnson haters want him out are
So they can say they were right!!
After the first month and a half
Johnson was solid defensively.
They did the same thing to Reaves
then he went to Vegas and kicked
butt – he would of been our best 4th
line player this year.
It helps Johnson that he is good friends with Crosby and also the fact that nobody wants that albatross of a contract. He is pretty much done.
Why would you want Erickson back with the extra years compared to backes?
And add a sweetener, no thanks
Eriksson probably has more to offer, especially with better line mates in Boston. That would probably make sense straight up though.
Eriksson is made out of paper and not what the B’s need, so the better question is who do you think has more left in the tank, Backes or Lucic?
there’s nothing else to bitch about, the state of the bruins is in a good place
The length of the contract is not good but the salary for a 5th or 6th Dman at 3.25mil is tolerable.