The Colorado Avalanche are bringing back a piece of their Stanley Cup roster, re-acquiring Jack Johnson from the Chicago Blackhawks. Andreas Englund will be the player going back to Chicago.
Johnson, 36, certainly isn’t the player that went third overall in 2005, or even the one that scored 40 points in 2014-15 with the Columbus Blue Jackets. But given his familiarity with the Avalanche organization and success last year, it is a nice reunion for the veteran defenseman.
Colorado is missing Erik Johnson and Cale Makar, considerably limiting their defensive depth. Jack Johnson will slide into the depth chart in a similar role as he did last year, playing limited minutes whenever needed but not making much of an impact one way or another.
Giving up Englund means almost nothing for the Avalanche, and shows there wasn’t really a market for Johnson around the league. The 27-year-old has played 36 NHL games this year and 69 in his career, but is still looking for his first goal. As a pending unrestricted free agent, Englund doesn’t represent much of anything for the Blackhawks moving forward.
This effectively boils down to doing Johnson a favor, sending him back to a great team that he is comfortable with after logging some difficult minutes this year. The veteran defender was playing nearly 20 minutes a night for Chicago, more than he has since 2017. He won’t get anywhere near that much playing time in Colorado, but now has the chance to go for another long playoff run before his career winds down.
Kevin Weekes of ESPN broke the deal on Twitter.
Wasn’t expecting much of a return for Johnson, but even this is below expectations. What’s the point? Also, how the eff is Jack Johnson the 1st name of note off this roster? What the hell is Davidson doing? While he sits on his a$$, contenders have shot their shot with other teams. I don’t hate his patience, but sometimes I feel like he is far too indecisive to be an effective GM. I hope I’m wrong.
Really? That’s a fantastic return for Chicago if it’s a one for one deal. A good young defenseman to be part of your rebuild for an aging guy who you signed off the street for nothing, and back to the club that let him walk for nothing on top of it.
The problem is that it takes two to tango. Just because the Hawks are sellers, doesn’t mean any team wants to buy their players. Plus if he lets the market play out, he can figure what he can get or a player. Or if a team missed out on a player, they may have one similar. Also, teams have to get under the cap.
It’s like you didn’t read the article, Clu.
Horrible! Englund showed so much promise the Hawks definitely won this horrible trade by the Avs!
Yeah, I really don’t get it. It’s not going to make much of a difference on the ice this year, but why give up a guy you could have resigned for cheap to play on your bottom four for years to come just to get an old dude who you decided not to resign last summer?
Would also love to see an alternate universe view where yinzers didn’t make him their whipping boy 3 shifts into his first game, and then forever more from there.
Maybe he’d have been fine.
He was on a steep decline before Pittsburgh though, I don’t think much would change
By far the best trade of the 2023 deadline lmao
I have no idea why the Avs did this? Then again I can’t figure out why the Blues claimed Kapanen.