The Blue Jackets have re-signed one of their remaining free agents, announcing today that they’ve inked forward Kent Johnson to a three-year contract. The deal will carry an AAV of $1.8MM per season. GM Don Waddell released the following statement:
Kent Johnson is an exciting young player with tremendous upside, and we are happy that he will continue to grow and develop as a Blue Jacket. He is just beginning to scratch the surface of what he can be as a player, and we believe he will be a very important part of our hockey club moving forward.
Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that the deal will pay Johnson $1.6MM next season, $1.8MM in 2025-26, and $2MM in 2026-27. That $2MM figure will be his required qualifying offer at that time when he will have two years of club control remaining along with salary arbitration eligibility.
The 21-year-old was a first-round pick by Columbus back in 2021, going fifth overall following a very strong freshman year at Michigan that saw him record just over a point per game. Johnson was even better the following season, notching 37 points in 32 contests, convincing Blue Jackets management that he was ready to turn pro.
Johnson signed late in the 2021-22 campaign, burning the first year of his contract in the process. He got into nine games with them, recording three assists, a respectable total for someone just making the jump. He then followed that up with a 16-goal, 40-point effort in 2022-23, making him a popular breakout candidate heading into last season.
Unfortunately for both Johnson and the Blue Jackets, last year was a rough one. After a slow start, he was demoted to AHL Cleveland where he spent the better part of a month. Johnson was quite productive in that stretch, notching five goals and ten assists in ten games, earning a recall in late November. However, production was still hard to come by and he wound up finishing the year with just six goals and ten assists in 42 NHL appearances before a shoulder injury at the end of February ended his year prematurely.
As a result, a bridge agreement made the most sense for both sides as Johnson now has time to prove that last year was an aberration and not a sign of things to come. He has a new head coach in Dean Evason, giving him a fresh start after struggling under Pascal Vincent last year.
Columbus still has some work to do on the contract front this summer. Winger Kirill Marchenko’s arbitration hearing is scheduled for Wednesday with pre-hearing filings due on Monday if a deal isn’t in place by then. Meanwhile, Cole Sillinger, picked seven spots after Johnson in 2021, is also a restricted free agent in need of a new contract. Cap space won’t be an issue in these negotiations as they still have more than $15MM in cap space, per PuckPedia.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Really good value signing by the Jackets.
Hoping he gets a longer leash under Evason.
Hopefully these players are worth it and live up to their contracts.