Kent Johnson quietly finished 5th on the Blue Jackets in scoring last season with 16 goals and 40 points. We could argue that he deserved more Calder Trophy love than he received, but honestly, him flying under the radar in a lost season might be a good thing. Can he break out in a bigger way this season?
LW/C Kent Johnson
6’0″, 175 pounds
2022-23 stats: 79GP, 16G, 24A, 40Pts, -19, 14PIMs
Acquired: Drafted 1st round (#5 overall), 2021 NHL Draft
Contract: $925k through 2023-24
Role: Second line forward (wing or possibly center)
His first full season in the NHL was far from perfect, but overall, he was consistently productive throughout the entire year. This is really impressive when you consider the constant rotation of linemates and missing pieces from the lineup throughout the year. Kent had a very solid season for the Blue Jackets, in a year where he probably had no reason to do so.
He’ll enter his second full season in the NHL with much higher expectations, but also with a lot more support. I expect Kent to hold down a second line left wing job for the team, likely flanked on the other wing by one of the team’s premier goal scorers (Patrik Laine or Kirill Marchenko). We’ll see who winds up centering this line – it may be Kent himself – but, we know that he is a capable play driving player, who will buy time and space to create offense on his own.
Let’s assume for a moment that new coach Mike Babcock decides to split Laine and Johnny Gaudreau up and keep them on separate lines. If that’s the case, Kent could be in for a huge season. We know he’s going to play in this team’s top-six forward group. We also know that this team is going to play a designed offensive zone game now; and when you combine his hands and playmaking ability with a goal scorer like Laine, you have a line that should generate offense pretty consistently. At least on paper, it seems like it should work really well; and the end result could be a massive scoring uptick for the soon-to-be 21 year old Johnson.
Three keys to success:
- Get stronger. The one knock I really have on Kent last season is that he was really easily pushed around. Part of this is due to something he can’t control: he didn’t have someone out there to protect him a lot of the time. But the part he can control: bulk up and get stronger.
- Keep dishing it out. Without bias, Kent Johnson is one of the best passers I’ve seen come into the NHL in recent years. What impresses me the most is his ability to slow the play down and time his passes, which are then beautifully accurate. Keep doing all of that.
- Those linemates. Whether it’s Laine or Marchenko, or even Yegor Chinakhov, or Jack Roslovic, or Adam Fantilli, etc … Kent is another guy who needs more help this year. This is the kind of player that seems like he will develop chemistry with just about anyone, and it would be nice to see some health and consistency with the club.
In the end, I really feel like Kent Johnson is set to have a breakout season. His underlying numbers pointed to that last year, and we have to hope that this team has better health this season. Under a new head coach who loves for his team to have the puck, Kent is a perfect fit whether he gets his chance to play at center, or if he’s kept on the wing. I don’t usually like to set predictions for players, but if a lot of things go right, I think he could be a 70+ point guy this season. He should be fun to watch.