Next up in our season previews is Jake Christiansen’s good friend, Kent Johnson. Even though he went down in October after suffering an injury early on in the season, KJ was a revelation at wing for the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2024-25 and had a breakout year along with other wings like Kirill Marchenko and Dmitri Voronkov.
Kent ended the year with 57 points in 68 games played (24 goals, 33 assists) after missing just 14 games. The torn labrum ended up healing quickly against expectations, and KJ returned to be productive for the remainder of the season. The way he suffered the injury - colliding with now-former teammate James Van Riemsdyk, just a few seconds into the start of a game following the start to the year where he’d put up 6 points in his first five games - was the inspiration for my article about how it was “Time to Genuinely Admit” the Blue Jackets are cursed as a franchise.
I guess the “Hockey Gods” must have read that article, because he came back out as skilled as ever, with highlight reel play after highlight reel play for the remainder of the campaign.
Kent, while still clearly developing, is pretty much exactly the type of player I expected he’d be when the Blue Jackets took him fifth overall in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft: a top-six winger, human highlight reel. Kent’s creativity with the puck passes perhaps anyone else on the Columbus roster currently, and reminds me of Johnny Gaudreau in some ways, with how he’s able to slow down the game and get the puck to where it needs to go so often.
He’s still young, needs to work on his skating some more, and can be prone to making mistakes from time to time, but at this point, the positives in his game outweigh the negatives.
Kent has two years remaining on his 3-year, $1.8 million AAV contract he signed to stay in Arch City last offseason. This means three things: one, he’s one of the best value contracts in the NHL, now along with teammate Kirill Marchenko. Two, he’s not eligible to sign an extension until next offseason. Three, he’ll likely demand a lot more than what he’s currently making at just about a million dollars a year over the league minimum.
I would venture to guess the young Michigan alum is excited to prove what else he can do on the ice this year before he’s eligible to sign what should be a long-term deal next summer.
One Bold Prediction: Kent Johnson will put up 70 points this year and hit the 40 or 50 assist plateau.
If he stays healthy, this might be a foregone conclusion. Had he not missed a month of play, I would venture to guess Kent likely would’ve done that this past year. I’d like to think that KJ’s ceiling as a hockey player is somewhere around the Artemi Panarin - Johnny Gaudreau level, as his play reminds me of both of them in a lot of ways, and I can’t think of a higher compliment I could give to a young kid from Western Canada like him.