The Columbus Blue Jackets needed to add some veteran pieces last summer, including some depth on defense. So, it made sense that on July 2nd, Don Waddell brought in a veteran of more than 1100 NHL games to help bolster his back end.
Waddell signed Jack Johnson to a one year contract worth just $775k, and depending on which perspective you look at this from, he was either an incredible value or a big mistake. Interestingly, this is the same kind of criticism he's faced throughout his entire career. I'll explain, starting from the beginning.
Jack was drafted third overall by the Carolina Hurricanes at the 2005 NHL Draft - two spots behind Sidney Crosby. This was coming out of the lockout, where the league had missed a full season. With the hype and buildup of a new look NHL, teams were excited to show off their exciting new young players. Only, Jack would never play a game for the Canes.
A disagreement between his representatives and the management in Carolina forced a trade to the LA Kings, which is where he started his career at the end of the 2006-07 season. Naturally, when you have a really high draft pick that gets national attention for being traded in this sort of circumstance, the expectations are really high (ahem). Maybe unfairly high. Even more so when the guy picked two spots ahead of Jack Johnson, already had 222 points under his belt by the time he entered the league.
Simply put, Jack was never going to live up to those expectations. In fact, he quickly became a whipping boy for the Kings because he struggled to make the adjustment to the NHL very quickly. Part of that was due to him being thrown right to the wolves on a team that was still finding its way. But, the expectations weren't being met, and in his fifth full season out of college, he was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
I won't go over his full time with Columbus because, well, many of us remember it pretty clearly. He had a lot of ups and downs; and he faced a lot of the same criticism - especially as the advanced stats community really began to take off. Over time, he's become known as one of the worst puck possession players in the entire league.
That's a tradition that certainly carried on this year. No defenseman on the Blue Jackets roster posted a worse CORSI% than Jack's 40%, per moneypuck.com. His on-ice xGF% was just 34.8%, which would be excusable if the team continued to be a poor possession team without him on the ice. But, that was not the case. Without Jack, the team was at 52.8%.
Digging even further into the hole, his actual on ice goal differential was -24. The next closest player on the team was Ivan Provorov at -15. Putting more context onto this: Provorov played in every game, while Jack played in exactly half (41). It doesn't take much math to figure out how bad that actually is.
Now, it's important to note a couple of things here. First, Jack was rolled out in heavy defensive minutes when he was in the lineup. He was used almost exclusively by Dean Evason as a third pairing guy who played on the penalty kill. And second, any offense that he used to have in his game, just isn't there anymore.
He's now much more likely to flip the puck into the offensive zone, or chip it off the glass; than he is to put it on net or find a net-front pass option. That means the team wasn't scoring much with him on the ice. No offense + heavy defensive minutes = a lot more goals against than goals for. It's to be expected.
If he was so bad, in what world was he a bargain?
The old adage applies here: those who can't do, teach. Jack wasn't brought in here to be an every day 20+ minute defenseman. He was brought aboard because this team needed more depth and experience on its blue line. He brought both of those things.
And, he has the added bonus of being a Stanley Cup champion who knows what it takes to win at the highest level because he's seen and been part of it. One could make the argument that he would have been better suited as an assistant coach. I would hear that argument and be hard pressed to disagree.
But, the value of having a guy who steps into the lineup ready to play and eats up the brutal minutes without complaint, is a pretty darn good thing to have. Especially when his salary didn't alter any of this team's other plans this season.
In the end, all Jack did was provide a veteran voice in the room, play hard minutes without taking penalties (he only had one minor all season), and help on the penalty kill. At a one year deal for the league's minimum salary, he was good value - even with the horrible advanced metrics. Call it a strong "C" for a guy who deserved a lot more credit for being a great teammate throughout his entire career.