Kent Johnson is showing he can be an elite NHL forward, and it's glorious to watch

Ladies and gentlemen, Kent Johnson has arrived.

KJ has been unconscionably good in his slightly abbreviated 2024-2025 season. Through 13 games as of the end of the 12/8 win over the Winnipeg Jets, Johnson has posted an 8-6-14 line with an otherworldly shooting percentage of well over 20%. He's skating a career-high 17:30+ ATOI due to being trusted on Columbus' first power play and penalty kill units and is performing well in all situations.

So, what changed? Why is KJ showing up across the board? Per NHL Edge, it's unfortunately (and undoubtedly) not due to an increase in his oft-maligned skating ability. Kent remains below the league average in top skating speed, quick 20+ miles per hour bursts, and overall skating distance. Even when these statistics are turned into their per 60 numbers, KJ remains in the bottom half of the league in each.

The answer is simple, as Kent said in a recent article by Jeff Svoboda: KJ has changed his approach to puck possession and how he approaches his opponents, literally, on the ice.

Kent has spent time during the offseason in Vancouver over the past few offseasons, playing in 3v3 summer leagues with big hockey names like Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini, along with good friend and Blue Jackets teammate Jake Christiansen. Three-on-three hockey is quicker, looser, and is even more punishing for minor mistakes and turnovers than five-on-five is in the NHL.

Given that KJ is slightly undersized at 6'0" and 185 pounds, it's required that he train in areas other than how to utilize size and frame to keep the puck on his stick. Namely, he has focused on positioning and angles, how to position what size he has, and how to keep his stick angled away from the opposition, which has allowed him to succeed in reducing his turnovers and keeping play moving.

Kent has always had a magnificent mind for hockey, but it's only recently that I've heard about his ability to think about the game more often than in years past. Jeff Svoboda says that Blue Jackets head coach Dean Evason discussed this in Svoboda's article.

"Evason often refers to Johnson as a rink rat, someone who feels most at home on the ice, and Johnson describes himself as a hockey nerd. But that detailed study of the game and relentless has allowed the Vancouver-area native to announce himself this season as a breakout player for the Blue Jackets."

Jeff Svoboda

So much of the ice hockey game is mental, and how quickly a player can reach the situation unfolding around him on the ice can be the key to success or failure at the highest level in the NHL. The best example of this at a skilled level in Columbus, especially this season, has been the play of Zach Werenski.

Both from an offensive and defensive perspective, Zach has been making the right reads and plays for much of the year, and it's difficult to understate how much his elevated level of play has given the Jackets new light in all three areas on the ice.

The same can be said of Kent Johnson. For a team that could not consistently possess the puck in the Neutral and Offensive zones last season, having a young player who can think two steps ahead in much the same way Werenski or Johnny Gaudreau, can go a long way toward setting not only KJ up for success but also his teammates along with him.

Kent showed even during the preseason that some of the training he underwent over the summer and following his season-ending injury in the 2023-2024 campaign, put him into a position to succeed. Not only in even-strength situations but on special teams, and the results so far are speaking for themselves. If Kent keeps this up, Columbus may have found one of their superstars of the future.