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The Boston Bruins may or may not have their final depth chart for defenseman currently locked in to start the season. Without providing any concrete answers and actively speaking to defensemen like Cody Franson and Marek Zidlicky, general manager Don Sweeney is leaving a lot of room for speculation. One defenseman that the Boston Bruins could look to acquire could be Erik Johnson of the Colorado Avalanche.
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The 2006 first overall draft pick by the St Louis Blues never really panned out to be a superstar, and Johnson was traded to the Colorado Avalanche back in 2011 in a multi-player deal. The Blue ended up trading Johnson and Jay McClement as well as a 1st round draft pick to the Colorado Avalanche for Kevin Shattenkirk, Chris Stewart, and a 2nd round draft pick which had a condition that isn’t important due to the main point of this article. It seems pretty clear that St Louis won the trade, especially considering Kevin Shattenkirk is easily the best piece coming out of that trade, If that wasn’t enough, the 1st round selection that went to Colorado was used on Duncan Siemens who only just played his first (and only) game in the NHL to date in the 2014-15 season.
Erik Johnson is a 6-foot-4, 236 pound defenseman. His size is one of his strong points as he isn’t afraid to use his body to knock opponents off of the puck and keep the crease clear for his goaltender. As a two-way defenseman, Johnson doesn’t excel at scoring, although his point totals aren’t horrible, having posted 12 goals and 11 assists for 23 points in 47 games last season. Johnson could be a top-pairing defenseman in Boston and at worst he would be in the top-four.
Puck Prose
Johnson has a right-handed shot and would slot in nicely next to either captain Zdeno Chara or on the second pairing next to Dennis Seidenberg. Johnson has exceptional passing skills and skates effortlessly while moving the puck up ice. His skill-set would slot in very nicely to a Bruins team who is in desperate need of a puck-moving defenseman other that Torey Krug. While it’s easy to say that the Bruins have defensemen like Joe Morrow, Colin Miller, among others in the wakes in Providence who are on the cusp of breaking the NHL roster, the Bruins could use the experience of Johnson.
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Erik Johnson’s current contract has one year remaining worth $4,250,000. The Bruins might not want to pay much to acquire a rental player, although the extension of Johnson wouldn’t be out of the question with players like Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg skating on their last legs in Boston, be it over the next one, two, or three seasons. Another reason why the Bruins may want to acquire Johnson now is the fact that Colorado may be forced to move him regardless, with players like Nathan MacKinnon, Mikhail Grigorenko, Tyson Barrie and Zach Redmond all on expiring contracts. Much of the Avalanche’s available cap space will be needed to sign at least Nathan MacKinnon and Tyson Barrie who currently add up to a total of $3,525,000 against the cap this season.
The Boston Bruins could make a trade or sign a defenseman, or they could start the season with their current group of defenders. The door remains wide-open on how the Bruins roster will look to start the season, which leaves room for speculation to continuously ensue until there are answers.
Follow Brandon Share-Cohen @FansidedBrandon to discuss all things Boston Bruins and sports