The veteran defenseman’s time in Buffalo did not go according to plan.
TRADE
Buffalo sends defenseman Erik Johnson to Philadelphia for a 2024 fourth-round pick
Thoughts and analysis lie ahead…
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About Johnson
When the Sabres added Erik Johnson last summer, it made a lot of sense on paper.
Johnson, a long-time veteran and Stanley Cup winner in 2022 with Colorado, was added to give their defense solid depth and a mentor for their bevy of young blue liners. With Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Mattias Samuelsson, Henri Jokiharju—along with Ryan Johnson in his first pro season—having Erik Johnson for these players to learn from and play alongside and share his knowledge made all the sense in the world.
And Johnson was able to do that. After all, he had something in common with Dahlin and Power being a No. 1 pick in 2003. He understood the pressure that comes with that and how to handle that sort of stress. Those are valuable insights for the Sabres’ cornerstone defenders to soak in.
The biggest question about his addition was how he would play on the ice with a team that played an up-tempo style of hockey but were still rather raw in coming together as a team. The answer to that turned out to be one that didn’t work out for the Sabres. Johnson struggled, both in his play and how he kept up with the system in place in Buffalo (and yes, I hear your snark from here about the system, I get it).
Johnson began the year paired with Power and ultimately was on the third pair with Ryan Johnson when he came up from Rochester and proved to be ready for the NHL. As a mentor, he taught the players about the value of recovery and sauna use. As a player, there were mistakes and struggles, something that continued from the end of his final season in Colorado.
Johnson’s fancy stats weren’t good, and his raw numbers were worse.
Johnson had three goals and no assists in 50 games. At 5-on-5 he had a sub-47 percent CorsiFor (46.6 per Natural Stat Trick) and a 44.4 percent expected goals for. Those metrics were worst among Sabres defensemen this season. The Flyers will hope that the poor play and poorer numbers will take a drastic turn for the best on a team that’s performing much better all together.
Johnson’s an honest player and he understood that his play wasn’t good, and he wasn’t doing his part to help the team win more this year. Believing otherwise would’ve been overconfidence.
With Philadelphia in a playoff spot and looking to hold it down while they’re hotly pursued by the Islanders in the division and stay out of the wild card, it makes sense. They’d already sent Sean Walker to Colorado in another trade and old friend Rasmus Ristolainen has been battling injuries all season. They needed a right-handed defenseman and got him.
That the GM Kevyn Adams got a fourth-round pick from the Flyers for Johnson and didn’t retain any salary in the deal is a win. Johnson wasn’t playing well and was essentially benched in his final game with the Sabres in Florida. He wasn’t going to stick around here, and Adams found a way to get him to a playoff team and not settle for the stereotypical bag o’ pucks. Take it and run.