Davidson: No animosity with Johansen

John Davidson was on TSN 1050 Friday afternoon:

On how the first interaction went with Ryan Johansen after the contract dispute and if it was just business as usual afterward:

“Great.

“I would never call it business as usual because that’s not my style. But I think with Ryan he’s a good kid. I’ve said that all along. We’ve never had a problem with Ryan. The only thing, we just – like most of our young players, we try to push them to be the best they can be and he’s no different than anybody else.

“But I just frankly looked at this situation and to me it didn’t make any sense. It made no sense at all what the asks were. So somewhere along the line, you had to talk about it. It didn’t bother me to talk about it. I don’t think there’s any book anywhere that says you can’t talk about it.

“And I know some people liked it, some people didn’t like it. I really don’t care. All I know is he’s a good player who has got a chance to have a great future and it would have done him no good to sit out the beginning of the season for his own well-being, and certainly ours too.

“And it didn’t help him sitting out camp either. He’s had a good start, up until the last two or three games, where he’s hit the wall a little bit, and I don’t think he would have hit the wall if he had have been in camp.”

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The contest against San Jose was “the last terrific game he’s played. But we expected this. It’s just natural. First of all, he was playing at a really high level and it’s hard to do that every single night. Obviously. But at the same time, there had to be a point. It’s just human nature where you just – you can work hard,  you can think you’re in shape, but you can’t be in the same shape everybody else is when you miss a full training camp. And it’s not just Ryan, it’s the history of the players who have sat out.

“And I have never really talked to Ryan about it regarding if he would do it again, but the other players that I have talked to or read stories about - people like Marian Gaborik and others – they would never do it again. Regarding this sitting out, it didn’t do them any good.

“This situation here wasn’t a situation where we were going to lowball the guy. We were never going to do that. We just wanted a fair deal. It’s very simple arithmetic.

“So anyway, it’s over with. It’s done with. He’s a great kid. We get along fine. We get along real well, actually. So I think that people when they – the question is one to be asked, no question, but for people to think there’s animosity with the player and myself, that’s just nuts. That’s just not going to happen.”

Source: TSN 1050/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey