Friedman: Blue Jackets should tread carefully with Johansen

Elliotte Friedman was on Sportsnet 960 on Monday morning.

On RFA Ryan Johansen’s contract situation with the Columbus Blue Jackets:

“I’ve been working on this one quite a bit. The team’s not talking. The agent isn’t talking. Johansen isn’t talking. But I have been able to get some information. I believe that they’re somewhere between two and three million dollars apart on the short-term bridge deal. I heard that – the joke was made to me that when they were talking long-term, they weren’t even in the same solar system, the Blue Jackets and the player, about what they wanted to do and where they wanted to go. So I think both sides did agree on the two-year bridge deal idea, but I don’t think they were close on the money.

“I think that – I would guess, and this is sort of an education guess, but I can’t say it’s 100 percent accurate, like most of my work – but I would guess that Columbus is willing to go in the low 4, maybe 4 range for Johansen. And I think his ask has been around 6, maybe a little bit higher, though I think it’s come down to around 6. So I think there’s a significant gap there.

“I think the other thing you have to look at is, and I do think that Columbus has looked into this, is that Kurt Overhardt, the agent here, he’s a tough guy. He’s been in a couple of real battles the last few years. He had Kyle Turris in Phoenix. He had Ryan Kesler in Vancouver. Obviously Turris stuck to his guns in Phoenix and got traded. Vancouver wanted Kesler to expand his list of teams he would go to. They took a pretty hard line. I think it comes down to Johansen. I mean, clearly Turris had the jam to say ‘I’m going to stick to my guns.’ Kesler obviously had the jam to say ‘I’m going to stick to my guns.’

“And the question comes down to – I always believe it comes down to the client at the end of the day... it’s going to be hard, when you’re a young player that’s 21 years old, to say ‘I’m willing to miss games to get what I think is right’ and I wonder in this situation if that’s what it’s going to come down to.

“So I think there’s a lot of stubborn people on both sides on this one. A lot of people who really like to stick to their guns and believe passionately in what they’re doing.

“I always hate saying this, because I’m worried Johansen is going to sign, but the last information I had Dean, was it’s a really tight battle.”

On if there’s a chance this doesn’t end well in Columbus, potentially even with a trade as an option:

“I think that it’s possible. I mean, it did happen with Turris. I think here’s the problem though, for Columbus. I’ve been asking a lot about Johansen. You know, people’s opinions. And there are guys out there who believe that Johansen would turn out to be the best player of his draft. And that may not happen, but that’s tough to trade.

“This is a center-driven league right now. I mean, it’s always goaltending Dean. We all know that. It’s always about goaltending. But now look at this league of centers. And you look at what centers are getting on the free agent market. Krejci just signed a deal that gives him an average of about 7.25. Ryan Johansen is 21 years old.

“Last year, there are four players aged 21 who scored 25 goals in the league. One was Johansen, one was Jaden Schwartz, one was Jeff Skinner, and one was Gabriel Landeskog. Those guys are hard to find. I think it’s difficult to make that trade and get value back.  

“I think the other thing though, and this is the thing I would warn Columbus, is that you look this year at what happened with Montreal, and when they had the leverage, they brought it hard on P.K. Subban. And when the leverage switched to him, he brought it hard back. Montreal’s got a lot of money obviously, and they can afford to do some things. Columbus is in a bit of a tougher spot financially. They’re not a team that can throw money around like Montreal does.

“I think what they’re trying to say is look Ryan, you’re going to get paid. It just might not be yet to the level you want it to be. And I think you just have to be careful about – you have to make sure you know how the player is going to react to that. And I think that’s kind of where we are right now.”

Source: Sportsnet 960/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey