Port Moody’s Kent Johnson will remain with the NHL”s Columbus Blue Jackets for at least three more years.
The 21-year-old forward signed a three-year contract worth $5.4 million the team announced Saturday.
Johnson, who was selected fifth overall by the Blue Jackets in the 2021 NHL draft, has 22 goals and 37 assists in 130 career games in Columbus.
But 40 of those points — including three game-winning goals — came in rookie season in 2022-23.
Johnson struggled in his sophomore season, scoring only 16 points in 42 games. At one point, he was even demoted to the Blue Jackets’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters, where he had five goals and 10 assists in 10 games.
Still, said Columbus general manager Don Wadell, the team hasn’t lost faith in its young prospect.
“Kent Johnson is an exciting young player with tremendous upside,” he said in a news release. “He is just beginning to scratch the surface of what he can be as a player.”
Johnson finished the 2023-24 season on the Blue Jackets’ injured reserve list. After injuring his left shoulder in a game against the New York Rangers on Feb. 28, he underwent surgery for a torn labrum the following week.
Johnson played his junior hockey with the Trail Smoke Eaters in the BCH Hockey League, where he scored 101 points in 52 games in his final season. He then played two seasons at the University of Michigan, totalling 64 points in 58 games.
Johnson has also played for Canada. He had a goal and four assists at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and a few months later he was part of the national team’s roster at the IIHF World Championship. scoring four goals and three assists.
In August, 2022, Johnson scored the game winning goal in Canada’s 3-2 win over Finland in the gold medal game at the 2022 World Junior Hockey Championship in Edmonton, a tournament that had been rescheduled from the beginning of the year after a COVID-19 outbreak on several teams.
