If Tyler Johnson’s goal was to put his best foot forward headed into a training camp with no guarantees from the Bruins, the veteran forward has done exactly that with roster decisions looming right around the corner.
It would seem as if Johnson has taken some of the suspense out of what’s going to happen with how undeniably solid he’s been.
The 34-year-old Johnson, on a veteran tryout agreement in camp with the Bruins, had another strong preseason performance while scoring the game-winning power play goal for the Bruins in a 4-1 win over the Flyers at TD Garden on Tuesday night. It was a great one-timer strike on the backdoor after a slick cross-ice pass from Pavel Zacha found Johnson waiting to slam the puck home in a game that the B’s admittedly dominated over Philly. Johnson finished with three shots on net, one hit and 3-of-8 faceoff wins while shifting around between all three forward positions that really highlighted his versatility.
Nice passing sequence between Pastrnak and Zacha leads to a power-play tally for Tyler Johnson.
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) October 2, 2024
2-1 Bruins. pic.twitter.com/Uut1fLziDG
Johnson can play center or wing on either side of the ice and is capable of playing bottom-6 or top-6 minutes based on a solid skill set and past experience playing lower in the lineup for some very deep, talented teams in Tampa Bay.
That’s exactly the kind of player that would be perfect as a 13th forward to start the NHL season for the Black and Gold, while standing ready to push other players in the Bruins lineup should injuries or ineffectiveness settle in. Johnson’s presence certainly eliminated any chance that younger guys like Fabian Lysell or Georgii Merkulov would make the Bruins, particularly after both younger prospects didn’t do enough to distinguish themselves through the first week plus of training camp.
If everybody is healthy, in fact, it feels like it could come down to Johnson or Matt Poitras for the game-day lineup spot in the B’s forward group coming out of the starting gate. Poitras isn’t quite as versatile as Johnson as far as different roles he could play, but it is well worth noting that the Bruins have put the 20-year-old through reps on the wing just in case he’s needed there during the season.
It feels like those two players would end up battling it out for playing time if they’re both in Boston, with Poitras likely headed to Providence if it ever got to a point where he was going to sit for an extended period of time.
Still, Johnson started the game as the third-line wing between Trent Frederic and Justin Brazeau and was on the ice for the first two B’s goals of the game, including his power play strike, and has been on the ice for five of Boston’s 14 preseason goals to this point. Things got moved around when Brad Marchand had to exit the game after just five shifts, but Jim Montgomery said postgame that the Frederic/Johnson/Brazeau trio was his best line throughout the game until things got shifted around.
“I think he has gotten better through camp, and I think tonight he was really good. I think he made some really good, subtle plays in the first two games that he played, but I thought tonight was a really good effort [for Johnson],” said Montgomery. “It wasn’t just because of his goal. I thought he, Frederic and Brazeau were our best line.”
So what does all of this mean?
It’s hard to say right this second as signing Johnson to an NHL contract might be held up temporarily until there’s a resolution to the Jeremy Swayman negotiations, and there is no way of knowing when that is going to be at this point. Johnson has done more than enough to earn a contract with the Black and Gold and clearly still has game coming off 17 goals and 31 points for the lowly Blackhawks last season, but it could be a bit of a waiting game for him to sign just as it was for Danton Heinen last season. After being a training camp invite last year, Heinen didn’t actually sign his NHL contract with the Bruins until Oct. 30 last season when Boston was already eight games into the regular season.
Then Heinen went to enjoy a really strong season with the Black and Gold that earned him a two-year contract this summer with the Vancouver Canucks.
Johnson is keeping a focused attitude going through this PTO process for the first time in his career, and that has worked for him as he’s been consistently good in every situation he’s been thrown into thus far.
“I think it’s just trying to play my game. If you really think about it too much and start getting worried or a little nervous, that’s when you’re going to play your worst. For me it’s trying to come in and do everything I normally do,” said Johnson, who has 193 goals and 431 points in over 700 career NHL games. “I never really think that points really dictate how you played. It’s all the little details and just trying to learn our systems and improve every day. That’s been my mindset.”
That mindset has clearly worked as it feels like the smart, skilled and feisty Johnson has earned a spot with the Bruins and the 5-foot-8, 180-pounder feels like a really good fit with the Black and Gold. There’s still a couple of preseason games to cement things, of course, but it felt like the Bruins were making a little bit of a statement about Johnson’s strong camp body of work when they shipped all their young forwards, en masse, to Providence over the weekend.
Once again it seems that the Bruins made a really prudent choice about the veteran player they brought in on a training camp tryout and will end up getting a great value skater for this upcoming season as a result. And Johnson gets to bring that Stanley Cup-winning experience to a Bruins team that has their sights set on bigger and better things this season once they get past the contractual drama bogging them down right now.
It hasn’t been finalized as of yet, but the Johnston camp invite feels like it’s going to be a win-win for the player and the team.