Player Discussion: Kent Johnson - Winger or Center?

[Jovavic]

Training camp is six months away. No rec roller league for him this summer.

 

[majormajor]

Can he still do a lot of leg training this summer? Leg press? @stevo61

I personally had a breakthrough with my skinny legs when I did a ton of leg press, and extension and hamstring machines. Squats and deadlifts were a great total body workout but I didn't bulk from them.

 

[stevo61]

Can he still do a lot of leg training this summer? Leg press? @stevo61

I personally had a breakthrough with my skinny legs when I did a ton of leg press, and extension and hamstring machines. Squats and deadlifts were a great total body workout but I didn't bulk from them.

Might be awkward feeling but I dont see why not. People would probably be surprised at how you can work around those things. See plenty of body builders have terrible injuries like torn pecs, biceps etc and miss next to no time training other areas. Luckily there is a million ways to tackle legs so im sure they'll find plenty of stuff he can do. Bulgarian split squats is where its at though after barbell squat, thats definitely king.

There is even things like a belt squat machine so you can load weight without weight being on your shoulder plus all the other fancy equipment theyll have I probably dont even know about. There shouldnt be much of an excuse for him to not progress in core/lower body strength. Upper body will obviously be tough to progress too much

 

[CBJWerenski8]

Before Blue Jackets winger Kent Johnsonreturned home to Vancouver, B.C. for the offseason, he had a check-up on Thursday with club doctors on his surgically repaired shoulder, which kept him out of the lineup since Feb. 28. “Appointment was great,” Johnson said in a text exchange with The Athletic. “Shoulder is healing great!” Johnson has been able to maintain his off-ice workouts on his legs the whole time but was cleared Thursday to begin some limited upper-body lifting. He expects to be cleared well before the start of training camp in the fall.

 

[Aaaarrgghh]

Interesting blog post here about Johnson's season and how his underlying numbers suggest that he actually improved this season.


Cliff notes (more details and nuances in the post itself):

• Won some minutes (in terms of G/xG for vs. against), which is an improvement on last year.
• His 5v5 points per 60 minutes was 140th in the league, similar to Keller, M. Tkachuk, J. Hughes. 2nd line quality producer of points at 5v5. He was 335th in 2022-23. Complicated by deployment, of course.
• Improved at every facet of 5v5 play, but didn't generate as much goals on the PP.
• Didn't get much of a chance on the PP, showed potential to be a real PP1 threat.
• Heightened anticipation capabilities through improved scanning and body-reading habits. Starting to show a defensive aspect to his game.
• Author thinks that when mistakes were made, they were very visible, which made Vincent less trustworthy of Johnson's game.
• Played a lot with Sillinger. They don't seem to fit together. He looked best with Voronkov (and Marchenko).
• Improved strength and skating in the off-season should be helpful.

 

[cbjthrowaway]

Interesting blog post here about Johnson's season and how his underlying numbers suggest that he actually improved this season.


Cliff notes (more details and nuances in the post itself):

• Won some minutes (in terms of G/xG for vs. against), which is an improvement on last year.
• His 5v5 points per 60 minutes was 140th in the league, similar to Keller, M. Tkachuk, J. Hughes. 2nd line quality producer of points at 5v5. He was 335th in 2022-23. Complicated by deployment, of course.
• Improved at every facet of 5v5 play, but didn't generate as much goals on the PP.
• Didn't get much of a chance on the PP, showed potential to be a real PP1 threat.
• Heightened anticipation capabilities through improved scanning and body-reading habits. Starting to show a defensive aspect to his game.
• Author thinks it when mistakes were made, they were very visible, which made Vincent less trustworthy of Johnson's game.
• Played a lot with Sillinger. They don't seem to fit together. He looked best with Voronkov (and Marchenko).
• Improved strength and skating in the off-season should be helpful.

there was an eprinkside article a little while ago written from a fantasy hockey lens but it was pretty informative on the differences in kj's usage.

rookie year kj:

• had transition numbers that were very good (well above average in zone entries carried in, and his entry passing data was among the best in the league alongside panarin, hughes, etc)
  • he was also one of five cbj forwards to be above league average in controlled entries per 60 – the others were gaudreau, nyquist, roslovic and jenner
• played with productive linemates (laine, gaudreau, roslovic) but was dragged down a bit by sillinger when they played together

this year kj:

• barely carried the puck on entries (down from 61% to 38%)
  • he went from being well above average to being in a cohort of fourth line grinders
• played a TON with sillinger, and was far better away from him
  • cbj w/johnson + sillinger: 2.2 gf/60
  • cbj w/johnson and no sillinger: 3.3 gf/60 (50% increase!)

the transition data is the most staggering part of that. brad larsen used kent johnson as the primary entry guy on his line, and under pascal he pretty much wasn't involved in entries at all.

i'm not smart enough to know whether this is primarily (or entirely) a product of different systems/usage/coaching, but it sure feels that way. his transition microstat cohort went from jack hughes and artemi panarin to jonah gadjovich and kyle okposo.

 

[majormajor]

there was an eprinkside article a little while ago written from a fantasy hockey lens but it was pretty informative on the differences in kj's usage.

rookie year kj:

• had transition numbers that were very good (well above average in zone entries carried in, and his entry passing data was among the best in the league alongside panarin, hughes, etc)
  • he was also one of five cbj forwards to be above league average in controlled entries per 60 – the others were gaudreau, nyquist, roslovic and jenner
• played with productive linemates (laine, gaudreau, roslovic) but was dragged down a bit by sillinger when they played together

this year kj:

• barely carried the puck on entries (down from 61% to 38%)
  • he went from being well above average to being in a cohort of fourth line grinders
• played a TON with sillinger, and was far better away from him
  • cbj w/johnson + sillinger: 2.2 gf/60
  • cbj w/johnson and no sillinger: 3.3 gf/60 (50% increase!)

the transition data is the most staggering part of that. brad larsen used kent johnson as the primary entry guy on his line, and under pascal he pretty much wasn't involved in entries at all.

i'm not smart enough to know whether this is primarily (or entirely) a product of different systems/usage/coaching, but it sure feels that way. his transition microstat cohort went from jack hughes and artemi panarin to jonah gadjovich and kyle okposo.

- I would like all of our skilled players to avoid playing with Cole Sillinger, and the easiest way to achieve that would be to put him on a different team.

- I really doubt that Larsen and Vincent were telling guys who was and was not supposed to be the transition guy. KJ just looked unready by my eye.

 

[MoeBartoli]

- I would like all of our skilled players to avoid playing with Cole Sillinger, and the easiest way to achieve that would be to put him on a different team.

- I really doubt that Larsen and Vincent were telling guys who was and was not supposed to be the transition guy. KJ just looked unready by my eye.

I think Sillinger and Voronkov are both 3Cs. But I think Voronkov will be a high performance 3C - really a middle 6 center. I don’t think Sillinger is either.

 

[VT]

If more 100 minutes, Johnson, Gaudreau and Nylander have better with Sillinger HDGF% , Chinakhov and Nylander CF%.

Sillinger was better with Gaudreau if HDGF% and Texier, Chinakhov and Nylander if CF%.

I don't know...

 

[majormajor]

View attachment 881303

View attachment 881304
If more 100 minutes, Johnson, Gaudreau and Nylander have better with Sillinger HDGF% , Chinakhov and Nylander CF%.

Sillinger was better with Gaudreau if HDGF% and Texier, Chinakhov and Nylander if CF%.

I don't know...

Personally I use either goals results (GF%) or a higher sample size stat like xG% or corsi (CF%). There is no reason to use HDGF% which is mostly random.

 

[VT]

Johnson

Sillinger and Danfort had better CF% without Johnson, Johnson had better without Sillinger and Danforth.
Sillinger had better HDGF% without Johnson, Johnson had better without Fantilli.

 

[cbjthrowaway]

- I really doubt that Larsen and Vincent were telling guys who was and was not supposed to be the transition guy. KJ just looked unready by my eye.

it's less "hey, you carry the puck" and more a byproduct of line structure + team systems.

the strongest part of kent's rookie profile was skillful zone entries (carries + passes) and he did those things at an elite level. this year his stat profile showed a player who essentially wasn't involved in those kinds of entries at all.

part of that could've been the blue jackets team system not emphasizing that type of transition game. remember, under larsen in 22-23, their primary way to gain the zone was to get the puck to a winger with speed. there were stretches in games that year when they would just have johnny get speed in the neutral zone and try to carry into the zone – which worked surprisingly well imo.

the other part of that is usage/linemates. the majority of his 5v5 time came with sillinger and bemstrom this year – neither guy is particularly imaginative or dangerous on entries. ergo, more dump-ins.

there's a parallel there to sillinger's sophomore slump. young players do better with quality and/or experienced linemates. both kj and sillinger saw a massive dip in linemate quality from year 1 to year 2, and their games fell apart.

	sillinger rookie year	sillinger year 2	johnson rookie year	johnson year 2
5v5 most common linemates	bjorkstrand voracek chinakhov nyquist domi	johnson chinakhov marchenko robinson bemstrom	roslovic sillinger marchenko laine gaudreau	sillinger bemstrom [huge gap] marchenko voronkov danforth

the combination of those things – not fitting the new system and having worse linemates – contributed to kent not passing the eye test this year.

imo both of those things fall on the coach. plenty of coaches can adapt (or just do a better job of teaching) their systems to use young players' skillsets, or are willing to play their young guys with veteran players.

 

[VT]

Personally I use either goals results (GF%) or a higher sample size stat like xG% or corsi (CF%). There is no reason to use HDGF% which is mostly random.

Corsi is not ideal for all players. But if GF%/xG:

Johnson is ideal with creative guys but not with players like Sillinger, Danforth, Bemström. Although it is interesting, Boqvist, Jiříček, Severson and Provorov are better without him.

 

[CBJx614]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1810344800698204574

 

[Ice9]

He has a great future in the roller derby. As for the NHL...who knows...

 

[KJ Dangler]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1810344800698204574

Looks like he’s filling out a bit

 

[EspenK]

I still see him as a winger. Barring trades or injuries Monahan,Jenner,Fantilli,Sillinger, Lindstrom, Voronkov, look like the C's to me for the foreseeable future. Maybe he becomes one but I'll take the under the way things look right now.

 

[CBJx614]

I still see him as a winger. Barring trades or injuries Monahan,Jenner,Fantilli,Sillinger, Lindstrom, Voronkov, look like the C's to me for the foreseeable future. Maybe he becomes one but I'll take the under the way things look right now.

While that might be the case, there's no reason that he can't be the play driver on his line. None of those guys are what I would call playmakers necessarily. Gaudreau more than likely has the first line duties secured for the immediate future, but there's no reason Johnson can't play that same role on another line.

 

[Cowumbus]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1810344800698204574

Kid truly loves the game.

 

[Xoggz22]

If this is current, I'm glad he appears to be over his shoulder surgery and allowed to go back to playing without restrictions... seems a little quick to me. I thought this was a 6 month recover to take him right up to camp?

 

[LJ7]

Looks like he’s filling out a bit

Neck seems a bit thicker

 

[CBJx614]

If this is current, I'm glad he appears to be over his shoulder surgery and allowed to go back to playing without restrictions... seems a little quick to me. I thought this was a 6 month recover to take him right up to camp?

@3:50 looks like 93 is him. Blue helmet with a visor and blue gloves.

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[EDM]

Rather than Center or Wing, I would ask: Kent Johnson AHL or NHL?

 

[CBJx614]

Rather than Center or Wing, I would ask: Kent Johnson AHL or NHL?

I don't think his ability is the question, he put up 40 his rookie season, it's his production and his ability to put on some weight or enough to stay healthy at least.

 

[majormajor]

Kid truly loves the game.

I hope he truly loves the gym too. Superficially I could be lead to believe that he's gotten stronger in recent months.

The cross training with roller hockey is something I'm a little iffy on. I know all the BC kids do it but it's not the best when you're trying to improve foot speed and edge work on the ice. You need to go past the natural limits of what you can do on wheels.