from Michael Arace of the Columbus Dispatch,
One of two things will happen:
Johansen will get in shape, find his game and he will be traded.
Or Johansen will get in shape, find his game and he won’t be traded.
Either way, it will take time. It should.
The Jackets are bottom feeders in the NHL. They are more likely to win the right to draft Auston Matthews than they are to make the playoffs, and they never win the draft lottery.
Johansen has skated in slush at critical moments in recent games. It has been “alleged,” by TSN’s Darren Dreger, that Johansen flirted with insubordination during a TV timeout in Dallas. Hence the benching and the scratching.
There is a whiff of controversy in the air and the vultures are circling, but the Jackets cannot, and they should not, trade Johansen anytime soon. I do not think they should trade him, period.
Those who say Johansen is another Joe Thornton — and “you can’t win with a guy like that” — are addled. Remember what the Boston Bruins got for Thornton? They got Brad Stuart, Marco Sturm and Wayne Primeau.
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