After trying to trade Jack Johnson after the Mike Matheson trade, the Pittsburgh Penguins decided to buy him out instead. For the next three years, he will be making a little less than $2M against the salary cap for the Penguins, and then for three years after, his cap hit will be $917K.
With 3 years remaining Jack Johnson's contract, a buyout will span 6 years. The buyout details are as follows:
2020-21 cap hit: $1.67M
2021-22: $1.67M
2022-23: $1.9M
2023-24: $917k
2024-25: $917k
2025-26: $917khttps://t.co/6WnCAqArhp https://t.co/CUDHNEDTOe pic.twitter.com/NAiGObcJGI— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) October 5, 2020
Penguins Buyout Defenseman Jack Johnson
Johnson was signed by the Penguins after the 2017-18 season to play on their third pairing and it went backward in a hurry. He wasn’t putting up any semi-okay numbers offensively and he was even worse in the defensive zone. In the two seasons that he was with the Penguins, he put up just 24 points in 149 games. His CF% 46.2% overall for those seasons as well which again, was terrible.
In the series loss against the Montreal Canadiens, he was one of the biggest reasons as to why the Penguins bowed out in four games. According to Natural Stat Trick, his xGF (his expected goals for), while he was on the ice, was at an abysmal 1.36. The Penguins were also outscored while he was on the ice 5-1 throughout that series. He seemed to be always out of position in the defensive zone. In other words, anytime he was on the ice for the Penguins in that series, (and throughout his Penguins tenure) the team was bleeding chances and not getting any offensive zone time.
Johnson is now free to sign with any team once free agency opens at 12 pm this Friday. For the Penguins, their next step is likely trading goaltender Matt Murray. This comes especially after Tristan Jarry was just signed over the weekend. With Johnson off the team, the bottom pairing will now likely be Matheson next to Chad Ruhwedel. Ruhwedel was just signed to an extension as well.
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