Sitting, waiting, trading…
Friday, September 29, 2006

Posted by Kerrzy

He’s billed as the next Scott Stevens by a lot of hockey minds, but the University of Michigan’s Jack Johnson might just be the next Rob Blake…after all, they could be manning the same blueline within a few years. From what I’d been hearing, I thought for sure Pittsburgh would be the lucky team in a Johnson-for-Staal deal, but the Hurricanes announced today that Jack Johnson, their top defensive prospect, was traded to the Los Angeles Kings along with Oleg Tverdovsky for d-man Tim Gleason and forward Eric Belanger. READ MORE...

Carolina is short a defenseman until they get Frantisek Kaberle back in six months, but why did they pick up Gleason and Belanger? Surely there was a better deal out there. Belanger is a centre, that doesn't really help them out as far as d-men go.

Not a very flashy deal, but I guess Johnson’s decision to stay in school rather than play in the NHL has to have an impact on his value. Sure he’s a top prospect, one of the best blueliners to come out of the draft lately, but he isn’t playing professional hockey this year and is a guy you won’t be calling up at any point during the season either since he’s playing in the NCAA.

Johnson could have upped his value a bit last year when Carolina asked him to come along for the ride in the playoffs – who knows, maybe even get some playing time – but he turned them down, even when they were in the Stanley Cup finals. Maybe the star treatment he would have had by the Hurricanes while they did battle against the Edmonton Oilers for the ultimate prize in hockey (which they won) would have cut into his enjoyment of the summer holidays.

Maybe it’s got something to do with NCAA eligibility.

Reggie Bush is one former NCAA star that’s in the midst of a bit of a scandal right now for being on the receiving end of all sorts of money from agents that wanted his rights once he was out of school.

The situation is different for football players because they aren’t drafted until after playing college ball for a few years, but Bush is in trouble for accepting everything from hotel rooms to bundles of money and maybe that has to do with Johnson turning down the call of the Hurricanes during the playoffs.

If his wish is to go the distance at the U of M, I’m sure he’d be out of a roster spot if he jumped at the chance for some NHL action and it’s probably against some rules to take anything from a professional club (even if you’ve already been drafted).

Being the type of player that Johnson is, it’s probably fitting that before his professional career even starts, he’s got a camp of people that love him and a camp that hate him, because like many players before him, he’ll have to get used to playing that role. He got a taste of what it’s like to have a “chorus of boo’s” directed to you personally at the World Juniors after a pretty dirty hit on Canadian forward Steve Downie, but it seems like he just took it in stride.

After all, it's better to learn sooner rather than later that you can't be everyone’s friend.

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Jim Kerr