Blue Jackets
Johansen savors role with All-Stars
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Neal C. Lauron | DISPATCH
Ryan Johansen is one of 12 rookies set for the skills event.
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Vermette Traded To Phoenix
The Blue Jackets have traded forward Antoine Vermette to the Phoenix Coyotes for two draft picks and goaltender Curtis McElhinney.
The Jackets get a second-round pick in 2012 (previously owned by Ottawa) and a fifth-round pick in 2013. McElhinney, who had abdominal surgery in January is not expected to play the rest of this season.
"This is moving forward," Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson said. "We have to move forward. It wasn't working this season as we expected. We're going to move forward and this is part of the process of reshaping the team.
"Antoine was very professional, just as I expected he would be. I thanked him and his wife Karen, who did a lot of work in our comminity, for being such a good player and such a good person for our organization."
Vermette, 29, played his 600th NHL game on Tuesday. In 241 games with Columbus, Vermette had 61 goals, 91 assists and 112 penalty minutes. His best season was in 2009-10 when he had 27 goals, 38 assists and 65 points, all career highs.
McElhinney, who is in the final year of his contract, had abdominal surgery in January and is not expected to play this season. However, in order to facilitate the trade, the Coyotes needed to move a player off their roster as they were nearing the roster maximum of 50 players.
Vermette was in the first year of a four-year, $14 million contract. He is signed through the 2014-15 season with a $3.75 million cap hit.
"This gives us more flexibility," Howson said. "It's never fun trading anybody. I don't think any GM enjoys that. But this is about us moving the team forward."
More to follow.
-- Aaron Portzline
twitter: @aportzline
Blue Jackets captain and five-time All-Star Rick Nash had two pieces of advice for rookie teammate Ryan Johansen before he departed for Ottawa to take part in the All-Star Skills Challenge today:
No. 1: Get your rest, because All-Star weekend is more exhausting than you think.
No. 2: You’re good, but maybe stay away from the fastest skater competition.
“He’s kind of like me,” Nash said. “It takes us awhile to get going.”
Nash, an All-Star in every non-Olympics season since 2003, will not participate this season. Johansen, 19, was one of 12 rookies named to join the regular All-Stars in tonight’s skills event.
Johansen needn’t worry about his sprinting speed. He will participate in the breakaway challenge event for the team captained by Boston defenseman Zdeno Chara. The breakaway event, in which skaters are pitted one-on-one against a goalie and can roam the entire offensive zone before attempting to score, is similar to the shootout elimination event, which will close the competition.
That should suit Johansen.
“I don’t think I would embarrass myself in any of them, but I think I would feel most comfortable with the shootout one,” he said. “That’s the easiest and most simple one.
“But I’ll just go with the flow. I haven’t had much time to think about it.”
Blue Jackets interim coach Todd Richards said he would like to see Johansen take part in the shooting-accuracy contest, in which participants shoot pucks at breakable discs positioned in the four corners of the net.
“Oh, he can break a plate, for sure,” Richards said. “That’s one of his best qualities, shooting the puck. For a 19-year-old, he gets it off quick. And it’s hard and it’s usually pretty accurate.”
It has been a whirlwind first season for Johansen, who ranks 10th among rookies in goals (nine) and points (17). He has shown flashes of the skill that might make him an All-Star regular, but he has struggled with consistency. That has not been unexpected, especially for a teenager skating wide-eyed through his first NHL season.
“He has had games where he hasn’t been very good, and he has had games where he’s been very good,” Richards said. “This should be a shot in the arm for him, to be recognized for how he is playing.”
Johansen has been shuffled up and down the Jackets lineup and has played center and wing. He has been a healthy scratch six times, although three of those came in the first five games, when the Blue Jackets had yet to decide if he would return to junior hockey or remain with the big club.
But Johansen has responded well to his benchings. He has scored in all three games that followed his past three healthy scratches.
His play has been one of the few highlights in a dismal Blue Jackets season.
“He certainly shouldn’t feel out of place among that group of All-Stars,” general manager Scott Howson said. “How he has played, his numbers — he belongs.”
Johansen was joined in Ottawa by his mother and two childhood friends, and he is writing a blog about his weekend on the Blue Jackets’ website.
He said he was most looking forward to spending four days with the players he emulated while growing up in British Colombia.
“It’s going to be a great experience,” Johansen said. “A lot of those guys are only a couple of years older than me, but they accomplished a lot in their first couple years in the league. Hopefully, I can do the same.”
smitchell@dispatch.com
