With Fifteen Points in Ten Games in the AHL, Highly Touted Prospect Kent Johnson Earns Return Call-Up to NHL's Blue Jackets

Regaining his form with the AHL's Cleveland Monsters, Kent Johnson returning to the Blue Jackets lineup in his sophomore pro season.

The sophomore pro-campaign for fifth overall draft pick in 2021 Kent Johnson began, to put it kindly, in inauspicious fashion. 

A repeat scratch with only three points and a minus-two in eight games with the Columbus Blue Jackets after potting 16 goals and 40 points in 79 games with the club in 2022-23, Johnson was sent to CBJ's AHL affiliate in Cleveland to refine his game and hopefully regain his potent knack for a dazzling offense that made him so highly touted in the first place.

The experiment seems to have worked wonders.

Johnson was a force with the Monsters, tallying five goals and 15 points with a plus-five rating in 10 games in the AHL. And yes, he's reignited his knack for on-ice theatrics (see his mind-bending shootout goal against the Marlies on November 24th for proof). 

A standout for the University of Michigan, Johnson put up 37 points in 32 games in his final year as a junior, netting a point a game pace in his previous year with the Big-10 club. 

In 2019-20, Johnson earned the Bob Fenton Trophy as the BCHL’s Most Sportsmanlike Player, the Vern Dye Memorial Trophy as BCHL MVP, and the Brett Hull Trophy as the BCHL’s top scorer. Johnson was also named to the 2018-19 BCHL All-Rookie Team. 

Internationally, Johnson helped Canada claim the Gold Medal at the 2021-22 IIHF U20 World Junior Championship and the Silver Medal at the 2021-22 IIHF World Championship. Johnson also represented Canada at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

Johnson rejoins a Columbus Blue Jackets squad knee-deep in an identity crisis. Landlocked somewhere between hopeful contender and cautious rebuild, the Blue Jackets have rattled off three wins in their past five contests following a woeful nine-game losing streak through the bulk of November. 

Columbus currently sits at 15th in the eastern conference and 27th overall with a -14 GF/GA differential. The young squad next meets the struggling Ottawa Senators on Friday.