Dater: It's Put Up Or Shut Up Time For Ryan Johansen

If he wants to stay 2C, the points must come

At first this season, I thought I was Nostradamus when it came to my season predictions for Ryan Johansen. He scored a bunch of goals right off the hop, and I felt real good about a prediction of 30 goals.

How do I feel now about that prediction? Like I just swallowed battery acid, like Nostradumbass.

Johansen has one goal in his last 20 games for the Colorado Avalanche. He’s got 11 goals and 18 points in 51 games. Last night in New Jersey, No. 12 was blanked again on the score sheet, though he did put three shots on net.

Early in the season, Johansen was getting between 15-18 minutes a night most of the time. Despite playing as the second-line center the last two games, No. 12 averaged about 11:30 of ice time in the losses to the Rangers and Devils.

We’re getting to a critical point with Johansen. The trade deadline is next month. If Avs brass doesn’t feel he’s good enough to go into the playoffs as a 2C, they’ll need to import one from another team. But there’s precious little cap room as it is. A deal without giving up a high-salary player would be tough.

Ideally, you’d trade Johansen himself, but he still has this year and next on his contract, at a $4 million cap hit. I don’t see many takers at that number.