“Think about what the bet they’ve made on him is, right? Like the reason they signed him to this contract before last season was that obviously they expected a repeat of the season before and if he had done that, he would’ve been going ‘I want more.’ So basically he said, ‘I think this is a fair thing to pay me given where I’ve been.’ It was a smart move, I think, by him because you know, secure the bag.” Johnston said.
He added, “That said, we know he likes to score. We know he likes to play and they need production from there and of course, he’s not going to see a lot of power play time given who else is here and that was the great thing about him in 2023-24, right? Like no power play time and he still scored a bag of goals and won himself a contract because of that. I do not think he’s going to score 20 goals playing on the third line. I also don’t think he’s going to score two goals in the first half of this season. It’s just so inconceivable to me that’s how it’s going to go.”