Devils trade for Andreas Johnsson

The New Jersey Devils still had cash to spend and general manager Tom Fitzgerald still had roster holes to fill on day two of the free-agency season, so Fitzgerald went shopping and brought back a player that could be a substantial help to the Devils next season.

The Devils acquired left-winger Andreas Johnsson from the cap-pressed Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Joey Anderson in a straight-up deal with the Devils assuming all of the cash on the three seasons remaining on Johnsson's contract which will pay him 3.4 million on average for the remainder of the term. 

New Jersey's assuming of the complete contract is the only reason that the cost for Johnsson was so low and Toronto still will have to negotiate with Anderson, who is a restricted free agent.

Johnsson will turn 26 in November and has played two seasons in the league (although he did have a nine-game cameo in 2017-18) with more success in his rookie season than last year.

Jonsson scored 20 goals with 23 assists in 2018-19 when he spent a lot of time on the Austin Matthews line as a rookie before scoring eight goals with thirteen assists in 43 games last season that ended early due to a knee injury that required surgery.

Johnsson fills a huge hole in the Devils lineup that had a second-line left-wing as a key portion of their shopping list to play behind Nikita Gusev on the depth chart.

Tom Fitzgerald praises his competitiveness, versatility, and scoring touch that is capable of seeing powerplay time, but the stat-based guys really like his game as well and in his rookie season, Johnsson notched an excellent +14 before an even zero last season, so it's not like he's awful defensively.

Of course, plus-minus will yo-yo up and down when you move from a decent team (Toronto not only made the expanded playoffs, they would have been the eighth seed in a normal playoff season) to a lesser one, but that's encouraging to me.

As for Joey Anderson, the twenty-two-year-old right-winger scored four goals with two assists in eighteen games last season for New Jersey and could still develop into a NHL journeyman type, but the Devils have many of those types and while Anderson's upside is of a Johnsson level player, the Devils are getting a player of that level now.

Another interesting thing about the contract of Johnsson is the deal was structured heavily toward the first season of the four year contract.

Toronto paid six million of the 13.6 contract in year one, so the Devils will be paying Johnsson only a small amount more over three seasons than the Maple Leafs paid in the first season.

I like this deal too as Tom Fitzgerald has addresses the three most glaring needs on a team with many of them in the first three days of open season in adding a veteran backup goaltender (Corey Crawford). a top four defenseman (Ryan Murray) and a left wing for the second line (Andreas Johnnson).

Only Murray comes with risk with his injury history and the Devils parted with a prospect that looked to be caught in the young player crossfire and a fifth round draft pick to do so.

I'll be back later with the Browns hosting the Colts by Lake Erie.