jack johnson--news?

[A Good Flying Bird*]

The buzz I heard around the Ice Cube after Johnson was drafted was that he wasn't too interested in playing for the Canes.
I asked him about it and, not surprisingly, he denied it.
He did tell me weeks before the draft that he wanted to play 4 years at Michigan and win 4 national titles. I said, "Well, don't you think the NHL will come calling with a big contract?"
He said he wanted four titles in four years.
Now, all it would take is one knee on knee hit in the NCAA for Johnson to say, "hey, i better get this money while I can."
So who knows.
About JJ. he's a confident kid (why wouldn't he be). He's also very loyal to his team. But he also deosn't like to be disrepected (he was very upset about not being on the WJC's pre-draft year).

I'd be suprised if he stayed at Michigan for four full years. But I wouldn't be shocked.
He's a determined young man.

 

[Transported Upstater]

Why not? It's college. It's his life right now. If he feels that he enjoys college so much, why would he go and leave it? Matt Leinhart went back to college for his senior year instead of entring the NFL draft and turned down a TON of money just to have another year of fun and enjoy his friends and teammates.

Maybe Johnson feels the same way.

I was in a middle section seat at the Orange Bowl in January 2005 when USC pasted Oklahoma 55-19 (trust me people, it was even more of a domination seeing it in person.)

I remember when they interviewed Leinart after the game and asked him about his future plans...he said he would evaluate later, and a resounding "boo" emanated from the USC section in which I was sitting...

 

[Vagrant]

The buzz I heard around the Ice Cube after Johnson was drafted was that he wasn't too interested in playing for the Canes.
I asked him about it and, not surprisingly, he denied it.

You have to take into consideration that Jack Johnson, not unlike everybody else in the hockey world, didn't see the Hurricanes as a contender at all this year or even for the next two or three years. Eric Staal developed faster than expected, Erik Cole blew his game totally up, Justin Williams took it to a new level, and all the free agent players came on board and made this team one of the best in the league.

It doesn't surprise me that Jack would say something like that considering the fact that he had a good chance to win on a consistant basis at Michigan, or take the money and run to a team that wasn't going to ice a competative team for a few years. I can't blame him for wanting to win, but now that the Hurricanes are an elite team you have to think his outlook has changed significantly.

As we've seen this year with Doug Weight and Mark Recchi waiving gentleman's agreements and no trade clauses to come to Carolina, winning resolves all. If Jack Johnson has a brain in his head, this is the place he wants to be right now if he has a choice to join an NHL team in progess right now.

That's not to say that he shouldn't stay at Michigan, but I would love to have him on the playoff roster if for nothing more than his physical presence and the measure of unknown he would bring to the table to scare teams with.

 

[#66]

http://yostbuilt.blogspot.com

Check Out the above link from someone who sees most of the Michigan games in person. Usually something in each of the blogs.

My take on JJ? He is not ready to play defense in the NHL. He is devoting too much time to his offensive game, which is incrediable, but will often be out of posistion if Michigan doesn't score. The last month or so, he has been more defensively aware, and his offense goes down. He has also toned down the dumb, unecessary penalties. This has coincided with his increase in D awareness, so maybe Red Berenson has gotten through to him as to what posistion he plays.

To sum up, at the begining of the season, he looked great. Somewhere around the time Michigan started looking bad, so did Johnson. Dumb, after the whistle penalties, out of posistion, looking to do everything by himself. The last month, he has looked better, playing more within the system, but still getting offensive looks, all the while, taking less penalties and still playing physical. Hmmm, maybe I do think he is ready......... Bottom line, he is still young and needs more experiance.

As for him leaving early, after he scored the go ahead goal against FSU, his dad lead a "Three more years" cheer among the students at Yost. From everything I hear, his parents want him to stay. Whether he feels that way or not, who knows.

I love his game but I felt the same way too for a while. I remember his coach calling him a power forward. Like you've said, he's toned it down and also played great defensively in the WJC. So I think he kind of knows how to control the offensive part of his game but just takes whats given to him.

IMO a few more years developing is never a bad thing at that age. As good as he is, he's not Bobby Orr and can still work on some flaws while getting tons of icetime.

 

[A Good Flying Bird*]

You have to take into consideration that Jack Johnson, not unlike everybody else in the hockey world, didn't see the Hurricanes as a contender at all this year or even for the next two or three years. Eric Staal developed faster than expected, Erik Cole blew his game totally up, Justin Williams took it to a new level, and all the free agent players came on board and made this team one of the best in the league.

It doesn't surprise me that Jack would say something like that considering the fact that he had a good chance to win on a consistant basis at Michigan, or take the money and run to a team that wasn't going to ice a competative team for a few years. I can't blame him for wanting to win, but now that the Hurricanes are an elite team you have to think his outlook has changed significantly.

As we've seen this year with Doug Weight and Mark Recchi waiving gentleman's agreements and no trade clauses to come to Carolina, winning resolves all. If Jack Johnson has a brain in his head, this is the place he wants to be right now if he has a choice to join an NHL team in progess right now.

That's not to say that he shouldn't stay at Michigan, but I would love to have him on the playoff roster if for nothing more than his physical presence and the measure of unknown he would bring to the table to scare teams with.

And I want to stress that Johnson did not say he had any problem with being drafted by Carolina. He said he was happy with it.
That was just the scuttlebut around the arena.

I'm sure Carolina is a fine place to play. Like Brind Amour recently said in the Hockey News. He was disappointed when traded there. But he's happy about it now.

 

[A Good Flying Bird*]

I love his game but I felt the same way too for a while. I remember his coach calling him a power forward. Like you've said, he's toned it down and also played great defensively in the WJC. So I think he kind of knows how to control the offensive part of his game but just takes whats given to him.

IMO a few more years developing is never a bad thing at that age. As good as he is, he's not Bobby Orr and can still work on some flaws while getting tons of icetime.

Yep. He needs to really work on positioning. That was clear with the USNTDP program and he still needs work.
Positioning is his only weakness. Red should straightne him out.

 

[Transported Upstater]

And I want to stress that Johnson did not say he had any problem with being drafted by Carolina. He said he was happy with it.
That was just the scuttlebut around the arena.

I'm sure Carolina is a fine place to play. Like Brind Amour recently said in the Hockey News. He was disappointed when traded there. But he's happy about it now.

For what it's worth, there are awesome places in NC. North Carolina's triangle is a VERY nice area to live. One of the few places in the Southeast that I have visited so far that I'd consider living in.

And if I did, I'd have Canes tickets. I'd root for the 'Canes except when Toronto comes.