Avalanche Notebook: Erik Johnson ready to be the “old EJ” again, plus more on Rantanen

Erik Johnson is back. Back, a lot earlier than expected too.

There he was Tuesday, skating at practice in a regular, black jersey, not blood orange. The right shoulder he now admits he probably should have had surgery on a year ago has now been properly repaired. And he is ready to GO.

“Happy to be back to the old EJ,” said Johnson, 31, who will begin his 13th NHL season.

Johnson first suffered a shoulder injury toward the end of the 2017-18 season, and re-aggravated it some last season and basically tried to play through the pain. Shortly after the season ended, he underwent surgery that originally was believed would keep him out into the regular season. But not only will Johnson start the season on time, he should play in the Avs’ final preseason game.

Another thing about Johnson’s coming season: he will be paired with Nikita Zadorov. Johnson played mostly with Sam Girard last year, but Cale Makar will play with him now. Avs coach Jared Bednar, who called Johnson’s 2018-19 a “down year” partially because of the shoulder, said he expects a “bounce-back season to where he was two years ago.”

“He’s motivated, he’s focused and I’ve really liked the work he’s been putting in,” Bednar said.

Said Johnson, “It was a bit of a battle the last few months, but I’m excited to get back, back to myself. Just ready to play. I feel awesome now.”

Video of EJ:

NOTEBOOK

• These are the new Avs’ lines:

Landeskog-MacKinnon-Donskoi

Jost-Kadri-Burakovsky

Nieto-Compher-Nichushkin

Calvert-Bellemare-Megna

Thoughts: A demotion for Burakovsky already. Or, maybe it’s just more of a promotion for Donskoi. Either way, Burakovsky has yet to produce in the exhibition season, with two pretty good linemates. How about the ascent of Valeri Nichushkin too? Now granted, the lines could all change any minute with a return of a Mikko Rantanen, or a return by Colin Wilson (still in a non-contact jersey). But for now, it looks like Nichushkin will make the club.

Bednar broke the practice into two groups Tuesday, with all the players above taking part. A second group, what might be called “the B teamers” went afterward. Vladislav Kamenev was, unfortunately, part of that second group.

And, how about the ascent of Jayson Megna? He’s been a journeyman kind of guy and nobody should start penciling him in for the full season, but the guy does have 113 games of NHL experience and he’s been productive in the preseason. As a result, he’s being rewarded.

• Zadorov, whom I’ll have more of a larger feature on soon, returned after missing time with a lower-body injury. He said his goal is to have the best season of his career.
• So, about the Rantanen situation: Earlier in the day, I posted a story that posited the question: Will the $6.75 million AAV that Brayden Point got with Tampa Bay over three years damage the negotiating position of Rants? Let me just put it this way: the Avs DO believe it matters to the negotiations. Point is a very comparable player to Rantanen, in all manners of numbers, and so there is no question that the Avs see his deal as a factor/comparable in this thing as much as the Rantanen camp might see Mitch Marner’s six-year, $10.9 million AAV with Toronto as a benchmark off which to negotiate. That was made VERY clear to me today. Ugh, this thing doesn’t appear to be very close to being resolved. Look, things change pretty fast in this game, on and off the ice. So, I’m not going to get all doom and gloom still. But I think Rantanen can forget about getting any AAV beginning with a 9 as part of his next deal. The Avs can do what Tampa Bay did, which is give the player a much higher salary in that last year, which establishes the floor for a subsequent deal (or should anyway). I think that’s how this going to get solved still – some kind of bridge deal with a larger final year/AAV. The Avs don’t want to do a bridge deal. But I think there is little chance Rantanen signs anything beyond five years at anything under a 9 AAV. The sides are going to have to meet in the middle, unless Rantanen says something like “Screw this, I’ll take a bit less on a longer-term deal” and wants this over with. In the end, the player calls the shots, not the agent.
• Avs will send more of a “B Team” for Wednesday’s game in Vegas. More of the full A-team roster will play Saturday in the preseason finale in Dallas.
• Avs Fan Fest is Thursday night at the Pepsi Center. It is FREE and open to the public. More info. here.
• There were some good one-on-one battles at the end of practice today. Here a couple. The second one, Nichushkin scores a pretty goal.