How Erik Johnson Made an Impact on the Avalanche

Avalanche media got word that Erik Johnson announced his retirement just as we were walking into the locker room after Wednesday’s optional practice. Naturally, we all had to hop on social media to post. Then we got reactions from Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog in the room and head coach Jared Bednar after.

“Just a great friend. Awesome person, awesome teammate, great player. Big part of all of our success over the years,” MacKinnon said.

READ MORE: Longtime Avalanche Defenseman Erik Johnson Retires

As for whether or not Johnson impacted MacKinnon’s career as a player, not so much. Watch the full interview below.

Landeskog said even when Johnson was gone from the team, “this place always kind of felt like it had a little bit of him in the walls, and felt like he was kind of always here.”

The Avs captain showed immense respect for his longtime teammate and all his accomplishments throughout his career.

“The one thing about EJ is he’s going to be successful no matter what he decides to do in the future. Happy for him,” Landeskog said. “Amazing career. Was able to represent his country on numerous occasions. First overall pick, and he had to adapt as he was playing. He was drafted as an offensive guy, and then some injuries, and he adapted. Became a really, really hard-working, dedicated defenseman that was just willing to pay the price and do whatever it took for the team to win. Whether that was on the ice roles or off the ice roles. One point he was asked to give up his letter on his jersey, and he did that, no questions asked. So whatever it took for the team to take that next step, he’s willing to do it, meant a lot to this organization.”

What Johnson meant to Landeskog in his career and more below.

Bednar inherited Johnson when he took over behind the bench in 2016 and went through some tough seasons with the Bloomington, Minnesota native.

“You watched that first year, even, like the start of our year, I don’t think it was going to be some amazing year for us. But the losing started when we lost him and Varly (Semyon Varlamov). We’re holding it together at .520 a quarter the way into the season, and then we didn’t win that much the whole rest of the year in 60 games. So obviously has an impact on a room, and he’s a really good player,” Bednar said.

“EJ really loved playing for the Avs. Loves the city of Denver and the state of Colorado and he showed trust in Joe (Sakic) and Chris (MacFarland) and that we’d be able to turn it around, and that he wanted to be here and be part of the solution. I got a lot of respect for guys like that, that are willing to go through a little bit of unknown and a little bit of the grind in order to get to where they want to go with people that they like.”

Watch the full discussion with Bednar and what he said about EJ’s impact on the team.

Johnson is scheduled to speak to the media on Monday at 10 a.m. More to come from that press conference.