When the Philadelphia Flyers traded a 2024 fourth-round pick for defenseman Erik Johnson on March 8 ahead of the NHL trade deadline, many fans and pundits scoffed at the seemingly high price the Flyers paid relative to Johnson’s salary and ability at his advanced age. Myself included.
But everything the Flyers players and coaches have said about Johnson since then is starting to prove otherwise. They love him. And it isn’t just the Flyers organization that feels this way about Johnson.
Before and during Johnson’s 1,000th game celebration Monday night, a number of Colorado Avalanche players, who won the Stanley Cup with Johnson in 2022, paid their respects to ‘EJ’ for a long, hard-fought NHL career.
Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog, who has not played in a game since winning that Stanley Cup, surprised Johnson at the Wells Fargo Center on Monday night. Landeskog hadn’t accompanied the Avalanche for any away games this year, until Monday.
And Landeskog was well on track to play 1,000 games of his own, but his knee injury has already robbed him of two full NHL seasons, and he’s currently set to miss most or all of a third.
Being there for Johnson obviously says a lot about Landeskog’s leadership and personality, but it also says a lot about how much Johnson meant to his former teammates and how great an impact he had on them.
Hell, even former NFL stars and personalities like Peyton Manning, John Elway, Joe Buck, and Troy Aikman recorded video messages to be played for Johnson during the game.
Erik Johnson teaching next generation of Flyers
Another unheralded truth about Johnson’s leadership is the way he’s handled the Flyers’ young players, namely Jett Luchanko and Matvei Michkov.
Johnson was one of the first, if not the first, to reach out to Michkov, using Google Translate to message him on Instagram.
Luchanko, who surprisingly made the team out of training camp and stayed for a few weeks, only packed clothes for 10 days and was staying in a hotel. Johnson took Luchanko in, gave him a place to stay, a place to eat, a place to live, and perhaps most importantly, some company.
Remember, Jett only turned 18 on Aug. 21, living and playing several hours away from home for the first time in his life. That’s already a challenge by itself, and it gets harder when you have to do it by yourself.
After seeing Johnson lead the young Flyers by example, the hope is that when Luchanko, Michkov, and other Flyers in it for the long haul are older veterans, they will extend the same welcoming gestures Johnson extended to them.
That is worth more than a measly fourth-round pick.
