Colorado Avalanche Erik Johnson Saddled with Old Guy Again

The Colorado Avalanche don’t seem to be able to find the right defensive partner for their cornerstone d-man, Erik Johnson.

Colorado Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson is in his sixth full season with the Colorado Avalanche, 10th in the NHL. He came over to Colorado in February, 2011. And he’s never had a suitable defensive partner since.

For a couple years, the Colorado Avalanche paired him with Jan Hejda. While in his prime, Hejda was a great shut-down defenseman who could skate and move the puck well. In his mid-30s when paired with Johnson, he was out of his prime. He was just a big, shut-down defenseman.

Hejda wasn’t a bad partner for Johnson — they had good chemistry together. Johnson is a solid two-way defenseman with offensive flair. With Hejda holding down the fort, he was able to jump into the play a lot. And EJ was younger, so he probably needed a mentor.

However, as EJ entered his prime, it was decided to get him a more suitable defensive partner. In the summer of 2015, that’s what the Colorado Avalanche did.

The “suitable” defenseman turned out to be Francois Beauchemin. Beauch is a defenseman who can log big minutes and show strong leadership skills. Skating has never been his strong suit, though.

Then-35, Beauchemin was also past his prime. He’s become inconsistent in how he jumps into the play. I never felt he and EJ developed as good of chemistry as with Hejda, and it sometimes felt like Beauch held Johnson back.

I’m not keen on giving the new guy credit, but I’ll give Jared Bednar this — he tried what I wanted to see since last season. He paired Johnson with Nikita Zadorov.

I like the idea of the two together. Both are big men who are excellent skaters. They’re also gritty and able to jump into the play.

I think the two can work together, but Zadorov is still very wet behind the ears. He’s playing an undisciplined game, which often leads to excessive penalties. That said, he can certainly learn from Johnson, who doesn’t take a lot of bonehead penalties.

The two don’t seem to have a ton of chemistry yet, but I love that Nikita is young, so he doesn’t encumber Johnson with waning skills.

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Well, alas, that experiment is over, at least for now. Zadorov got bumped as EJ’s partner for the game against Dallas, and he was a healthy scratch for last night’s game against the Minnesota Wild.

And Johnson is back to being paired with an old guy, in this case 33-year-old Fedor Tyutin.

Tyutin is another version of Jan Hejda, though a smidge smaller. He’s purely a shutdown defenseman. He doesn’t have the chemistry with Johnson that Hejda had, and he’s not as good a puck-mover as Beauchemin.

I don’t like this pairing at all. I understand the idea of pairing an offensive defenseman with a shut-down guy — I love when Tyson Barrie is paired with someone like Tyutin. Or Tyutin himself, as has happened this season.

Johnson has defensive skills, though, so he doesn’t need that anchor in the defensive zone. Instead, pairing him with yet another “veteran,” shutdown defenseman provides an actual anchor that weighs him down.

EJ is in the prime of his career as a defenseman. At 28, though, he’s getting dangerously close to veteran status himself. I want to see him with an adequate defensive partner — not a past-his-prime player.

During the Wild game, Bednar did try putting Eric Gelinas with Erik Johnson. Gelinas is pretty green, too, but he’s more disciplined than Zadorov. Gelinas is a good skater with a heavy shot. He can jump into the play, though he needs to work on his defense some.

Next: EJ Finally Wears the A

Gelinas is not as exciting as Zado, but that can be a good thing. I think the Colorado Avalanche could make a go of a top pairing that consists of Erik and Eric. Beats having yet another old guy on the top pairing.