Bruins waive Tyler Johnson ahead of reported contract termination
Tyler Johnson scored two points in nine games with the Bruins.
The Boston Bruins are moving on from Tyler Johnson.
The team announced Thursday that they have placed the 34-year-old forward on unconditional waivers.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman added on social media that the Bruins’ decision to waive Johnson is “for purposes of contract termination” — signaling that Johnson will be released by the team and become a free agent if no team plucks him off waivers.
It’s a disappointing end to Johnson’s brief time with Boston, with the Bruins banking on the versatile winger becoming the latest key cog added off of a professional tryout (PTO) contract.
Much like Danton Heinen (17 goals, 36 points last season with Boston) in 2023, Johnson joined Boston on a PTO deal this summer in hopes of carving out a spot with the team. He earned a role with Boston after a solid preseason, but had to wait until Nov. 4 before signing a one-year, $775,000 contract with the team.
After scoring 17 goals over 67 games with the Blackhawks in 2023, Johnson was expected to be a solid middle-six forward capable of adding scoring punch at both even-strength and especially power-play minutes for Boston.
But Johnson struggled to find any sort of traction after finally putting pen to paper on a deal with the Bruins.
Johnson played in nine games for the Bruins, scoring zero goals and two assists while averaging 13:05 of ice time per contest. He fell out of favor once Joe Sacco took over as interim head coach — serving as a healthy scratch in seven of Boston’s last eight games.
Johnson’s lone appearance over that stretch came on Dec. 12 against the Kraken, with the Washington native sporting a minus-4 rating while also getting knocked for an offensive-zone penalty.
The writing has been on the wall for the last week that Johnson’s time in Boston might have been coming to an end.
The Bruins added another bottom-six scoring winger to the roster on Saturday when the team acquired Oliver Wahlstrom off waivers from the Islanders, giving Boston another shooting threat on a forward corps short of quality finishers.
Johnson — who logged plenty of reps on Boston’s fourth line — also saw his minutes dry up following the call-up of Marc McLaughlin. The Billerica native and former Boston College captain has settled into a groove as of late, scoring goals in back-to-back games against the Canucks and Flames.
McLaughlin will remain on Boston’s fourth line alongside Mark Kastelic and Johnny Beecher for Thursday’s road game against Edmonton, while Wahlstrom is expected to make his Bruins debut skating with Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic. Cole Koepke will be the healthy scratch.
“Just try to play your game early on,” interim coach Joe Sacco said of his message to Wahlstrom ahead of Thursday’s game. “We’ve got all of our stuff that we feel is important for him to understand as far as we want him to play. But you have to be careful that you don’t give him too much information. … Just go out and play and we’ll correct the mistakes that happen from our structure. Otherwise, we just wanna see him play tonight.”
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