The Minnesota Wild made a move on Monday. The Wild have announced they have signed defenseman Jack Johnson to a professional tryout (PTO).

Johnson, 38, played in 41 games with the Columbus Blue Jackets last season. He recorded six assists, 35 blocked shots, 21 hits and was a minus-13.

The 6-foot-1 defender has played 19 seasons in the NHL with six different teams. He has recorded 77 goals, 265 assists, 342 points, 1,831 blocked shots, 1,931 hits and is a career minus-127 in 1,228 games.

He won a Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2022. Johnson is one of six players from the 2005 NHL Draft that are still playing today. Sidney Crosby, Anze Kopitar, Kris Letang, Jonathan Quick, and Ryan Reaves are the others.

Why Johnson?

The Wild have Jake Middleton, Jonas Brodin, and Zeev Buium under contract as left-shot defensemen.

In the AHL they have, Carson Lambos, Stevie Leskovar, Matt Kiersted, Ben Gleason and Jack Peart under contract as left-shot defenders.

We know that Brodin had off-season surgery and could miss the start of the season. The next available left-shot defensemen would be Lambos or Kiersted.

On the right-side, the Wild have Jared Spurgeon, Brock Faber, Zach Bogosian and David Jiricek. One of either Bogosian or Jiricek could play their off-sides to start the season but the Wild elected not to do that during the regular season when they had injuries.

If they don't view Lambos as an NHLer and Brodin could miss more time than expected, the Wild could sign Johnson to an NHL contract as insurance. Right now, he comes into training camp on a tryout.

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