Ryan Johansen Dealt to Predators for Seth Jones

Newly-acquired Nashville Predators center Ryan Johansen said his relationship with Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella was “good” during their time together.

“Ryan is a big, young center that can score, set up goals, win faceoffs”, Predators general manager David Poile said in a statement. “He’s a No. 1 center who is still growing his game and has the size (6-foot-3, 218 pounds) and skill that we have been looking for to match up with the best in the League”. But they still have an excellent defense which makes the risk worth it. The Blue Jackets have now traded their top two centers from last season in Johansen and Artem Anisimov, and will need to reform their depth down the middle.

On Wednesday, the Nashville Predators and Columbus Blue Jackets did exactly that. But Nashville is 9-13-3 when outshooting opponents this season with their latest loss Tuesday night, a 4-1 decision to Winnipeg after outshooting the Jets 44-18. The year before, he had 63 points on 33 goals and 30 assists.

Richards met with National Hockey League officials earlier Wednesday and was cleared to resume his career after the Los Angeles Kings terminated his contract in June. His legal situation is still pending in the province of Manitoba. On behalf of our organization, I want to thank him for all he has done on and off the ice for our team and in our community. I think he’s got a great chance, and I’ll be pulling for him now that hopefully he gets through all those issues. His career high in points through two and a half seasons is 27, reached a year ago when he held 19 assists in all 82 games played. He won the Cup with the Kings in 2012 and 2014 and won a gold medal with Canada at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. The Capitals also signed former Los Angeles winger Justin Williams in the offseason.