CRANBERRY, Pa. -- At the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, Jack Johnson stood out.
I would know.
I covered that year's draft in Ottawa, one of three Pittsburgh sportswriters (the last one still active) on hand for the coronation of Sidney Crosby.
The NHL was attempting to put the pieces back together after the lockout wiped out the previous season, pushing the draft back to the last two days of July. The "new" NHL craved a fresh look and Crosby, the presumptive No. 1 overall pick to the Penguins, was going to be not only the face of a franchise but of the league.
But if Sid the Kid was the marquee attraction, it was Johnson who stole the show during media day.
Johnson stood out not just because he was far more physically developed than his peers, resembling a blue-chip football prospect as much as an NHL draftee. The kid with the blonde hair and precocious smile had a raspy voice and, man, did he use it.
While most other 18-year-olds stared at their shoes and mumbled one-word answers, Johnson looked questioners in the eye, regaling reporters with the tales of his days with Crosby as teammates two years earlier at Shattuck-St. Mary's, a Minnesota prep school that doubles as a hockey factory.
There was the story about the time they were on the baseball team and an opponent was chirping Crosby hard. Johnson, a pitcher, retaliated with a bean ball that sparked a benches-clearing brawl.
There was the one about that time the under-agers borrowed a car.
There was the one about winning the 2003 USA Hockey Tier I national championship together.
Reunited in Ottawa for a week, it was like old times. The two even roomed together before the draft.
And they were nothing alike.
Crosby was, as he is now, a stereotypically polite Canadian, not one to make waves with anything he says or does away from the rink. Johnson was the brash American, decked out in a red, white and blue USA jersey from his time with the U.S. National Team Development Program.
But I recall Johnson also spoke glowingly about his father of the same name.
According to the son, Jack Sr. had been a football player and once played for the Dallas Cowboys.
News of that interesting tidbit sent reporters scrambling for phone lines to hook up to their laptops (this was was pre-WiFi and pre-iPhones). Except internet searches of "Jack Johnson," and "Cowboys" and "NFL" revealed no matches.
Maybe Jack Sr. played on a practice squad or perhaps he received a tryout. Whatever. It wasn't the big story. If the kid wanted to believe that his father stormed the beaches of Normandy or that he played pro ball, who were we to break the kid's heart?
But that story only foreshadowed what was to come a few years later.
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"I think about it all the time," Johnson told ESPN.com in 2005 of his parents' sacrifices, which included quitting their jobs. "If all this stuff works out, it's all because my parents got up at 4 in the morning to take me to skate before school started. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for them. I owe so much to them, I'll never be able to make it up."
Though many thought that Crosby and Johnson could go 1-2 in the draft, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks ended up selecting Bobby Ryan second overall. Johnson didn't drop far, though. He was taken third by the Carolina Hurricanes and GM Jim Rutherford.
However, Johnson would never skate a single shift for the Hurricanes.
In the fall of 2005, Johnson fulfilled his commitment to the University of Michigan. Donning the blue and maize to play for Red Berenson was the honor of a lifetime for a native Michigander.
In fact, Crosby attended Shattuck not only to get away from the pressure cooker that the Canadian Maritimes had become for the young prodigy, but also in part to maintain his NCAA eligibility. Michigan was reportedly his fallback plan. But Crosby went straight to the NHL, setting a record as the youngest player to score 100 points.
Johnson didn't do badly, either, although at a different level. He loved playing at Yost Arena and set a freshman record for a defenseman by putting up 32 points and 149 penalty minutes.
When Johnson announced his intention to return for his sophomore season, Rutherford grew impatient. On Sept. 29, 2006, 14 months after drafting him third overall, Rutherford dealt Johnson, along with Oleg Tverdovsky, to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for Eric Belanger and Tim Gleason.
At the time Rutherford predicted Johnson would be "a very, very good, if not great, NHL player, but probably not for another three to four years."
"Everybody has decisions to make," Rutherford told reporters. "They wanted to spend another year in school. I think that, in his best interests, for his development, that he should be playing pro now. He's ready to do that. The sooner he starts playing pro, the sooner he starts to develop into a real good NHL player."
Johnson left Ann Arbor after two seasons, but not before setting the school record for the most goals (16) by a sophomore defenseman and being named the CCHA's top offensive defenseman.
However, Rutherford's "three to four year" timeline proved correct. In a re-do of the 2005 draft, the Penguins not only got the best player in Crosby, they also got the best defenseman in Kris Letang, the 62nd-overall pick in the second round.
Johnson played parts of his first six seasons in Los Angeles but never topped more than 11 points until his fourth season. It was around that time, though, that he started to develop into a very-good-but-never-quite-great defenseman.
In 2008, three years after he parted ways with super-agent Pat Brisson, who represents Crosby, among many others, Johnson signed a power of attorney that granted his mother, Tina, full control of his finances.
On Jan. 8, 2011, the Johnsons negotiated a seven-year, $30.5 million extension with the Kings, matching the longest in franchise history (a deal that only expired at the end this past season).
And as they had in previous stops in Minnesota and Michigan, Johnson's parents spent lavishly to live near their son. But they did so before Jack's new multi-million dollar contract even kicked in for the 2011-12 season.
According to The Columbus Dispatch, Johnson’s parents allegedly each bought a car and spent more than $800,000 on upgrades to a $1.56 million property in Manhattan Beach, Calif., financed on a high-interest loan. Then, according to the Dispatch, Jack Sr. and Tina took out loans of $2 million and $3 million, at interest rates of 12 and 24 percent.
On Feb. 23, 2012, the Kings traded Johnson to the woeful Columbus Blue Jackets, an organization who'd qualified for postseason play just once in its first 11 years. Johnson had been dealt — along with Los Angeles' first round pick in the 2013 draft (which became Marko Dano) — in exchange for Jeff Carter, who went on to help the Kings win the Stanley Cup in two of his first three seasons in L.A.
In the spring of 2014, Johnson helped the Blue Jackets to the playoffs and played extremely well in a six-game loss to Crosby and the Penguins in the first round. Johnson recorded three goals and four assists as Columbus looked to be a playoff team for years to come.
However, Johnson's world came crashing down just a few months later. After making $18 million in career earnings to that point, he filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 7, two days before the start of the 2014-15 season.
Tina and Jack Sr. had mismanaged their son’s money so badly they were over $10 million in debt. According to court documents, Tina borrowed at least $15 million across 18 high-interest loans that resulted in multiple defaults, including the mortgage on the SoCal beach home.
“I’d say I picked the wrong people who led me down the wrong path,” Johnson told The Dispatch in 2014. "I've got people in place who are going to fix everything now. It's something I should have done a long time ago.''
Brisson was brought back on board and, in November of 2016, Johnson reached an agreement with six of his eight creditors. He liquidated the homes in Ann Arbor and Manhattan Beach, along with a $125,000 Ferrari. Moreover, he turned over nearly all of the $10 million remaining over the final two years of his contract.
According to The Dispatch, as part of the agreement, Johnson made just $246,000 per season for living expenses for himself and his family. His wife, Kelly Quinn, is the sister of former Notre Dame and Cleveland Browns QB Brady Quinn.
According to one creditor, Johnson was “the lowest-paid player in the NHL for the next two seasons.”
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Prior to his 2014 financial disclosures, Johnson's most humbling on-ice moment came on New Year's Day in 2014.
That was the when the U.S. Olympic team was announced during the Winter Classic between the Red Wings and Maple Leafs in front of a league-record 105,941 at — of all places — the Big House on the campus of the University of Michigan.
As he had done in junior hockey, Johnson continued to don the USA jersey throughout his career. Playing on non-playoff teams or teams that didn't advance far in the playoffs, he routinely represented the U.S. in five IIHF World Championships.
In 2010, he even chartered his own plane to be the lone U.S. hockey player to march in the opening ceremonies in Vancouver. Johnson won a silver medal after losing in the gold medal game to Crosby and Canada in overtime.
Just four years later though, Johnson was the most notable snub by Nashville GM David Poile, who agonized over the decision to leave off a player who'd been part of 10 national teams.
According to the USA Today's Kevin Allen, who was given exclusive access to the selection committee, Johnson's staunchest support came from Calgary executive Brian Burke and Dean Lombardi, the Kings' GM who traded him two years earlier.
"The whole mystique from his draft day through Michigan, it was like Bobby Orr," Lombardi said. "You are not going to live up to that. But this kid is a damn good player. … We have this illusion that he is Scott Niedermayer and he is not."
Argued Burke: "It is not just rewarding him because he is Captain America. That's not enough to make this team. It's rewarding him because he has been a good NHL player since he came in the league."
Poile eventually won out and coach Dan Bylsma's team failed to medal, finishing fourth in Sochi.
Embittered by the snub, Johnson threatened for a time to never play for USA Hockey again. But that didn't last long as he represented the U.S. at the World Cup of Hockey in 2016. The American squad, coached by John Tortorella, his coach in Columbus, was an unmitigated disaster, going 0-3.
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Through all the financial turmoil of the past four years and despite the very public Olympic snub, Johnson hadn't let it affect his play on the ice. Until this past season.
By all accounts, Johnson had been a good teammate and a positive presence in the Blue Jackets' dressing room. In October, Tortorella even bestowed an alternate captain's 'A' on the 31-year-old's jersey.
But last January it was leaked that Johnson had requested a trade, a report he did not deny. With his minutes decreasing, he wanted a chance to showcase himself in order to earn a bigger payday in free agency this summer.
“It’s never good to let things fester, hold everything in,” Johnson said. “I’ve been holding a lot of things in for many years here. Yeah, it’s out. I own it. I have nothing to hide. That’s the situation.
“I hope people can understand that it’s a situation where you’re just trying to do what’s best for your family — me, my wife and kids. I think any husband or father can relate to that.”
Although his minutes initially went up, after the Feb. 26 trade deadline he was effectively replaced in the lineup by Ian Cole, who came to Columbus from Pittsburgh via Ottawa after he helped the Penguins and Crosby to two Stanley Cup championships in 2016 and '17.
As the Blue Jackets blew a 2-0 series lead in the first round to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals, Johnson was made a healthy scratch for all six games. It was an undignified ending in Columbus for a proud veteran. His three goals, eight assists and 11 points in 2017-18 were his fewest since 2007-08, his rookie year.
The good news for Johnson is that he is now, as he wished in January, an unrestricted free agent and free to sign with anyone. It's expected he will sign a five-year, $16.25 million contract with the Penguins on Sunday.
He will put pen to paper with Rutherford, the same GM who a decade earlier predicted that Johnson would a become "a very, very good, if not great, NHL player."
He will replace Cole, the defenseman who usurped him in Columbus, and have a chance at the Cup that has eluded him thus far.
And he'll be reunited with Crosby. The two friends from the prep school in Minnesota have remained friends throughout and, undoubtedly, the Captain had great sway in bringing Johnson to Pittsburgh.
But Johnson will not be totally free of his past.
Though he has reportedly cut his parents out of his life, the debt remains to be paid off.
According to the Dispatch, as part of his bankruptcy, four creditors will receive 10 percent of Johnson's earnings with the Penguins.
