Whether you like him or not, Jack Johnson figures to be a big part of the Columbus Blue Jackets and their future.
That means the team will need to find a defense partner who plays well with Johnson to try and get the most out of Johnson's talent.
For all the love Johnson gets, he's poor when it comes to driving play towards the opposing team's crease. Most players on the team do better without him than with him when it comes to carrying play and generating higher percentages of shot attempts the other way.
I graphed some data, and James Wisniewski is the only defenseman on the team who's driven play at a 50%+ rate when paired with Johnson over the last two seasons.
That means, when Johnson's paired with anyone else on the backend, more than half of the shot attempts taken are heading towards the Blue Jackets' goal.
While there are exceptions for everything, more shot attempts against generally leads to more goals against.
Below are Johnson's shot attempt numbers with his four most frequent partners over the last two seasons.
As you can see, every defensemen listed posted better numbers paired with players not named Jack Johnson. That's certainly not encouraging given the minutes Johnson plays, but at least with Wisniewski they're able to drive play and have success; though Wisniewski seems to fare better without Johnson.
While it's possible Jarmo Kekalainen can find a defenseman in free agency or via trade that can log big minutes and play well alongside Johnson, it's probably not likely given the expected asking prices of quality blue liners.
If the last two seasons have meant anything, then Todd Richards should pair Johnson and Wisniewski together come October. Otherwise about 55% of all shot attempts taken when Johnson's on the ice will be heading in the direction of Sergei Bobrovsky.
As I mentioned above, given the amount of ice Johnson logs, that doesn't bode well for the Blue Jackets.
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