Ryan Johansen believes he can help Avalanche win another Cup

In Colorado, Johansen has an opportunity to establish himself as a second-line center behind Nathan MacKinnon, who had 42 goals and 111 points. The Avalanche struggled to find a No. 2 pivot behind MacKinnon last season, and four of the guys they tried at center ice — Evan Rodrigues, Andrew Cogliano, Lars Eller and Darren Helm — are unrestricted free agents.

Despite not living up to his billing as a true No. 1 center in Nashville, Johansen was still a productive forward. He scored 14 or more goals in five of his seven-plus seasons in Nashville and he had 50 or more points in four seasons.

Aside from the promise of a potential top-six role, the Avalanche also offer Johansen something the Predators—at least not right now—do not: the chance to win a Stanley Cup.

“They’ve won, they know what it takes, and they want to continue to win, and they want to do it again,” Johansen said. “For me, as an older guy in the league now, it’s a real cool opportunity for me to come into this group, and do what I can do, and hope (t0) get back to that same stage.”

The true question is when will Johansen be fully recovered from the freak injury he suffered in February where a few tendons around his ankle were sliced by the blade of an opposing player’s skate. 

“I’ve had to make adjustments with training and rehabbing,” Johansen said. “I was really happy to start getting on the ice at the start of June. I skated a couple of times a week for about three weeks, and felt really good, so that was super encouraging. I’d say I’m super close to 100% now and hopefully by August, just full-on normal and myself. It’s been encouraging to have confidence with moving over that injury and moving past it all.”

Johansen was cleared to start skating at the end of May, and he told reporters during locker cleanout that he expects to be 100 percent ready by the start of the regular season in early October.