Boston Bruins waive Spokane native Tyler Johnson

BOSTON – The Tyler Johnson experiment is over before it ever really got off the ground.

The Bruins announced on Thursday that the club had placed the veteran, two-time Stanley Cup winner on unconditional waivers for the purpose of terminating his contract.

Johnson came to Bruins’ training camp on a tryout agreement and did enough to earn a one year-deal at a league minimum of $775,000, although because of the Bruins’ salary cap situation he couldn’t actually sign the deal until Nov. 4.

But playing time for Johnson was hard to find under former coach Jim Montgomery and current interim coach Joe Sacco. The 34-year-old Johnson played in just nine games and, even in the games he played, he was rarely on either of the power-play units. That was curious, considering that with Chicago last year he had 17-14-31 totals and 8-8-16 of that came on the power play. The Bruins have also been at or near the bottom of the league on the power play all season.

Johnson struggled to stay out of the box. He took five minors in the nine games he played. In his last game in a Bruins uniform against the Seattle Kraken earlier on the current road trip, he took an offensive zone tripping penalty that led to a Kraken goal shortly after the infraction was up. He was also minus-4 in that game in which the Bruins lost 5-1. Johnson had two assists and no goals in his Bruins’ stay.

The move seemed to be a fait accompli when the Bruins claimed right wing Oliver Wahlstrom off waivers from the New York Islanders last Saturday.