Bruins sign Tyler Johnson to prorated one-year, $775,000 contract

Credit: © Brian Fluharty

The Boston Bruins have signed center Tyler Johnson to a prorated one-year, $775,000 contract, according to Daily Faceoff insider Frank Seravalli.

After a PTO stint in Boston, the #NHLBruins have signed veteran forward Tyler Johnson to a one-year deal worth a prorated $775,000.

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) November 4, 2024

Johnson was an unrestricted free agent this summer after the conclusion of his seven-year contract with a $5 million cap hit. He had signed a professional tryout agreement with the Bruins in training camp, but Boston didn’t quite have the salary cap space at the start of the season to fit him into the team, instead waiting for a certain point of the season where they could prorate the contract enough to make the money work.

With the contract being prorated, Johnson will make just under $662,000 of the $775,000 salary that he signed for. There are no confirmed signing bonuses or no-move/no-trade clauses with this contract.

Johnson played in 3 of the Bruins’ preseason games, where he had 1 goal and 1 assist for 2 points.

Johnson is coming off of a season with the Chicago Blackhawks where he had 17 goals and 14 assists for 31 points in 67 games. While that total is far from the 72 points that he put up with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2014-15, it is about where he’s produced in recent seasons, having hovered around the 30-point mark in three of the last five seasons.

Johnson went undrafted to start his professional career, but was signed to an entry-level contract by the Lightning after his final WHL season in 2011. He spent parts of two seasons in the AHL with the Norfolk Admirals/Syracuse Crunch, winning a Calder Cup in 2012, before making his NHL debut in the 2012-13 season with the Bolts. He then spent 10 seasons with Tampa Bay, winning two Stanley Cups with the team in 2020 and 2021 before he was dealt to the Blackhawks as a cap dump in the 2021 offseason. He spent three seasons with Chicago before leaving for free agency this past summer.

The Bruins will look to build off of not just back-to-back wins, but back-to-back shutouts against the Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken over the weekend when visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday at 7 p.m. EST. Boston currently sits in fourth in the Atlantic Division with a 6-6-1 record.