The Stanley Cup was officially awarded to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday, June 16, and the Minnesota Wild’s offseason is still moving along. The report cards for this season are still moving through the forwards, and it’s time for Marcus Johansson. He just re-signed for one more season with the Wild, and hopefully, he can do even better than he did this season.
In this article, we’ll look at both his regular season performance along with his postseason and come up with an overall grade. He did have some injury issues like the majority of the team, but he still found a way to improve over the previous season, and we’ll start with his regular-season efforts.
Johansson Made Slight Improvements
His improvement from last season to this season was only a four-point difference, but he still made an impact. He played in 72 games this season and scored 11 goals, the same as last season, but assisted on 23 goals for 34 points. While he increased his points, he also decreased his penalty minutes from 22 to 12, so he was able to spend more time on the ice instead of making his team cover for him.
Johansson’s point improvement was mainly due to his willingness to take shots; he had 121 throughout the regular season and had time on both the power play and penalty kill. He had point contributions on both, but he didn’t forget his defense priorities. He’s not a big player, but he wasn’t afraid to throw his body around; he had 49 hits throughout the season.
Apart from his hits, he had 25 blocked shots and had 21 takeaways. The one area he needs to do better in next season is his 41 giveaways. He didn’t have as many as his other teammates, but his numbers were still too high. Takeaways are expected among forwards as they try to work their way through the offensive zone, especially players like Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy, but Johansson makes those moves as well.
Johansson Has Decent Postseason
While he wasn’t a top performer in the postseason, Johansson still made contributions until he was injured and missed Game 4 of the Wild’s series against the Vegas Golden Knights. He didn’t play quite the same in the following two games, but he did have two points throughout the entire six games. He had one assist prior to the injury and one assist after.
Marcus Johansson, Minnesota Wild (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)
He also produced eight hits with three blocked shots and one giveaway, plus two takeaways, so he improved his stats slightly in fewer games played. Johansson typically plays best behind the scenes, but this season he was noticed quite a bit, including in the postseason. This was one of the best overall team efforts in the postseason, and he was a big part of that.
He showed speed, finesse, and heads-up hockey that the Wild saw when he first played with the team a few seasons back. They were hoping to get that player back, and although he wasn’t the same, he was close and hopefully will find a way back this next season.
Johansson’s Overall Grade
While the Wild’s season ended in disappointment after a first-round exit once again, Johansson’s season wasn’t a waste. He did improve in the regular season, and his postseason stats weren’t necessarily an improvement, but they were decent. As far as his regular season is concerned, he earned a B.
That may seem low considering he did better than the season before, but he was expected to contribute more. His grade may seem too high as well, but he did produce and make an impression compared to before. When it comes to his postseason grade, he earned a B+ because, like his teammates, they all found another level to their game and left it all out there.
Related: Wild Bringing Marcus Johansson Back for Another Year is a Smart Move
However, they all could’ve reached a little bit more, including Johansson, to try and find a way past the Golden Knights, so that’s why his grade isn’t higher. It isn’t lower because he did contribute points and found another level; it just wasn’t quite enough. Putting those two grades together, he earned a low B+. Again, he has room to improve and has shown he can play consistently better, but now he has to prove it. Hopefully, he’ll do so this next season and help the Wild make a deep playoff run.
