The Vancouver Canucks made another under-the-radar signing on Monday, inking defenseman Filip Johansson to a two-year entry-level contract.
In many ways, this signing mirrors last week's acquisition of Nils Aman. Johansson is also 22, also Swedish, and also became a free agent on June 1 after the NHL club that drafted him elected not to offer him a contract.
But where Aman was an overage sixth-round pick by the Colorado Avalanche in 2020, Johansson was taken 24th overall by the Minnesota Wild in 2018 — in the first of two drafts that was overseen by Paul Fenton during his brief tenure as that club's general manager.
Since the Canucks' signing was announced on Monday, I've seen talk on social media that Johansson's selection was a real reach by the Wild — that he didn't have the offensive numbers to justify such a high pick. But to be fair, he is a right-shot blueliner — always highly coveted — and
NHL Central Scouting bumped Johansson from No. 17 at midseason all he way up to No. 10 among European skaters in their final rankings ahead of the 2018 draft. So he was perceived to have high-end potential.
All told, 14 defensemen were selected in the first round of the 2018 draft. The top two picks, Rasmus Dahlin and Quinn Hughes, have fully established themselves as everyday NHL players. Among the next tier, Adam Boqvist, Evan Bouchard, Noah Dobson and now K'Andre Miller are well on their way.
Of the two others selected ahead of Johansson, Ty Smith took a bit of a step back this year, while Ryan Merkley has yet to completely find his footing. And of the five blueliners selected after Johansson in the first round, Rasmus Sandin has had the biggest impact with 88 games played — but still some uncertainty about where he fits in the Toronto Maple Leafs organization. Jacob Bernard-Docker, Nicolas Beaudin, Nils Lundkvist and Alexander Alexeyev have all played less than 30 NHL games.
So — Johansson may not ever become an NHL player. But he had a good pedigree — and his seven points in nine playoff games with Frolunda in the Swedish Hockey League this season offer a glimmer of hope that the 6'1", 176-pounder may have some untapped offensive tools in his arsenal.
In their press release, the Canucks confirmed that Johansson will return to Frolunda again next season. But we'll get a chance to get a look at him during the upcoming development camp at UBC just after the draft. That will also give the Sedins and the rest of the player development department a first-hand opportunity to assess Johansson, and send him back to Sweden with a to-do list of things to work on for the rest of the summer, and next year.
Speaking of the Sedins,
Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet offered a little more clarity on what will be expected of the twins this season after a recent conversation with GM Patrik Allvin. It's not something we've seen before, and seems like it's now feasible because the farm team is within driving distance of the big club.
"Daniel and Henrik are going to be a bridge between Abbotsford and Vancouver," said Allvin. "They're available for the coaching staff as well. But the big picture is more to be the bridge for the players that come up (from the American Hockey League). I think there (will be) a lot of individual work with NHL players, too.
"If you look around in pro sports, I would say probably hockey has probably the lowest amount of coaching staff or development staff, and that's where I felt this role would be something that could really benefit us in the big picture."
It makes sense to take an integrated approach — and it seems like this has been successful for teams like Tampa Bay, where Julien BriseBois had a dual portfolio as general manager of the AHL franchise and assistant GM of the Lightning before he moved into the big chair following Steve Yzerman's departure.
More in a minute on the Lightning. But I also to mention that MacIntyre's article also includes Jim Rutherford reiterating what he has said previously about Brock Boeser — that they can carry his $7.5 million qualifying offer on a one-year deal if necessary, although they'd prefer to negotiate a longer-term deal. Rutherford also acknowledged that, due to the passing of Brock's father Duke, there have been no recent contract conversations.
The deadline to issue qualifying offers is July 11.
Rutherford also offered a vote of confidence to amateur scouting director Todd Harvey, who conducted the Canucks' prospect interviews along with assistant GM Derek Clancey at the Scouting Combine in Buffalo a couple of weeks ago.
He also prasied Cammi Granato, who oversees both the amateur and professional scouting departments, and told MacIntyre, "In the amateur meetings, when I sat in those meetings the first day, to where we are today and to where Todd Harvey is today, I am so pleased and excited about it.
"The reason I tell you that is from a preparation point of view and what we might do in the draft... I am very, very comfortable with that staff."
And finally — some thoughts on the Stanley Cup Final, which gets underway on Wednesday.
It's a great matchup, and for the first time I can remember, I correctly projected the two finalists in my bracket before the playoffs began — the Colorado Avalanche and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
So I'm sticking with my original prediction, looking for the Lightning to three-peat. Over the last three years, they've shown me over and over that they have the mental resilience and the smarts to successfully adapt their game depending on what they're seeing from their opponents.
This year, they came back from series holes against both Toronto and the Rangers. And they're relatively healthy — Brayden Point may even be back in this series.
It has taken the Avalanche awhile to get over the Round 2 hump. This year, they'll learn that the Final is another level again. And after Colorado has faced David Rittich, Connor Ingram, Jordan Binnington, Ville Husso, Mike Smith and a bit of Mikko Koskinen in net so far, playoff Andrei Vasilevskiy is going to be an entirely different challenge.
Vasilevskiy and Cale Makar seem to be getting all the Conn Smythe love. I'm thinking differently. Yes, Sidney Crosby won back-to-back with Pittsburgh in 2016 and 2017 but for the most part, voters seem to like to share the wealth. And there are so many worthy contributors on the Lightning.
In 2020, Victor Hedman won
by just four points over Brayden Point, with Nikita Kucherov a distant third and Vasilevskiy earning just one third-place vote.
Last year,
Vasilevskiy earned a decisive win over Kucherov, with Point and McDonough picking up a few votes as well as one third-place selection for Carey Price.
Heading into the Final, Vasilevskiy's numbers aren't as otherworldly as they were last year. And there's Kucherov, at the top of the team scoring race again — seven points ahead of Ondrej Palat and eight ahead of Steven Stamkos.
If you look at the last three playoff years together, Kucherov has 89 points in 65 games — 29 more than second-place Point.
Last year, he finished with 32 points in 23 games — nine better than any other skater. But I think his candidacy was discounted because he'd missed the regular season while recovering from hip surgery, and the salary-cap implications of that decision were a bit distasteful to voters.
This year, we learned from Vegas that sitting stars for cap reasons isn't always as easy as the Lightning made it look. And even though Kucherov missed another 32 regular-season games with a lower-body injury, his game has been on point in the playoffs, particularly his sublime passing.
If he wins, it'll be a nod to three great playoff performances on top of his strong outing this year.
After his clutch two-goal performance in Game 6, I could also see Steven Stamkos getting voters' attention. He's the long-time captain of this club, he's extremely well liked, and he has overcome numerous injury and health concerns to put up a career-best 106 points in the regular season on top of a strong playoff showing — which even had him dropping the gloves with Alexis Lafreniere at the end of Game 5 of the last round.
Of course, injuries limited Stamkos to just one game — and one memorable goal — in the playoff bubble in 2020. Last year, he had a solid 18 points in 23 games, and his nine goals this year are a team high.
One or two more clutch moments for Stamkos in the final, and the Conn Smythe could be his.
I'd also say the same for Ondrej Palat, the often unheralded winger who has consistently punched above his weight in the playoffs. In 2020, he had 18 points and was a plus-14 for the Lightning, with three game-winning goals. Last year, he potted two game winners and 13 points. And this year, he has two more game-winners already, to go along with eight goals and 16 points.
He has also played himself into a position where a couple of big moments in the Final could vault him into Conn Smythe consideration, but I think he'll have a hard time currying more favour than Kucherov or Stamkos.
What's your prediction — for the series, and for playoff MVP?
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