The Minnesota Wild’s Marco Rossi has been mentioned by nearly every team for the last week or so, but there was another player who made the news, and that was Marcus Johansson. He was signed to a one-year, $800,000 contract on Monday, June 2. It was overshadowed by everything being released about Rossi, but the contract did come as a small surprise with all the talk about the Wild trying to make a splash in free agency.
Johansson had a slightly better production level this season than last, but nothing crazy. He’s getting older, and it looked like he was going to be out the door, but the Wild had other plans. In this article, we’ll look at what he brings to the lineup and what they need to see out of him for this to be a good idea, starting with what he brings.
Johansson Can be Unpredictable
Unpredictably may not seem like a good thing to bring to a lineup, but at times it can be a good thing. Normally, Johansson’s game is pretty predictable, especially when he brings the puck into the offensive zone and gets stood up at the blue line. However, now and then, he pulls out a burst of speed and makes it past all of the opposition in front of him.
He has a strong shot with a lot of speed, but with his smaller size, he often gets knocked off the puck, and he’s quite inconsistent. While he did get better towards the end of this season, it still wasn’t quite the numbers they hoped to see. He had many missed opportunities that the Wild really needed him to capitalize on.
He wasn’t utilized much on special teams, but he did have one power-play goal, six power-play points overall, and one shorthanded point. They will need more of that unpredictable speed if Johansson wants to continue with the Wild after this next season.
Johansson Needs to be Utilized
Johansson may not be what he used to be, but he still has the talent, and he needs to be put with the right players to do that. Jessi Pierce of NHL.com and a host of the Bardown Beauties podcast mentioned multiple times that the contract isn’t bad as long as he’s put in the bottom six, which is where he should’ve been last season as well.
She is 100 percent right, as Johansson struggled to fit in when used in the top six, although he did find success, it was minimal. If the Wild are able to put him in a bottom-six role next season, he’ll be able to fit his style in a bit more. Again, he has speed and ability, but not of those in the top six, but would be a strong third liner.
He doesn’t have the level of physicality for a fourth liner, but he would fit well with Frédérick Gaudreau and possibly a Liam Öhgren or even a Marcus Foligno, who would add some physicality to a skilled line. Regardless of who he’s with, he shouldn’t be back on the second or first line because he doesn’t fit well, and hopefully, the Wild already have a plan for him in the bottom six.
Trust in Guerin
It’s been stated many times over the seasons, but as Bill Guerin reiterated throughout the season, they’ve had a five-year plan to get this team on a winning track and be able to re-sign Kirill Kaprizov. It has to be assumed this signing was on that list, depending on Johansson’s production, of course, through this past season.
While the Wild haven’t gotten past the first round of the postseason just yet, they came incredibly close this season, and it was a huge step forward. Johansson didn’t contribute as much in the postseason as he did in the regular season, but it’s hard to say if he was fully healthy, especially since he missed a game in the playoffs as well due to an injury.
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Guerin has been building this team season by season, and while some moves have been questionable, this seems like a good decision. Again, as long as he’s put in the right position to succeed, at the price they paid, this could be a great deal for them, and if it isn’t, they didn’t invest too much to be hurt by it either.
Wild Take Small Step
This signing is likely just one small step towards an even bigger goal, and that is to either trade or sign a few players in free agency. They’ve been talking about it for quite some time, and it’ll be interesting to see what moves they make next, but with signing Johansson, they’ve filled one roster spot for next season.
