Washington Capitals re-sign Lucas Johansen
The Washington Capitals are giving prospect Lucas Johansen another chance.
On Saturday the Washington Capitals re-signed prospect defenseman Lucas Johansen to a one year, two way contract. He’ll make $700,000 in the NHL and $95,000 in the AHL.
In a season plagued by injuries, Johansen played in just nine games with the Hershey Bears last season. The 22 year old is six foot two and 190 pounds and he recorded two assists in those nine games.
In 2018-19, Johansen recorded 14 points with three goals and 11 assists in 45 games. In his AHL career with Hershey, Johansen has recorded 43 points with nine goals and 34 assists.
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Prior to joining the Bears, the Vancouver native helped lead Kelowna to the WHL championship in 2015 and registered 98 points with 17 goals and 81 assists in 202 career WHL games.
Johansen was drafted by the Capitals in the first round at 28th overall in the 2016 NHL Draft. When he was drafted he was high on the prospect list. After a few years, he was left off the prospect lists of a few high profile writers including Tarik El-Bashir and Corey Pronman of The Athletic.
Had Johansen not be re-signed he would have entered the offseason as a restricted free agent. So what’s up with the Caps re-signing a prospect that’s been left off the list?
In January, Scott Wheeler of The Atletic (subscription required) said this about Johansen:
"He has been surpassed by Fehervary on the depth chart, and he’s in a bit of a weird spot where he’s clearly not talented enough to be a power play guy and he may not be responsible enough defensively to be a penalty kill guy."
So again, why did the Caps re-sign him? The reasoning behind this move is to give Johansen another chance. He didn’t get a full season last year. He has to stay healthy this season to get a full experience.
The Caps are likely looking at shopping a defenseman this offseason. Perhaps in the future they might trade Johnsen if either he doesn’t produce or they could get a nice package from him as he increases his value.
Things are about to get even crazier this offseason with more players to be signed and re-signed. This week should be the craziest week to date as we find out the fate of several players from Braden Holtby to Ilya Kovalchuk to Radko Gudas.
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As for Johansen, he’ll have a lot to prove this season as he searches for his first taste of NHL experience.