Thank you Marcus Johansson

The Washington Capitals roster looks different and different by the minute whether it be from injuries or trades. One of their moves before the NHL Trade Deadline was trading Marcus Johansson to the Minnesota Wild for a 2024 third round pick. Here’s the story on the trade as well as the grade on it.

If you missed it, check out our thank you posts to Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway.

Like Orlov, Johansson was a player that was one of our own as he was drafted and developed in the Capitals system. He was drafted in the first round by the Caps at 24th overall in the 2009 NHL Draft.

Johansson made his NHL debut in the 2010-11 season and got off to a solid start recording 13 goals and 14 assists for 27 points. The next year he had 14 goals and 32 assists for 46 points.

He played in 34 games during the NHL’s lockout shortened 2013 season. He had eight goals and 16 assists for 22 points. Not bad. The next year was a little rough when he had eight goals and 36 assists for 44 points in 80 games.

In 2014-15 he had 20 goals and 27 assists for 47 points. The next year he had 17 goals and 29 assists for 46 points. In 2016-17 he had his best season with the Caps with 24 goals and 34 assists for 58 points. In the playoffs that spring he had two goals and six assists for eight points with one of them ending the Caps first round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 6.

Johansson would then get traded to the New Jersey Devils in that summer after the team re signed T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov. He would miss the Caps Stanley Cup the next season. He would get a crack at it the next year with the Boston Bruins but they fell in seven games to the St. Louis Blues.

He was a journeyman who also saw stops with the Buffalo Sabres, Minnesota (where he’s returning to), and the Seattle Kraken before a homecoming happened at the last trade deadline when they traded him to the Caps in exchange for Daniel Sprong.

Johansson had three goals and three assists for six points in the final 18 Caps regular season games he suited up in. He had a goal in the playoffs. This season prior to leaving the Caps he had 13 goals and 15 assists for 28 points.

Stars and Sticks would like to thank MoJo to the fans and JoJo to his teammates for always being a good guy to count on on and off the ice. Best of luck in your quest for your first Cup. Wish it would’ve came here.