I'm not sure where the narrative came from that Andreas Johnsson was some terrific young scoring stud who was simply blocked in Toronto. He had every chance to crack the top 6 in Toronto. Last year his play was so lackluster that he was often out of place on the third line.
This is from my take the day of the trade (found on page 8 of this thread):
I've already written how much I love the trade for Murray and the signing of Crawford. I'm going to say that with Johnsson -- though I do not despise the deal, I don't particularly love it either.
Andreas Johnsson's greatest strength is probably his lack of a discernible weakness. He's a pretty good passer and shooter, a pretty good passer, he's pretty good two ways and he's not soft, so he gives you a decent net-front presence, where he has pretty good hands.
Because of this, Johnsson is the type of guy a coach can slot up and down the line-up. If your top-line winger is hurt for a week, you can slot him up to a top 6 role and he'll be fine. If you play him as a regular on your third line, he'll be decent there too.
But we're also talking about a player who is coming off a 21 point season in 43 games despite playing on a high-octane offense team alongside elite talent, and getting significant minutes on the 2PP. True, he scored 20 goals the year before, but that was with an unnaturally large shooting percentage which may not be sustainable. So, my conclusion about Johnsson is he's a solid NHL player with some maneuverability, but he's not a guy who moves the needle and he's making $3.4 million for the next three seasons.
The reason I don't love the deal is that I am convinced that, by the end of it, Joey Anderson will be a superior player. I think Anderson is just as capable as a 40+ point season playing with top scorers, and I think he's a superior two-way player with a superior compete level.
I understand Fitzgerald's thinking on this -- draft picks of RWs Holtz and Mercer made Anderson organizationally expendable, and Johnsson will make the Devils better in 2020-21. This is tough to argue with. But considering how desperate the Leafs were to get rid of Johnsson's cap hit (they were over the cap and actually will be again after re-signing their two RFAs), I don't think NJ needed to give up anything of value to get Johnsson and his contract.
Again, I don't want it to seem like I'm shredding the organization -- this trade is not terrible any way you look at it. And I do agree that Anderson was expendable. But I can't help but think that -- in the very near future -- the Devils or any NHL team would be much better off with Anderson on their third line than with Johnsson on their second line, and Anderson will be about $2 million cheaper.
In retrospect, my lukewarm optimism concerning the Johnsson acquisition was misplaced. I stand by most of what I wrote here the day of the trade, except the line "Johnsson will make the Devils better in 2020-21", which I admittedly already look moronic for writing.
It's tough to complain about much Fitzgerald has done as Devils GM -- he's been very good so far. But after five full games of not even one single good shift, I think it's time to cut the cord on Johnsson, at least for the time being. Let him sit for a few weeks and get some higher end talent in there. You watch him on a shift and then watch Jesper Boqvist, and it's just blatant that these two are not even on the same talent plane. It's really not even close. Boqvist does not look out of place in the NHL, while Johnsson is in way over his head.
