- Feb 5, 2010
- 49,403
- 20,752
Caps fan post just now on the mainboard that reiterates what I said last night. Again, still a great trade regardless:
"Not sure many folks here have really watched Marcus Johansson over the years. As long time Caps fan I have. He's Tomas Fleischmann with more speed but less dangle. His game is more suited to the European and International ice, where you have more time and space. You may think highly of his game in October and November, where tight checking and physicality is not as apparent, but come March you'll be cursing him. Yes he's good on zone entries on PPs (note more time and space and thus he can use his speed) but on 5v5 he'll lose puck possession along the boards the majority of times as he can be easily knocked off the puck. He won't win many puck battles along the boards and behind the net. His passing will drive you nuts as he often makes ill advised passes, i.e. drop or blind passes or "tries" to thread the needle through defense. Playing on a line with Kuznetsov and Justin Williams made him look better than he is. His game is as a passenger, that is he benefits from the hard work of others, but he does not drive the play or makes his linemates better."
That's fair. It's not like we traded for McDavid. This is a perfect kind of depth guy though. This is what we should have been getting from JJ. Not a top liner, or even necessarily a top 6er, but a guy who can hang in this league and contribute points on a somewhat regular basis. Even if he is just a passenger, it would be nice to have a passenger that can finish things off. For too many years we have had passengers that could do nothing other than try hard.
I'm very happy with this. Like you, I'm slightly skeptical of the point totals coming from Washington and especially playing with Kuzy, but no doubt this guy is a solid NHLer with a nice skillset that is amazing value considering what we gave up.