Prospect Info: Ryan Johnson, D, 2019 #31 overall: Signed, Rochester (AHL), Recalled 12/5/24

[joshjull]

He really is young. I believe he was 17 when he was drafted and turned 18 a month later. I think he made the cut off for that draft by 2 or 3 weeks.

 

[Old Navy Goat]

He really is young. I believe he was 17 when he was drafted and turned 18 a month later. I think he made the cut off for that draft by 2 or 3 weeks.

He's a July birthday so was 17 when drafted, a true 18yo freshman which in hockey is a relative anomaly. He made the draft cutoff by 7 weeks

 

[Shootica]

Reading through this thread, I think we all could be better about not writing these kids off right out of the gate. It's way too early to say where he'll be penciled into a future lineup or what his ceiling is.

 

[57special]

I've watched every Gopher's game this year. IMO, Johnson is beginning to find his way, and figuring out how to contribute on a very strong Gophers team with a deep, strong skating defense. Lacombe, Faber, and Koster can all REALLY skate, so it's hard to stick out amongst them. I was underwhelmed at first with his game, which seems vanilla compared to teammate Lacombe(who is a high risk/high reward/bone head). A couple of games ago I saw him rush the puck and I realized what a fast skater he is, with excellent technique. That skill alone will take him a long way. His puck skills seem to be decent or better, defensive play, decent or better, offensive instincts, ok. Physicality is average, IMO, but because he is so young he has time to work on that.

What seems to be happening is that he is getting more confident. He seems to be more self aware than a guy like Lacombe(who is similar to Skjei....big, fast, offensively inclined, full of mistakes/brilliance), and is not the type to be indulging in offense at the expense of his D. It will take him a while before he feels that he can spread his wings more offensively, but you can see him starting to do it already. It's almost a shame that he will go away to the WJC's, as he will have to readjust again.

 

[OkimLom]

Reading through this thread, I think we all could be better about not writing these kids off right out of the gate. It's way too early to say where he'll be penciled into a future lineup or what his ceiling is.

i think people need to realize that just because someone is critical of a player or that they wish they the draft pick was someone else, doesn’t mean they are writing them off.

But I’m of the opinion that posters can be better when they are writing “future lineups” one or two years in advance of players that have massive amounts of development to go to even come close to being in the NHL. Looking at you Pekar, Mittelstadt, UPL fans

 

[joshjull]

i think people need to realize that just because someone is critical of a player or that they wish they the draft pick was someone else, doesn’t mean they are writing them off.

But I’m of the opinion that posters can be better when they are writing “future lineups” one or two years in advance of players that have massive amounts of development to go to even come close to being in the NHL. Looking at you Pekar, Mittelstadt, UPL fans

No I don’t think we need to realize that. You may need to realize there are several pages of posters very much writing him off as a low ceiling or defensive dman at best. Those premature predictions are made with a certain level of ignorance or bias or both.

I really enjoy reading Kris Baker’s prospect takes/write ups because he focuses on the prospect’s specific situation and how they perform relative to that. Its really the only way to evaluate prospects. He doesn’t care about things that don’t matter to that evaluation that posters on here or twitter do. Things like who else could have been drafted at that pick or who the GM is that drafted him.

I bring it up Bakes because he was pretty positive about Johnson last year. But it had a lot to do with him ignoring the irrelevant noise and evaluating Johnson in his specific situation-> a true freshman playing college hockey as a depth dman. (True freshmen college hockey players are not very common as @Old Navy Goat points out earlier in the thread)

As opposed to many posters on here/Sabres twitter ripping on Johnson during his D+1 season. I don’t recall many, if any, saying he was having a subpar season for a true college freshman/depth dman so they think he’s a bad pick. They just looked at his stats, never dug deeper and then ripped the pick because of the GM or the other options. Thats just showing ignorance of the situation and bias against the kid based on things he has nothing do to with.

 

[Der Jaeger]

We may have an actually solid defensive defenseman on our hands, I'll take it considering how he was written off already by just about everyone.

not everyone

I wouldn't call him a defensive defenseman as that's Samuelsson and Borgen. I prefer smooth skating, two-way low event defenseman.

agree

 

[Dex]

I've watched a couple of games so far and for someone who is seen by many here as a guy with zero offense, I've been very impressed with his puck handling and quite frankly, his offensive potential. He's a very quick and confident puck handler. He's smart too. I think it's just a matter of time until he starts putting points up and showing that he can make plays and hold his own offensively.

 

[cybresabre]

Reading through this thread, I think we all could be better about not writing these kids off right out of the gate. It's way too early to say where he'll be penciled into a future lineup or what his ceiling is.

Exactly, this is the time in a prospect's career when we should be optimistic. We'll ruin him once he's in the system.

 

[Dex]

Exactly, this is the time in a prospect's career when we should be optimistic. We'll ruin him once he's in the system.

Hopefully, the Sabres will finally turn the corner and not ruin prospects once they enter the system. Adams seems to me like he's the kind of guy who will have learned from past failures. Time will tell.

 

[Zman5778]

I bring it up Bakes because he was pretty positive about Johnson last year. But it had a lot to do with him ignoring the irrelevant noise and evaluating Johnson in his specific situation-> a true freshman playing college hockey as a depth dman. (True freshmen college hockey players are not very common as @Old Navy Goat points out earlier in the thread)

I'll keep harping on this point too -- whenever I saw him play last year, he was playing the right side. So. True freshman. Depth D-man. Off-hand.

It ALL points to a "getting your feet wet" season.

 

[joshjull]

 

[jc17]

The tourney can't come quickly enough

 

[57special]

I would also add that this Gophers team under Motzko seems to finally playing some sound, good hockey. It took a while to get rid of the Lucia stink that permeated the program. I think MN is now a good place to have players develop in. They basically play more of a NHL style right now, like SCSU, Motzko's old, very successful team.

 

[sabremike]

No I don’t think we need to realize that. You may need to realize there are several pages of posters very much writing him off as a low ceiling or defensive dman at best. Those premature predictions are made with a certain level of ignorance or bias or both.

I really enjoy reading Kris Baker’s prospect takes/write ups because he focuses on the prospect’s specific situation and how they perform relative to that. Its really the only way to evaluate prospects. He doesn’t care about things that don’t matter to that evaluation that posters on here or twitter do. Things like who else could have been drafted at that pick or who the GM is that drafted him.

I bring it up Bakes because he was pretty positive about Johnson last year. But it had a lot to do with him ignoring the irrelevant noise and evaluating Johnson in his specific situation-> a true freshman playing college hockey as a depth dman. (True freshmen college hockey players are not very common as @Old Navy Goat points out earlier in the thread)

As opposed to many posters on here/Sabres twitter ripping on Johnson during his D+1 season. I don’t recall many, if any, saying he was having a subpar season for a true college freshman/depth dman so they think he’s a bad pick. They just looked at his stats, never dug deeper and then ripped the pick because of the GM or the other options. Thats just showing ignorance of the situation and bias against the kid based on things he has nothing do to with.

You are lying about all this: The reason he has improved is because he was recently blessed by the almighty Magic Giraffe Deity and his Holy Hoof.

 

[joshjull]

 

[Buffaloed]

Gophers' Brock Faber and Ryan Johnson take chemistry to Team USA, world juniors
(Paywall)

University of Minnesota coach Bob Motzko talks about Ryan Johnson's slow start last season:
“I can’t tell you the difference in one year. He went right from winning a championship (with Sioux Falls) in May, to a draft combine, to a draft, to a (development) camp in Buffalo, to a world junior camp. I’ve seen this happen before. There’s so much that goes into those draft-eligible kids, especially those that are world junior candidates, they are beaten into the ground. It is just a horrible summer sometimes for those kids. They’ve got too much on their plate. So Ryan got to us last year tired, and he didn’t have a break after playing a long season in the USHL. It took to almost Christmas for him to recharge his batteries.”

Motzko on the difference in Johnson this season being due to him having an offseason to train at home and come back refreshed:
“That makes such a monster difference. The great thing for us is he even has another level he’s going to hit as he continues to get stronger and more physical.
Kids need to spend the offseason training, not running around the country. "

Motzo's thoughts on the grind that players like Johnson are subjected to:
"You have three entities that might need more conversation together. It’s a small group of players that are in their draft year and world junior candidates and getting ready to come into college. There is so much on their plate. The three groups need to have better communication to ease their summer. If you map it out – what they go through – it’s too much. There are a few things you could take out to ease their summer and give them more developmental time before they start their season.”

Comments from an NHL scout about Johnson:
“The more he simplifies his game, the better he is, and then some of the things he can do offensively come out. I still think Johnson is more of a puck mover as opposed to a true offensive defenseman. He and Faber, together, their ability to get the puck out of their zone on the breakouts, under pressure and under duress has been a strength of both of them.”

Johnson says he had frequent contact with the Sabres before and after the organizational shakeup.

 

[Zman5778]

Comments from an NHL scout about Johnson:
“The more he simplifies his game, the better he is, and then some of the things he can do offensively come out. I still think Johnson is more of a puck mover as opposed to a true offensive defenseman. He and Faber, together, their ability to get the puck out of their zone on the breakouts, under pressure and under duress has been a strength of both of them.”

That's EXACTLY what we need. A good positional guy who plays a simple game and moves the puck well.

I'm not sure we have a guy right now who plays a simple game on the backend. Deities know we've wanted Risto to simplify his game for years. We don't want Dahlin to play simple. Montour and Miller are very guilty of trying to do too much. McCabe might be the one Dman we have who plays a simple game. Pilut did, but yeah............

 

[Chainshot]

That's EXACTLY what we need. A good positional guy who plays a simple game and moves the puck well.

I'm not sure we have a guy right now who plays a simple game on the backend. Deities know we've wanted Risto to simplify his game for years. We don't want Dahlin to play simple. Montour and Miller are very guilty of trying to do too much. McCabe might be the one Dman we have who plays a simple game. Pilut did, but yeah............

Much of the conversation about him conjures images of Tallinder's old scouting reports.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Much of the conversation about him conjures images of Tallinder's old scouting reports.

Or to compare to someone now, Travis Sanheim. If he ends up like either we’d be ecstatic.

 

[Chainshot]

Or to compare to someone now, Travis Sanheim. If he ends up like either we’d be ecstatic.

Yep. The issue remains that he will always be put up against those he is NOT, not through any fault of his own. *shrug*

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Yep. The issue remains that he will always be put up against those he is NOT, not through any fault of his own. *shrug*

Unless one of those “early” after picks is challenging for the Rocket on a routine basis, I’m not gonna care. Personally I wanted Sandin and then Beecher with this pick (based on needs than liking the players) but if we get a Tallinder 2.0 or Sanheim 2.0 I’m fine with it. He seems smart and sneaky strong, and can skate, so whatever. He’s still only 19. I’m gonna give him a month before I call him a bust!

 

[Husko]

Much of the conversation about him conjures images of Tallinder's old scouting reports.

Or to compare to someone now, Travis Sanheim. If he ends up like either we’d be ecstatic.

Brodin has always been the name in my head. A guy that plays shut-down D but with speed and positioning instead of GRIT.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Brodin has always been the name in my head. A guy that plays shut-down D but with speed and positioning instead of GRIT.

This is also acceptable if he ends up like that. I guess you found the bridge between Tallinder and Sanheim

 

[Chainshot]