Waived: [WSH] D Lucas Johansen waived by the Capitals (cleared)

[MMC]

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[MileHighCapsFan]

Welcome to Washington Ethan!

 

[cc]

Johansen is very intriguing. Youngish mobile dman for free

 

[Dennis Reynolds]

Johansen is very intriguing. Youngish mobile dman for free

He's 26 with nine games of NHL experience.

 

[hotcabbagesoup]

He hasn't been given a chance!

 

[cc]

He's 26 with nine games of NHL experience.

Some teams are sorely lacking depth. If there's enough to work with in terms of ability, I think he'll get some consideration.

Canucks for example made a trade for cicek who's hardly established. With soucy injured, they are running with 7 dmen with few potential call ups due to injuries. I don't see why they wouldn't take a close look

 

[Canuck Luck]

Some teams are sorely lacking depth. If there's enough to work with in terms of ability, I think he'll get some consideration.

Canucks for example made a trade for cicek who's hardly established. With soucy injured, they are running with 7 dmen with few potential call ups due to injuries. I don't see why they wouldn't take a close look

lol what? Cicek is about 12th on the Canucks depth chart. Its very obvious that he was sent back due to SJ being at 49 contracts. They didnt want to put themselves at 50 with no room to sign any NCAA free agents come spring.

Why would the Canucks take a close look because they took back an AHL d-man that actually has MORE NHL experience AND is 3 years younger than Johansen? If anything, that just gives them more reason NOT to be interested.

 

[Jared Dunn]

Some teams are sorely lacking depth. If there's enough to work with in terms of ability, I think he'll get some consideration.

Canucks for example made a trade for cicek who's hardly established. With soucy injured, they are running with 7 dmen with few potential call ups due to injuries. I don't see why they wouldn't take a close look

They made a trade for a 6th rounder, Cicek was a throw in and will almost definitely never play for them. They need another top 4 D they have 4 or 5 guys suitable to the 6/7/8 roles

 

[cc]

lol what? Cicek is about 12th on the Canucks depth chart. Its very obvious that he was sent back due to SJ being at 49 contracts. They didnt want to put themselves at 50 with no room to sign any NCAA free agents come spring.

Why would the Canucks take a close look because they took back an AHL d-man that actually has MORE NHL experience AND is 3 years younger than Johansen? If anything, that just gives them more reason NOT to be interested.

Let's take a look at who their next call ups in case there are further injuries to the left side defense at this time. Christian wolanin, matt irwin and... I wouldn't call that a lot of depth. Cicek might be closer to getting a chance than you'd think

They made a trade for a 6th rounder, Cicek was a throw in and will almost definitely never play for them. They need another top 4 D they have 4 or 5 guys suitable to the 6/7/8 roles

A lot of teams would like another top 4. Not sure they have the cap or the resources to make that happen.

 

[Canuck Luck]

Let's take a look at who their next call ups in case there are further injuries to the left side defense at this time. Christian wolanin, matt irwin and... I wouldn't call that a lot of depth. Cicek might be closer to getting a chance than you'd think


A lot of teams would like another top 4. Not sure they have the cap or the resources to make that happen.

LHD the Canucks have:
Hughes
Zadorov
Soucy
Cole
Wolanin
Brisebois
Irwin
Hirose
Cicek

At best you could argue Cicek would be 7th on their LHD depth chart. That means the Canucks would need at least 4 LHD to be injured before they call him up. 2 are currently injured (Soucy, Brisebois) and something tells me if 2 more were to be injured, he wouldnt be the next call up

I'd wager theres a higher likelihood of the Canucks having 4 LHD injured all at once than Cicek getting into the lineup.

 

[cc]

LHD the Canucks have:
Hughes
Zadorov
Soucy
Cole
Wolanin
Brisebois
Irwin
Hirose
Cicek

At best you could argue Cicek would be 7th on their LHD depth chart. That means the Canucks would need at least 4 LHD to be injured before they call him up. 3 are currently injured (Soucy, Brisebois, Wolanin) and something tells me if 1 more were to be injured, he wouldnt be the next call up

I believe almost 4 are injured. Soucy brisbois and maybe hirose so it's pretty close

 

[Petes2424]

He’s had chance after chance after chance, and never taken the reigns, forcing the team’s hand.

When people say “Claim him, he just needs a change of scenery” that doesn’t apply to player’s who have no elite skill sets, or attributes. For example, a player like Jake Walman had very high end retrieval skills and could make people miss. Not to mention his shot. So there was “something there” so to speak. He was worth a team taking the chance at 26, and it paid off for Detroit.

Johansen suffers from two major issues. Like Dennis Chowlowski, he just can’t put on any muscle. He’s still 175 lbs. Some players just can’t, no matter what they do. He’s small boned, as some say.

So never being able to mature physically like most 18-22 year olds, you better have some high end attributes, and he just doesn’t have any. He was also very well trained pre-draft. So there really wasn’t much to develop further.

At 26, he is what he’s ever going to be. He’s been passed by hundreds of dmen by now… He’s just a low-end plug, who never lived up to his expectations.

So if someone needs a low-end plug, and a good veteran for their AHL team, here you go. Claim him.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

He’s had chance after chance after chance, and never taken the reigns, forcing the team’s hand.

When people say “Claim him, he just needs a change of scenery” that doesn’t apply to player’s who have no elite skill sets, or attributes. For example, a player like Jake Walman had very high end retrieval skills and could make people miss. Not to mention his shot. So there was “something there” so to speak. He was worth a team taking the chance at 26, and it paid off for Detroit.

Johansen suffers from two major issues. Like Dennis Chowlowski, he just can’t put on any muscle. He’s still 175 lbs. Some players just can’t, no matter what they do. He’s small boned, as some say.

So never being able to mature physically like most 18-22 year olds, you better have some high end attributes, and he just doesn’t have any. He was also very well trained pre-draft. So there really wasn’t much to develop further.

At 26, he is what he’s ever going to be. He’s been passed by hundreds of dmen by now… He’s just a low-end plug, who never lived up to his expectations.

So if someone needs a low-end plug, and a good veteran for their AHL team, here you go. Claim him.

This is mostly right but I think injuries played a big part in his lack of development. He was drafted in 2017, missed half the season with injuries in 2018-19 and then played 14 total games the next two seasons combined. He was mostly healthy in 2021-22 but last year he missed half the season as well. When he was healthy he looked real solid during the Calder Cup run and it gave some hope that he could take another step this season. He never caught a break and every time it looked like he was getting traction he was in the trainer's room again.

I actually would rather have LuJo getting minutes over Edmundson but LuJo's problem is he doesn't do anything at an elite level and he doesn't have much of an identity. Edmundson mostly stinks but he's at least big and physical and eats pucks on the PK. LuJo isn't the best skater, he's not big, he's not the best defensively, he doesn't have a cannon of a shot... he's just kind of there. Makes the smart play more often than not and won't get you beat but won't be a driving force in helping you win either.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

He's 26 with nine games of NHL experience.

He’s just coming into his own…..lol…

 

[Silky mitts]

He and Backstrom were the Caps 2 worst players this year

 

[ChrisProngersEYE]

I hope someone takes him form the Capitals dumpster fire of an organization

 

[biturbo19]

This is mostly right but I think injuries played a big part in his lack of development. He was drafted in 2017, missed half the season with injuries in 2018-19 and then played 14 total games the next two seasons combined. He was mostly healthy in 2021-22 but last year he missed half the season as well. When he was healthy he looked real solid during the Calder Cup run and it gave some hope that he could take another step this season. He never caught a break and every time it looked like he was getting traction he was in the trainer's room again.

I actually would rather have LuJo getting minutes over Edmundson but LuJo's problem is he doesn't do anything at an elite level and he doesn't have much of an identity. Edmundson mostly stinks but he's at least big and physical and eats pucks on the PK. LuJo isn't the best skater, he's not big, he's not the best defensively, he doesn't have a cannon of a shot... he's just kind of there. Makes the smart play more often than not and won't get you beat but won't be a driving force in helping you win either.

I feel like a lot of this is all wrapped up in a similar package. As a prospect, i think a lot of people saw that his brother was able to really fill out his big frame more. Figured, he probably could to. But injuries can also make it hard to split focus on just getting back to the same place again, vs adding that actual size and functional mass. The other thing is...even putting on more meat, it seems like Ryan Johansen is often dinged up or injured too. So even just assuming that piling on more strength would fix the issues, might be misguided.

At the end of the day...it really does just come down to the fact that he's a super unremarkable player who doesn't really do anything particularly well.


Someone was weirdly going off about the Canucks LD Depth situation in here, thinking they should claim Lucas Johansen. But the reality is...that makes zero sense. For one, making a claim means stashing him on the NHL roster. Which isn't very helpful.

But more importantly, they already have a guy like Wolanin who never seems to get his due NHL runway. Despite being a bigger, more mobile version of Johansen. A guy who suffers a bit from that same lack of clear "identity" as a player. Not a big bruising stay at home shutdown D. Not really a true puck mover or offensive D. Just sort of...not bad at anything. Though Wolanin is miles better than anything i've seen from Johansen and the age gap is pretty immaterial at their respective ages. Especially when you look at just how much time Wolanin got derailed by injuries along the way. They're both, "they are what they are" players for all intents and purposes at this point. And i can't think of anything that Johansen does better than Wolanin...who Vancouver already have stashed in the minors (again, and over much worse players due to handedness).

 

[DEANYOUNGBLOOD17]

I remember in 2016 draft in Buffalo…. I wanted Johansen to fall to the 2 nd round….He didn’t but he should have.

Nothing to see here ….. move along …. Move along …. Nothing to see here!

 

[Petes2424]

This is mostly right but I think injuries played a big part in his lack of development. He was drafted in 2017, missed half the season with injuries in 2018-19 and then played 14 total games the next two seasons combined. He was mostly healthy in 2021-22 but last year he missed half the season as well. When he was healthy he looked real solid during the Calder Cup run and it gave some hope that he could take another step this season. He never caught a break and every time it looked like he was getting traction he was in the trainer's room again.

I actually would rather have LuJo getting minutes over Edmundson but LuJo's problem is he doesn't do anything at an elite level and he doesn't have much of an identity. Edmundson mostly stinks but he's at least big and physical and eats pucks on the PK. LuJo isn't the best skater, he's not big, he's not the best defensively, he doesn't have a cannon of a shot... he's just kind of there. Makes the smart play more often than not and won't get you beat but won't be a driving force in helping you win either.

The constant being “banged up” over his career, could be argued, is because he’s lacked the core strength, and never physically matured. Many would argue that. While everyone else was putting on muscle and filling out physically, between 18-22, he remained the same.

There really are players who are much more skilled than he is even, like this kid Colorado just drafted from Russia, who fell in the draft because teams questioned, if he’ll ever be able to put that muscle on. There was also a forward drafted in the Top 15 or so, who may have the same issue. Name is escaping me right now.

There’s just certain genetics that do come into play, and we are finally seeing teams pass, or at least let players slide on their draft boards, because of the concern.. He’s one, Chowloski is another, and Beau Bennett would be another big example, of players who today, would’ve likely fallen a good round or so, as teams no longer just assume a player will physically mature. At one time Bennett may have been the best 91’ in the world. He was that good. His inability to stay healthy was 100% because of his inability, to ever “fill out” physically.

I feel bad for these players because no matter what they do, they can’t gain that strength needed, to play in the NHL consistently.