Hans Jonsson

[Eye of Ra]

Do any of you guys remember this guy? He played 4 seasons for this team.

What did he bring to the ice? Was he physical?

Might seem like a odd thread to ask about a random swede, but i have a great intrest for unknown old school swedish players so i would like to get some opinions on this player if its okay.

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[EightyOne]

Not physical.

Not overly offensive.

A very very very very...very..average defender during a time where being a defender took considerably less skill than today. And still only managed four seasons of play on a team full of scrubs.

 

[The Old Master]

the pens were so bad then, that I have forgotten every thing about them.

 

[SHOOTANDSCORE]

From what I remember, he was good positionally and had a good stick.

 

[Gurglesons]

From what I remember, he was good positionally and had a good stick.

Decent size and played with heart too.

Wasn’t afraid to “muck in the corners”.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

Tremendous puck poise?

 

[Havokedbird 33]

I appreciate the deep dive into Gen X, but my god October can't get here fast enough.

 

[Eli Cash]

He was the last pick in the 1993 draft. He was no Hornqvist. He was pretty mediocre to bad, but those teams were never known for their defense anyway.

 

[Corvidae]

Bland player who wasn't bad positionally as other have said. Probably one of their better defenders for a few of those years, and that is a scathing criticism of the team more than a complement towards him.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Lol, the very bland Hans, how can anyone forget?

 

[billybudd]

Jonsson was the dead last pick in the draft and ended up as maybe the 4th best D on a middling to bad team which was so unserious about D that it would give NHL contracts to AHL players solely on account of them having a big shot (Ignatjev, Serowik, Jackman) or just teach a right wing defense because we had 4 better right wings (Moran) and no natural D even close to deserving to dress for a game who already weren't. Jonsson played defensive positional hockey with no edge and wasn't particularly good at it.

In my opinion, Hans Jonsson would be very unlikely to make the NHL these days. The scraps we've brought up the last few years (Ruhwedel, Chorney) are all a lot better than he was and I can think of no current GM as dismissive/cavalier about the importance of the position as Craig Patrick.

Probably not what you wanted to hear, but in the history of Swedish hockey, Jonsson doesn't merit so much as a footnote.

Edit: Jonsson was okay at shotblocking. I wouldn't call him a pioneer, but he might have been slightly ahead of the curve on that front (and only that front).

 

[WheresRamziAbid]

Jonsson was the dead last pick in the draft and ended up as maybe the 4th best D on a middling to bad team which was so unserious about D that it would give NHL contracts to AHL players solely on account of them having a big shot (Ignatjev, Serowik, Jackman) or just teach a right wing defense because we had 4 better right wings (Moran) and no natural D even close to deserving to dress for a game who already weren't. Jonsson played defensive positional hockey with no edge and wasn't particularly good at it.

In my opinion, Hans Jonsson would be very unlikely to make the NHL these days. The scraps we've brought up the last few years (Ruhwedel, Chorney) are all a lot better than he was and I can think of no current GM as dismissive/cavalier about the importance of the position as Craig Patrick.

Probably not what you wanted to hear, but in the history of Swedish hockey, Jonsson doesn't merit so much as a footnote.

Edit: Jonsson was okay at shotblocking. I wouldn't call him a pioneer, but he might have been slightly ahead of the curve on that front (and only that front).

Do any of you guys remember this guy? He played 4 seasons for this team.

What did he bring to the ice? Was he physical?

Might seem like a odd thread to ask about a random swede, but i have a great intrest for unknown old school swedish players so i would like to get some opinions on this player if its okay.

Like 90% of Penguins defensemen between 1997 and 2004. Poo.

 

[Jacob]

The issue in that era was we had no good d-men to shelter the lesser guys into more effective roles. First pairing was Kasparaitis - Moran, and the system sucked (or more accurately there wasnt one), and that just exposed everyone else. Jonsson became a bit of a meme as I recall, because of the combo of his mediocrity and always being a throw-in in trade proposals as if he had significant value.

 

[Shady Machine]

Tremendous puck poise?

Skillful minded biscuit scorer

 

[UnrealMachine]

Tremendous puck poise?

"Yes, they're important! If you stumble, if you hesitate, you can kiss the crown goodbye. Now if I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times - poise counts! It's just as important as the others. Swimsuit! Evening wear! Talent! POISE!"

 

[BladeRunner66]

Weird how memory can cheat us from reality, before reading this thread i though Hans Jonsson was a good Dman. After reading it i remembered (aaargh!) how bad was our D back then and understood why i thought he was good.

Compared to the other Pens Dmen, he was... actually good.

 

[Jacob]

He really wasn't that bad. I remember him having a good first pass and a decent heavy, low point shot. I wanna say he still used an entirely wooden stick. Not physical but blocked a lot of shots as I recall? But ideally he'd be have been like a #6 on a good D-corps.

 

[The Old Master]

after reading these post's I'm starting to remember all the money I wasted on tickets to see them, and why I've tried so hard to forget.

 

[TheMalkinEra]

Jonson 22 points in 2001 was the most for pens d-men that season. This was during the time between Hatcher and Tarnstrom where the Pens had no defencemen that could provide much scoring other then Jiri Sleger every now and then.

The Pens want to 5 forwards on the power plays and even late in game if they were down a goal they would put Kovalev on Defence on regular 5 on 5 shifts to have some offence on the back end.

 

[Darth Vitale]

I can't believe there is not more praise for Hans "Elbow Grease" Jonsson.

My lasting memory of him is that there was a period of time where he endured a series of elbow injuries and infections the likes of which had not been seen before or since. Let's not forget his partner on the ice, Janne "Legend" Laukkanen.

[And then the fire sale.] Those were some ugly, ugly years. Dark times. Dark. Oh God... Oh God, NO! It's all flooding back now... next week's threads to include:

Ross Lupaschuk
Michal Sivek
Rico Fata
Ramzi Abid
and more.

This is not healthy. I need to stop.