— be a late-round pick or go undrafted, go to college for three to four years and just always be proving people wrong, because I thought I’d be a much smaller player. So I knew I had to play smart...
.....I dreamed more about being the last pick of the seventh round....
He’s probably one of the most dedicated athletes to his craft that I’ve ever seen,” Tambellini said of Johnson’s game. “He’s a worker. He’s on the ice at all times — when you let him — he just wants to get better. He wants to work on his skating, he wants to work on his puckhandling, he wants to work on his passing. He always believes he can be better and he always believes he can take his game to the next level.
“I’ve never seen a kid do that with the detail that he brings to his training. You start multiplying that day by day over a number of years, then mix in his frame, his body makeup, which allows him to do things that most players really can’t do with his flexibility and you see a guy doing stuff on the ice that you really don’t see. His skill set is different from everybody’s.”