(Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

One of the more low key free agent signings made by the Pittsburgh Penguins this offseason was Andreas Johnsson.

A once very promising top six forward for the Toronto Maple Leafs, his past season was rather rough, spending a majority of the campaign in the American Hockey League. 

Now, on a “show me” contract if you will, Johnsson will look to get his NHL career back on track. 

Kyle Dubas knows Andreas Johnsson very well. Johnsson was in the Maple Leafs system when Dubas took over the general manager job in Toronto. 

During Dubas’ reign in Toronto, Johnsson had the best seasons of his NHL career. 

Originally a seventh round pick back in 2012, Johnsson had broken onto the NHL scene during the 2017-18 season, somewhat at the height of when all the young talent the Maple Leafs had acquired were finally establishing themselves as the new core. 

During the 2017-18 season, Johnsson put up _ points in _ games, showing some promise in his rookie season. 

His sophomore year, however, is what got him paid. Johnsson had 43 points (including 20 goals) in 73 games, the best mark of his NHL career. 

That summer, with his makeshift bridge contract now expired, Dubas signed Johnsson to a four year deal worth $3.4 million annually against the cap. 

It looked like a solid move at the time. Johnsson was trending up in a big way, and he was another young member of the Leafs who looked like he could take his career to the next level. 

Sure, maybe he wasn’t an Auston Matthews or a Mitch Marner, but he was a good young player. 

The contract, however, would prove to be a cap casualty for the team. Several factors played into this, but the biggest was that Johnsson wasn’t producing like he was in that contract year. 

He put up 21 points in 43 games in 2019-20 (roughly the same pace as the season prior), but he plummeted to just 11 points in 50 games during the 2020-21 season. 

In addition to that, the sudden arrival of Covid-19 had serious implications for both the National Hockey League and the Maple Leafs. 

Dubas had hitched his wagon to the “core four” as they’re known today of Matthews, Marner, William Nylander, and free agent signing back in 2018 John Tavares. 

Expecting that the salary cap would continue to increase like it was, giving $3.4 million to Johnsson wasn’t seen as that big of a deal, and as the years went on his cap hit would be less and less of the overall team’s payroll. 

However, with the pandemic bringing us into the flat cap world (until this year), Johnsson’s contract became a problem, especially now that he wasn’t producing like he was. 

Dubas had traded Johnsson to the New Jersey Devils during the 2020 offseason in exchange for Joey Anderson. 

In New Jersey, Johnsson would see a bit of a resurgence in his first year as a Devil. He tallied 35 points in 71 games, which was his highest total in three seasons. 

But this past season, things trended downhill again. Johnsson only played in two NHL games for the Devils this season, spending a majority of the year in the AHL. There, he was nearly a point per game. 

The Devils have an incredible amount of young talent and Johnsson had a rough time breaking through into the lineup. 

At the trade deadline, he was part of the package sent to the San Jose Sharks to bring in Timo Meier. The Sharks, needing bodies to play NHL minutes, called up Johnsson, who spent the rest of the year with San Jose in the NHL. 

He had 3 assists in 11 games. 

It’s safe to say that Johnsson’s last few years haven’t gone the way either himself or Kyle Dubas expected when he signed that four year deal back in 2019. 

Now, back under Dubas in Pittsburgh, can Johnsson find his way on the NHL squad and start another turnaround of his career? 

He has the talent to do it, that’s never been in question. At his peak, he’s a half a point per game player at the NHL level, and depth scoring was one of the Penguins biggest problems last year. 

When you take a look at some of his highlights, you can see how and why this guy has been successful in this league in the past. 

But are his best days behind him? 

At 28 years old, he still has years of potential left if he can stick around on an NHL roster. The job won’t be guaranteed to him, he will be battling with several other free agent signings to make an impression on the Penguins front office come training camp. 

His contract, a one way deal worth $800K, is a sort of a low risk, high reward type of deal. If he succeeds, you have some good depth scoring at basically league minimum cost. If he struggles, he will be good AHL depth, and capable of NHL call-ups. 

His one-way status, meaning his $800K counts against the salary cap no matter what, could be a bit of a problem for the cap-strapped Pens, but Dubas has said in the past he is not afraid of using the waivers system to help manage the salary cap. 

If needed, the Penguins could place him on waivers, hoping some team will take a flyer on him and take the cap hit too. 

Johnsson has some work to do to prove himself, but he will be a very interesting player to watch come September.