Some players on the Detroit Red Wings have struggled this season. Others have taken their next step in their development. But none have taken a step quite like Albert Johansson. To be fair, players like Emmitt Finnie have made strides in their rookie year. Johansson, however, went from an afterthought to a consistent anchor on the team's bottom defensive pairing.
To say he hasn't been impactful on this roster is to ignore context entirely. Johansson isn't the type of player to show up on the scoresheet. He is, however, the kind of player that seemingly takes over games at random.
During last week's match against the Philadelphia Flyers, Johansson seemed like a man possessed. He broke up passing lanes with alarming speed. His passes went tape-to-tape. He wore out the Flyers' offense, playing a tenacious, consistent style that frustrated the opposition to no end.
Johansson is never going to be the best player on the team. But he's shown he's more than capable of assuming a consistently solid depth role on the Red Wings.
Red Wings have defensive depth with Johansson
Rarely, if ever, has Johansson played with a consistent linemate. He's played alongside everyone from Moritz Seider to Travis Hamonic. At the start of the season, Johansson looked a little lost. He struggled to find the puck and was often caught making costly defensive mistakes. As the season toiled on, however, he worked on cleaning up those errors. At times, it showed through tiny corrections. Other times, however, it manifested in momentum-tilting moves.
Even the analytics praise Johansson for his development. Benchrates, which evaluates players based on contract efficiency, has Johansson playing at above 130% efficiency on his contract. Per MoneyPuck, Johansson starts more shifts on the fly than nearly any player on the roster. He has the seventh-highest number of takeaways with 21 on the season. His 67 blocked shots are the eighth best on the team.
He's doing all this with an average ice time of just 16:04 a game.
How Johansson plays into Red Wings' future
As mentioned earlier, Johansson isn't going to be a Moritz Seider-caliber defenseman. Nor should he be. He's the perfect bottom-pairing defenseman. He rarely makes mistakes, stabilizes a much-needed role on the roster and occasionally contributes at a level much higher than expected. As of right now, Johansson is signed through the 2026-27 season. He'll still be an arbitration-eligible RFA by the end of his deal.
The Red Wings have one of two options with Johansson: they can either offer him a longer-term deal, or they can give him another shorter, flexible contract. Defensemen typically take a little longer than forwards to reach their prime. Johansson, at 25, still has room to grow.
There's a chance he becomes a bottom-four defenseman at his ceiling, but, even if he doesn't, the Red Wings have a great defender on their hands.