Detroit Hockey Now’s set of prospect profiles has moved onto the players who were drafted this year but did not participate in the summer development camp last month. Today’s target is defenseman Anton Johansson of Leksands IF in Sweden. He’s a lanky 6’4″ but only weighs 172 pounds, and he was drafted 102nd overall in July.
DHN’s Bob Duff offers a scouting report of the skinny defender:
Like the lemurs in the animated film Madagascar, Anton Johansson likes to move it, move it – both on the ice and up the ladder of Swedish hockey. The Red Wings’ 2022 draft pick began the 2021-22 season playing with Leksand IF in the J18 (under-18) division of Sweden. He quickly moved up to Leksand’s J20 club and even played four games for their SHL squad in Sweden’s top division before the year was done.
“I’ve had an incredible development,” Johansson told hockeynews.se. “I didn’t think that I was going to start on the J18 team and finish in the SHL at the beginning of the season. With patience and hard work, it paid off.”
According to Draftineu.com’s scouting report, Johansson gets around the ice smoothly and displays soft hands while in possession of the puck.
“I saw him play in the SHL,” Red Wings director of amateur scouting Kris Draper said. “He played a lot in the J20 and we like the size, the right shot, puck-moving defenseman that we were excited to get.”
…
“He was a player we identified,” Draper said. “It’s interesting. Now that you’re a couple of years from not being able to go to the all the rinks, video is kind of accepted in our profession now. So you can actually watch more video than you were supposed to back in the day. When we put our list together and started talking about players, you get on video and start watching them and have dialogue. We really like the path that he’s on.”
That conversation with Hockeysverige.se’s Ronnie Ronnqvist might sound familiar because I translated it for you a couple of weeks ago. It’s a good starting point in terms of getting to know him.
