Rather ironically, I’d been thinking about Grand Rapids Griffins-contracted Hunter Johannes last night, and this morning, Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff posted a subscriber-only profile of the 26-year-old winger.
I’m not certain whether Johannes qualifies as a prospect per se, but he stands at 6’3″ and 228 pounds, and the University of North Dakota graduate is still an intriguing late-bloomer.
As Duff notes, there isn’t a whole lot of runway for Johannes to utilize to develop into a late-late-developing NHL prospect, but power forwards don’t grow on trees:
“He’s a big power forward can put the puck in the net,” Detroit prospect Amadeus Lombardi said. “I love playing with those guys. They made it really easy for me to do my thing.”
Let’s be honest here for a moment. That growth isn’t going to happen overnight. Johannes is at best a long-range hope. Realistically, he’s also a longshot to be an NHLer. And yet the things he can deliver between the boards are always coveted in the NHL and in short supply with Detroit.
Those qualities alone are leading to intrigue regarding what he could become.
“What I like about him is he put a lot of work in the offseason,” Griffins coach Dan Watson said. “I know that for a fact. He was in Detroit most of the summer. “His skating has certainly improved and he’s able to get on the forecheck and he’s not scared of the physicality. He gets in there. He’s going to be aggressive along the walls. He’s going to be able to get pucks out. He’s got more skill than people probably give him credit for.”
Continued; as Duff suggests, it’s more likely that Johannes goes on to have a prolific AHL career than a meaningfully-productive NHL’er…
But even if he develops into a player that can be called up from time to time to play reliably physical hockey with a skillful edge, that’s not a bad outcome.
For Johannes, there’s still time to develop into that kind of player, and anything else is gravy.
