Last Saturday, the Tampa Bay Lightning signed 27-year-old goaltender Jonas Johansson to a two-year, $775,000 deal. The plan for him is to be a backup goaltender behind Andrei Vasilevskiy and replace former backup, Brian Elliott.
We have signed free agent goaltender Jonas Johansson to a two-year contract worth an AAV of $775,000.
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) July 1, 2023
📝: https://t.co/lkBeExcbTm pic.twitter.com/tDh1F0o7Ak
Johansson has played for the Florida Panthers, Buffalo Sabres and Colorado Avalanche in his six-year career thus far. During that time, he has played in 35 games with a record of 11-13-4. Johansson measures up at 6’5 as taller goaltenders have been worth taking a chance on.
He has a 3.32 goals against average for his career along with 770 career saves. He also has one shutout in his tenure that came in 2021 when he was with the Avalanche against the Anaheim Ducks.
The most notable thing about Johansson though is that this past season with the Avs was quite possibly his best. In 2022-23, he saved 68 out of 73 shots in two starts. So, he let up just five goals in two wins for Colorado. This led to him having the best save percentage of any of his six seasons in the NHL (.932).
He also had one of his best goals against averages in any of his six seasons last year (2.10). His best one was 2.06 in 2020-2021.
Johansson is also relatively fresh as he has played in five NHL games over the course of the last two seasons and played in just 26 games last year in the AHL with the Colorado Eagles.
The last NHL game he played in was back on March 27th against the Anaheim Ducks in the Honda Center. In that performance, he finished with 30 saves and let up one goal to Ducks center Derek Grant. He finished that game with a save percentage of .967.
If anything, this means well for his upcoming season in Tampa Bay. Johansson has been rested well and it seems like when he is rested well (like last season) he performs better. And since he is playing behind one of the best goaltenders in the league, he will have some extensive breaks between starts.
The Tampa Bay Lightning got a younger backup goaltender to replace Brian Elliott and the signing may do some good for them next season as Johansson can clearly produce some quality starts in his limited opportunities.