Maple Leafs Prospect Turns Heads at WJSS

You know, there's a saying that if an NHL team desires young, promising talent on their blueline, they should look no further than the country of Sweden to go looking for them. 

Perhaps it's the bitter cold Nordic wind that helps keep local lakes and ponds frozen, that's helped fuel some of hockey's best defencemen. From Borje Salming to Nicklas Lidstrom to Erik Karlsson, and now Rasmus Dahlin, Sweden has and continues to produce some of hockey's most renowned defencemen. 

Amid these careers, the Swedish churning mill of blueliners has produced several highly touted defence prospects, such as 2023 Detroit Red Wings first-round pick Axel Sandin-Pellikka. Underneath Sandin Pellikka and other well-known Swedish defence prospects, such as San Jose Sharks 2024 second-rounder Leo Sahlin Wallenius, lies a late-round pick who just turned heads at this year's World Junior Summer Showcase.

With their second pick of the 2024 NHL draft, the Toronto Maple Leafs selected Victor Johansson in the fourth round with the 120th pick, who's emerging as a possible successor to Rasmus Sandin, the Leafs' last Swedish defence draft pick, as their next promising blueliner from the country.

A month after partaking in Maple Leafs development camp this summer, Johansson was invited to represent Sweden at the Summer Showcase, where his poise and confidence with the puck throughout the tournament were on full display. Something he challenged himself to improve on after being drafted. 

"My offensive side," said Johansson on where his game has improved. "Toronto saw me as a defensive defender, when they drafted me, and after my draft year I dared to (make) alot more plays."

Johansson wasn't bluffing when he talked about taking his offensive game to the next level, as he was one of the standout players at this year's tournament, where he produced arguably the tournament's best highlight reel. The Linköping, Sweden, native's lengthy frame of 6-foot-1 and 165 pounds allows him to be incredibly shifty with the puck on his stick, causing defenders to go one way while he's off to the other. 

Whether it was on purpose or not for Johansson to use the word "dare" when describing how he was going to challenge himself offensively, the plays he made were just that: daring. Throughout the tournament, Johansson frequently carried the puck from his own zone as the last man back, going end to end to create dangerous opportunities for himself or his teammates. One of the more eye-popping plays he made that showed off his skill set was during the Sweden vs. Team USA game, where he rushed the puck up ice while deking out not one, not two, but three American players to eventually carry the puck into the opposing team's end.