Lightning re-sign Jonas Johansson

With the need for draft preparation at a bare minimum Tampa Bay Lightning general manager, Julien BriseBois, is getting a start on free agency. After grasping a defenseman out of the European leagues yesterday, Mr. BriseBois stayed a little closer to home as he re-signed goaltender Jonas Johansson to a two-year contract with an average annual value of $1.25 million. Johnansson had spent the previous two seasons serving as Andrei Vasilevskiy’s back-up, and it appears he’ll continue that for another two years at least.

The 29-year-old netminder may have appeared in fewer games this season than he did in his inaugural season with the Lightning, but his stats improved year over year. In 19 games, he finished with a 9-6-3 record, 3.13 GAA, and .895 SV% while posting a 0.43 GSAx. In 2023-24 he appeared in 24 games, thanks mostly to a short stint as the number one goaltender to start the year, and posted a 12-7-5 record with a 3.37 GAA, .890 SV% and -7.90 GSAx. With 21 career wins in the blue and white he is tied for 13th place in Lightning franchise history.

While those numbers won’t likely get him into the hall of fame, they are in-line with what teams expect from a back-up. It’s especially true when the back-up plays behind a workhorse like Vasilevskiy, who led the league in appearances. Johansson would often go 10+ days between starts depending on the schedule and the quality of opponents the Lightning were playing. Those types of gaps can be hard for a goaltender due to the fact it’s impossible to replicate game-like conditions in practice and goalies tend to rely on timing to make their saves.

He did what the Lightning asked him to do, which is to keep them in the game. Tampa Bay was able to pick up 21 points in his starts, which is no small matter in a division as competitive as the Atlantic. Even in his losses, the Lightning were usually within one or two goals for the majority of the game.

He gave them league-average goaltending, which isn’t always the case with back-ups. There is a good chance that Mr. BriseBois took a look at what might be available on the free agent market this summer and decided that the devil he knew was better than the one he didn’t.

Johansson did struggle a bit with shots coming off of his left side, with wrist shots accounting for most of the red you see on the below chart.

That being said, his defense didn’t exactly help him out much throughout the year.

There is a lot more red in the slot on that top photo than on the bottom.

With the move, PuckPedia shows the Lightning with a projected $88,536,666 cap hit and 18 players under contract. That leaves them with $6,963,334 in space to pursue free agents and fill the remaining 3-5 roster spots.