"Each and every game, he made some plays like, 'Oh jeez,'" Siren said after the Blue Jackets selected Johnson fifth overall Friday night. "You watch him more and every game, he made great plays and got me out of my seat a couple of times."
The follow up question was obvious -- is that something that routinely happens during Siren's scouting trips?
"Not very often, but sometimes," he said with a laugh. "He has instincts, great hands, he can make plays, he can score. And he competes with the puck."
The skill is obvious when you watch highlights of Johnson, standing out on two plays in particular. When he was playing junior hockey with Trail of the BCHL, Johnson scored a "Michigan" goal, the lacrosse style flip that seems to be happening more and more as talented youngsters infiltrate the upper echelons of hockey, including the NHL.
Then, last year when he actually was a Wolverine, Johnson scored one of the highlight-reel goals of the season in college hockey in a game against Minnesota. After skating with speed from his own defensive zone past the blue line along the right wing, he cut to the middle of the ice, then quickly toe-dragged back to the right to deke past a Minnesota defender. Then, from a sharp angle, Johnson quickly roofed a shot past the helpless Gophers goalie with a flick of a backhand.
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Again, those are the things you can't teach, and Johnson has the creativity to consider such moves, the anticipation to do them in the right spot, and the skill to pull them off.
"Just from a young age, having fun out there, I think that helps with my creativity," Johnson said. "I think naturally I am just a creative kid, and my skills, I work on them a ton. I think it makes sense that they are good."
The numbers help bear that out, as Johnson has been pretty much impossible to stop each of the past two seasons. A bit of a late bloomer from North Vancouver, B.C., who went through the BCHL rather than the top-tier WHL, he was dominant two years ago with the Smoke Eaters, posting 101 points in 52 games to win the league scoring title by a full 30 points.
Last year at Michigan, it didn't take Johnson long to get his scoring touch down, as he finished with a 9-18-27 line in 26 games as a true freshman while getting better as the season went on.