Prospect Rewind: Johnson had year of growth at Minnesota

Ryan Johnson (first round, 2019) believes he benefitted from a season of learning as a freshman at the University of Minnesota.

Johnson, 18, had to adjust to the physical rigors of playing college hockey while playing a key role on a young Gophers team. The Minnesota roster featured just three seniors while four of its top six scorers were sophomores or freshmen.

The team showed its youth early, including in a 9-3 loss at home to North Dakota on Nov. 28. But as the season progressed, Johnson saw those tough lessons breed a newfound maturity both in himself and his Gophers teammates.

Minnesota had won its three-game series against Notre Dame to open the Big 10 tournament by the time the season was halted in March.

"I think with Ryan, you just wanted him to transition into Minnesota and play his style of play, which is up-tempo, puck-moving defenseman," Sabres assistant manager Steve Greeley said. "I think if you went on a week-by-week basis, every week Ryan Johnson was improving at the University of Minnesota, which is exactly what we wanted to see.

"He's got a great situation now during this quarantine where he's at home and has training and is doing a great job. I think next year, we're going to see Ryan play an even larger role on what's likely an NCAA Tournament team. So, we're very pleased with the situation he's in."

Johnson caught up with Sabres.com to discuss his season.

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How would you characterize your freshman year?

"I thought it was a good season of growth. It was challenging at times, which was good. Playing against older guys was, I thought, good because it helped me adjust and helped me adapt to stronger players, more like NHL level where you're going to be playing against stronger guys than you. I thought that was good in the way that it was challenging and there is lots of room for growth."

Were the challenging aspects on a personal level, a team level, or both?

"I'd say it's both. For the team level, we're a young team all-around. So, we had a couple games where we kind of showed our youth and we didn't really play the way we want to. But by the end of the year, we were playing a lot better, a lot more team oriented. And on the personal level, I'd say the same thing, just kind of more mature. Becoming better every day, I think."

What did you learn from tough losses? The North Dakota game, for example.

"That game right there, that just showed that we were young and we didn't play the way we know we needed to. But I think it was also a really good lesson to learn. It just shows that in college it's a battle every weekend, so you have to prepare and be ready and take every weekend seriously. And all the preparation leading up to it, take it seriously."

How do you compensate while playing physically stronger competition?

"Well, growing up I was on the smaller side as well, so I've learned to kind of use my feet and my skating to avoid getting hit. I think that's still a big thing because you have guys a lot bigger taking runs at you. So, you have to beat them with your feet and think smartly too within the game. It makes you think a little more."

Is that the biggest adjustment coming from the USHL to college?

"Yeah, I think the strength. Guys spend so much more time training in the weight room. So, guys are stronger, guys are faster. I think that's definitely the biggest adjustment. The skill is pretty similar, but the strength, there's a difference there for sure."

How would you characterize the role you played this year?

"It was nice because the D coach played the younger guys a lot, so we were able to get a lot of shifts and able to be challenged on the ice. We're playing a lot of minutes and you're defending against these older guys, too. So, at times you could get stuck and you had to just be ready every shift because it was always a challenge. It was good in the end because it helped us grow and it's fun to play."

What were your interactions like with the Sabres development staff?

"It was awesome. A lot of them came up to the games. It felt like they were at almost every other weekend or maybe more, so it was nice to hear feedback from them. They're still in touch. They care about your development, so just having for instance [development coach Mike Komisarek] come out to the games and be able to give me feedback helps a lot. It was pretty cool."

Did you take anything from the development camp experience last summer and carry it into your season?

"Yeah. Just remembering seeing guys like [Victor] Olofsson out there and [Tage] Thompson, seeing the success Olofsson had after seeing how hard he worked and seeing his attitude on the ice, too. Seeing that and just kind of taking the example, knowing that guys from that development camp are playing in the NHL. I think it's pretty cool to think about that but also take an example from guys like Olofsson, just their training and how hard they work."

What did you gain from the experience of competing to make Team USA for World Juniors?

"It was tough not to make it. Being cut right before they traveled to Europe was tough. Obviously, I wanted to represent my country. But at the end of the day, it's just a learning lesson that you just constantly need to work. You never know what's going to happen. All you can control is how you respond to it and how hard you work. It definitely offered me some fuel for trying to make it this year and also the rest of my season after that."

Now that you know what to expect, do you have any specific areas of focus this summer?

"Yeah. I'm working on a lot of things. Obviously, it's a more lengthy summer than my last one, so I have a lot more time to work on things like my strength and stuff as well as my shot. That's a big part of the game, obviously. If you can just add a little more velocity to your shot or a little more accuracy, it can help you help the team a lot more because you can generate offense for them. So, I'm working on getting puck throughs, stuff like changing the angle and the velocity of my shot too."

By the numbers

37 -Johnson appeared in all 37 games for the Gophers as a freshman.

54 -Johnson's 54 shots ranked second among Gophers defensemen.

57 - Johnson ranked fourth on the Gophers with 57 blocked shots.