Seattle retains 50 percent of Johansson's $1.5 million salary for this season. The 31-year-old Johansson will become an unrestricted free agent at season's end.
With the Kraken this season, Johansson has six goals and 23 points in 51 games, ranking eighth on the team in scoring. Johansson is averaging 16:35 in ice time for the Kraken, a low-scoring club which ranks 30th in the NHL in goals scored. Three of his six goals have come on the power play this season; he averages 2:37 per game in power play ice time, fourth among all Kraken skaters.
Johansson cracked the Caps' lineup in his first season in North America, learning he made the team's opening night roster for the 2010-11 season on his 20th birthday (Oct. 6, 2010) and making his debut on opening night in Atlanta two nights later. Johansson scored his first NHL goal against Boston's Tim Thomas on Oct. 19, 2010.
As he developed, Johansson became a solid middle six forward who was capable of playing center or on either wing. He is a strong two-way player who is adept on the forecheck, and who is capable of contributing on both special teams.
Over seven seasons with the Capitals, Johansson skated in 501 games and totaled 102 goals and 290 points before being dealt to New Jersey for a second-round pick - which the Caps used to select Martin Fehervary - and a third-round pick, both in the 2018 Draft. His best NHL season was 2016-17, his final season in Washington, when he racked up 24 goals and 58 points, both of which remain career highs. Each of Johansson's two 20-goal seasons in the NHL was achieved in Washington; he scored 20 goals in 2014-15.
Since departing the District, Johansson has toiled for the Devils, the Bruins, the Sabres, the Wild and the Kraken, playing 77 or fewer games at each stop. With Boston, Johansson reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2019, and he totaled four goals and 11 points in 22 postseason games with the Bruins during their playoff run that spring. Over the course of his 12-year NHL career, Johansson has totaled 141 goals and 260 assists for 401 points in 735 career games.
After being obtained from Anaheim in exchange for defenseman Christian Djoos at the 2020 NHL trade deadline (Feb. 24, 2020), Sprong spent the last two seasons with the Capitals. Sprong totaled 21 goals and 34 points in his 89-game tour of duty with the Capitals, with all his goals and points coming at even strength.
After totaling 13 goals and 20 points in 42 games with Washington last season, Sprong's shooting percentage and his production dipped this season, despite an uptick in ice time from 11:40 per game last season to 12:45 in 2021-22. He fell to eight goals and 14 points in 47 games this season. Sprong had been scratched for eight of Washington's last 13 games, and he had just one assist in his last nine games here this season.
Originally a second-round pick (46th overall) of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2015 NHL Draft, the 25-year-old Sprong has 40 goals and 64 points in 186 games with the Penguins, Ducks and Capitals. He will become a restricted free agent with arbitration rights at season's end.
