Whatever Happened to Former Maple Leaf Andreas Johnsson?

Every now and then, a former Maple Leaf player pops into my hockey radar, and I have to stop and wonder what happened to him. Andreas Johnsson is one of those players. The Maple Leafs found him way down in the 2013 NHL Draft, taking the speedy Swedish winger in the seventh round, 202nd overall. He came over to North America, tore it up with the Marlies and was part of the 2018 Calder Cup championship team. For a seventh-round pick, things were looking pretty good.

Johnsson, with Kasperi Kapanen, became a regular with the team.

Johnsson eventually became a regular in Toronto and had his best NHL season in 2018-19, scoring 20 goals and 43 points. He had speed, could get to the net and looked like the kind of secondary scorer every good team needs. But things changed pretty quickly after that. Toronto traded him to New Jersey in 2020, and his NHL career took a bit of a turn. He later ended up in San Jose as part of the Timo Meier trade, then had a very short and uneventful stop with Pittsburgh. In fact, that one ended almost immediately when Johnsson asked for his release. At that point, the NHL chapter of his career was basically over.

In November 2023, Johnsson went home to Sweden and signed with Skellefteå AIK in the SHL. And it turns out that was a good move. He helped Skellefteå win the Swedish championship in 2023-24, although the following season was a frustrating one. Injuries limited him, his speed wasn't quite the same, and his production dropped. That happens to a lot of players who depend on their legs and suddenly can't rely on them the way they once did.

Johnsson had a bounce-back season last year.

The good news is that Johnsson bounced back in 2025-26. He scored 13 goals and 25 points in 52 regular-season games, then added 11 points in 15 playoff games as Skellefteå won the championship again. One of the more memorable moments came in the playoffs when Johnsson scored the overtime winner in what became the longest playoff game in SHL history, lasting more than two hours. Not a bad time to remind everybody that the old speedster still had something left.

Johnsson is now 31, under contract with Skellefteå through the 2026-27 season and playing alongside his brother Jonathan. That's a pretty nice second chapter for a player who once looked like a very useful part of the Maple Leafs' future. He didn't turn into a long-term NHL star, but he did get to play for his home country again, win two Swedish championships and find a place where he seems comfortable and productive.

Sometimes a hockey career doesn't follow the path we expected. For Andreas Johnsson, the road back home seems to have worked out pretty well.