Stars’ Wyatt Johnston Is the Next Auston Matthews

The Stars have a lot of scorers with eight skaters scoring 20 goals or more this season. Yet Johnston stands out. He led the team with 32 goals this season and has a team-high seven in the playoffs. It would be no surprise if Johnston won the Conn Smythe and it would be a defining moment in a season that put him on the map.

Johnston’s Rise to Stardom

What makes Johnston’s path more impressive is that he wasn’t a highly regarded prospect and wasn’t expected to become the next great forward. His draft profile was underwhelming. Case in point, below are some of the critiques of Johnston’s style and some of the issues he had courtesy of The Hockey Writers (THW) draft profiles.

“Johnston likely isn’t a player that is going to come into the NHL and be a star, but he looks like a player that can fill a role many teams need to fill, a physical player in the bottom six that can do the little things. He won’t set the world on fire with his scoring ability or his skating, but he will go to the front of the net and screen the goalie for a shot from the point, he will block a shot or lay a hit when needed, and he will make plays that help your team win the game. Nothing overly special, but an important cog in the machine.”

The projection was a bottom-six forward who could play well at both ends of the ice but without great speed, an effective shot, or puck-handling, he wasn’t going to be a great player on the offensive end of the ice. At least that’s what it looked like as he concluded the 2020-21 season, one where he wasn’t able to play in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Stars were betting on his upside and taking a risk on a player who sat out the 2020-21 season when they selected him with the 23rd overall pick in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft. Johnston was one of the many players to miss that season but while he lacked the playing experience, the talent was still there. They also banked on their farm system and the veterans on the roster who could help him out. Jamie Benn, Joe Pavelski, and Tyler Seguin are all in their late 30s and still playing at a high level, making them ideal skaters for Johnston to learn from.

That’s what happened. After developing with the Windsor Spitfires in the OHL for the 2021-22 season, he joined the Stars and became one of their top scorers almost immediately. He played all 82 games in his rookie season and scored 24 goals while adding 17 assists.

Like Matthews, Johnston Knows Where to Find Goals

Elite scorers know how to find the back of the net. They know where the open ice is and how to take advantage. From instincts to luck, they are in the right place at the right time and finish scoring chances.

Johnston and Matthews are no exception. They often play the slot and the dirty areas and wait for the puck to find them either off a pass or a rebound near the net. It’s where they score most of their goals. NHL Edge tracked all 32 of Johnston’s goals this season, and 23 of them came from the slot.

Johnston has the size and physicality to score near the net. That said, he’s more than just a finisher. That’s what separates him from the other great scorers in the NHL, the others who can easily be tagged as lazy for their desire to wait by the net for the puck to come their way.

Johnston is a Complete Scorer

The other great attribute that stands out is Johnston’s shot. When provided an open look, he can fire the puck to the back of the net from just about anywhere in the offensive zone. It’s something that has become notable in this year’s playoffs, particularly with a few of his big-time goals coming on one-timers or off of quick passes.

Johnston also wins with speed and his quick movements to the net. His puck handling, an area he needed to improve when he was a prospect, has allowed him to find open shots and navigate past the defense. On top of that, he sets up the other skaters on his line and makes the offense better by being on the ice. Along with 32 goals, he had 33 assists and made an impact on both top-six lines throughout the season.

The bottom line is that Johnston can do it all. He has the size to play a harder-hitting game but also the speed to separate himself from opposing skaters. Likewise, he can score and impact the offense in multiple ways and for the Stars, that’s the type of skater they need for a deep playoff run.

Why Johnston Is the Next Generational Scorer

There are a lot of great young talents in the NHL. Johnston is the one who has already proven he can consistently find the back of the net not just in an 82-game season but in the playoffs as well. Some scorers fall into droughts and then go on a heater for a week or two but Johnston is a constant threat to find the back of the net and take over a game.

At 21 years old, Johnston still has a lot of hockey left and the sky is the limit. He’s on pace to eclipse the 100-goal milestone by the end of his fourth season and likewise, put together a remarkable career. Matthews was close to scoring 70 goals in a season but came up just short and while it seems impossible for a skater to reach the 70-goal milestone in the modern game, Johnston could be the one who does it.

Tage Thompson is another extraordinary scorer with a shot that allows him to pile up the goals and Connor McDavid is the best player in the game and always capable of breaking any record that focuses on offense. On the younger side, Seth Jarvis is another player that is taking the league by storm while Juraj Slafkovsky is 19 years old and coming off a 20-goal season and Connor Bedard is the next generational talent. That said, Johnston is the young scorer who only seems to get better each season. As he continues to improve, his ceiling as a scorer will only go up.

For now, the only thing that matters for Johnston is his impact on the playoff games and so far, he’s helping the Stars with just that. In Game 7 of the first round, he scored the first goal to allow the Stars to beat the Vegas Golden Knights 2-1. It’s possible if not probable that he’ll do something that Matthews has yet to do, which is hoist the Stanley Cup.