Stars praise rookie Johnston's 'special hockey mind'
The Dallas Stars have gotten key contributions from several players during their run to the Western Conference Final, but no one is turning heads quite like rookie center Wyatt Johnston.
Johnston impressed during the regular season with with 24 goals and recently introduced himself on the biggest stage with a showstopping game-winning tally against the Seattle Kraken in Game 7.
"Special hockey mind," head coach Pete DeBoer told The Athletic's Saad Yousuf. "He just gets it. ... We've done very little individual video with him because it always seems like he's put himself in the right spot on the ice and the right spot within our system. He's special that way."
Johnston was the 23rd overall pick in 2021. He missed an entire season of junior hockey due to the pandemic and wasn't projected to make Dallas' roster out of training camp last fall.
"I had no expectations," DeBoer said. "I haven't had a player that young step into the lineup and contribute at this level in my 15 years in the league. Really not anyone even close to being ready to do that. My expectations were small. It was, 'Let's give him a look and set him up to try to have success in training camp and see how long it lasts.' And he took that, and here we are today."
Johnston has registered four goals and two assists in 13 playoff contests and has seen his ice time jump to 17:14 per game from 15:29 in the regular season. He's anchoring a line with veterans Jamie Benn and Evgenii Dadonov and has drawn rave reviews from Dallas' captain.
"His mindset coming into training camp was that he was going to earn a spot on this team and not be denied," Benn said. "You could kind of tell right from Day 1 that this kid was pretty focused, pretty dialed in, knew that if he worked hard and played with his confidence and played the way he knew he could, he would be here. That's exactly what he did."
Johnston and the Stars will begin their conference final against the Golden Knights on Friday night in Vegas.