Victor Johansson was drafted 120th overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs

With their fourth-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, the Maple Leafs selected 6-foot-1, 140-pound left-handed defenseman Victor Johansson out of the Swedish junior league (Leksand).

After years of spending their limited draft capital on forwards or goalies, the Leafs have dedicated their first two picks in this draft to the blue line. From 2021 to 2023, the Leafs made 11 draft picks and used just one, last year’s sixth-rounder, on defense. So far this season, they have spent both picks – Ben Danford last night and Victor Johansson today – on defense. The prospect pool needed to be replenished on the back end, and that’s what the Leafs draft team is doing.

The information about Johansson is quite limited at first glance. Johansson’s birthday is at the end of April 2006 and he comes from a hockey family. His father, Thomas, was a defender who played in various Swedish leagues for almost twenty years and was quite good. Although he never came to North America, Johansson represented Sweden several times at the IIHF World Championships, winning bronze in 1999 and 2002 on teams with then or future NHLers Markus Naslund, Daniel Alfredsson, Henrik Zetterberg, Kristian Huselius and Michael Nylander . . His brother, Simon, was a fifth-round pick in 2018 and is now in the AHL, while his other brother, Anton, was a fourth-rounder for Detroit in 2022 and played in the SHL. He is also listed as a cousin of NHL centerman Alex Wennberg on Elite Prospects.

As for Victor himself, he stands 6-foot-5 and weighs a paltry 130 pounds, so you’d imagine adding strength and filling out his body will be a big part of his development process. He is a left-handed shooter and played last season in the under-20 junior league with Leksands IF, where he played in 34 games and scored two goals and six assists for eight points. Johansson also played five playoff games and added an assist, racking up 22 penalty minutes.

Victor Johansson provisional ranking:

• not ranked by public scouting services

Victor Johansson Statistics