After leading his hometown Terriers in goals in both his seasons with the club, Jeremy Johnson will be leaving Yorkton next fall for the collegiate ranks, joining the defending American College Hockey Association champion Minot State Beavers. Beavers head coach Wade Regier hailed the landing of the Yorkton product as "one of the hugest in the program's history," citing that Johnson is an "extremely underrated player who has been on our radar all season and has created a ripple throughout the SJHL and the collegiate ranks from landing him."
Johnson's goalscoring prowess is what led him to being a touted recruit at the ACHA and NCAA level as team's began to pursue him, something that coach Regier felt. "Obviously there was some intense competition for Jeremy and we knew that a lot of ACHA schools and NCAA D-III programs would also be offering him scholarships, but we felt that he was a player we needed to land and we couldn't be more excited in succeeding in recruiting him," says Regier.
The Beavers have a solid pipeline of SJHL alumni, with over ten former players playing on the squad yet it was the graduating Dan Lamb of Yorkton that first led the Beavers to Johnson as Lamb's dad, Gary was a Yorkton Harvest assistant coach and scout and through the Lamb family the Beavers coaching staff began to become aware of Johnson as a potential prospect. From there on in Regier kept an eye on Johnson, asking SJHL coaches that he has connections with about the extremely talented forward, and almost always getting the same positive review on a player that almost everyone refers to as a very underrated scoring talent with two 20 plus goal seasons under his belt.
"Talking to coaches around the SJHL, we began to realize that nearly every team considered Johnson as a player that was extremely hard to deal with and gameplan against, and that is the type of player that we want in our program," says Regier. That type of praise extended throughout the playoffs, where after some of the best individual performances in the SJHL playoffs, Johnson took his talents into the Western Canada Cup where once again he was one of the top goalscorers in the tournament. In total Johnson had 10 goals and 10 assists in all postseason competition for the Terriers and it is that nose for the goal in big moments that has Regier and the Beavers program so excited.
Johnson was the magic man for the Terriers on their road to the Canalta Cup, their first since 2005-06. Despite only scoring six goals, Johnson made them all impactful. Scoring a hat trick during Game One of the Sherwood Division Final against the rival Melville Millionaires at the Farrell Agencies Arena. After that game Johnson went the rest of the series and until Game Five of the Canalta Cup Final without a goal, a nine game stretch that was uncharacteristic for the dynamic goalscorer. Yet Johnson was the man in triple overtime of Game Five in Humboldt, tipping in a shot from the slot to send the Terriers back to the FAA for Game Six up 3-2. In the final game, Johnson was once again in front of the net to deflect in a Devon McMullen shot to give the Terriers the championship with less than a minute left. It is that type of clutch play that has Regier so high on his new recruit.
"Jeremy put together two years of really good regular season hockey, but when looking at a player you have to look past that at times as a guy can go on a run and deceive you with his numbers, but he has impressed us the most with the end to his career with his deep playoff run," says Regier. Regier referred to the forward as "battle tested" and that coming onto a team that was a national champion last year that getting a player who was a champion himself this year was an added bonus. "Every year I plan on contending for a national champions hip, and finally doing it after some runs at the National Tournament we expect to continue to push for national tiles every season and adding a player who played for a excellent team this season with great players will only help us come back strong after winning this year," says Regier.
The Beavers will be experiencing some turnover in the roster this season, losing around six top line forwards and a pair of defensemen due to graduation according to Regier. With that turnover in the lineup Regier is expecting Johnson to come in and contribute right away in a major way for the Beavers. "With top six forwards leaving our lineup we are expecting Johnson to feature on one of our top two forward lines as well as on the powerplay so we are definitely counting on him contributing right away to our program," says Regier.
That role will require Johnson adjusting to the US college game where he will go from veteran to rookie overnight. With older, bigger and faster players going into the talent pool Johnson will have to adjust to a college game that is often much quicker than the SJHL game, yet based on his skillset that is not a concern for Regier who mentions, "When you look at Jeremy's nose for the goal and his speed, I have no concerns he won't be able to come up and make an impact for us and gel with a team that is loaded with playmakers so being a pure goalscorer I think Jeremy can come in and be great."
Regier and the Beavers hope that getting Johnson will lure more SJHL players into an already deep pipeline of talent to the school from the league. For now the SJHL's third leading scorer is off to defend a national title as a freshmen.
