Before the 2015 NHL draft, USA Hockey’s Jim Johannson predicted Zach Werenski would have as big an impact on an NHL team as the top players in the draft.
He was the first person to mention Auston Matthews’ name to me, months before the hockey world knew he was on his way to stardom. In 2012, Johannson told me about Phil Housley’s impressive potential as a coach. It was several months before Housley coached the USA to the gold medal at the World Junior Championships and five years before the Buffalo Sabres hired him.
“He had his finger on the pulse of everything that was going on in the hockey world,” USA Hockey’s executive director Pat Kelleher said.