In early July of 2017, the Washington Capitals had to go through a salary cap purge — especially after the re-signing of T.J. Oshie, Dmitry Orlov and Evgeny Kuznetsov. Sadly, Marcus Johansson was one of the purged.
Just hours after Kuznetsov signed an eight-year, $62.4 million dollar contract to stay in D.C., Johansson and his $4.58 million dollar cap hit was shipped to New Jersey for a second and a third-round pick. He found out about the news while back in Sweden.
After an injury plagued 2017-18 season where he played in just 29 games total, he played in three playoff games for the Devils in their first round series against the Lightning.