Penguins forward Marc Johnstone has ‘the greatest job in the world’
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Only one of Sidney Crosby’s current teammates on the Pittsburgh Penguins can say he was present for Crosby’s NHL debut nearly two decades ago.
Marc Johnstone.
He was 9.
A native of Cranford, N.J., Stone went to Crosby’s first NHL game, a 5-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford on Oct. 5, 2005, as a fan of the home team.
Loyal to the Devils, Johnstone and others were rooting for another rookie making his debut that night, Devils forward Zach Parise, himself a future All-Star.
“Everybody was chanting ‘Parise’s better!’ ” Johnstone said. “But that one didn’t turn out to be true.”
What has been true is Johnstone’s determination in his path that led to him becoming an NHL player and Crosby’s teammate.
Johnstone, at the ripe vintage of 27 years of age, made his NHL debut Friday in a 3-1 road loss to the Florida Panthers. Primarily deployed on the fourth line, the 6-foot-1, 181-pound Johnstone logged 7 minutes, 19 seconds on 10 shifts.
Chances are not many people are going to spin yarns about being at Johnstone’s first NHL game. But that doesn’t invalidate what it took for him to reach the terminus of an arduous trek as a hockey player.
Especially for him.
“It hasn’t fully hit me yet,” Johnstone said Sunday at PPG Paints Arena. “I’m still just trying to enjoy the moment and trying to live in the present. In a few days, I’ll take a step back and completely think about it.”
A lot of things come from New Jersey. Not all of them are good, and not many of them are hockey players.
In the league’s first 105 seasons, only 27 players from New Jersey have appeared in an NHL game. Though, this season, 10 players hail from the Garden State, and the Penguins have two of them in Johnstone and Drew O’Connor, a native of Chatham, N.J.
“With Drew and (Buffalo Sabres defenseman) Connor Clifton, we skate together over the summers,” Johnstone said. “There’s a lot of good players coming up. … Learning from them over the summers, just seeing their habits and all of the work that they’ve put in, it’s just been awesome to see.”
Coming up with the New Jersey Rockets and North Jersey Avalanche youth programs, Johnstone, who listed Devils All-Star forward Patrik Elias as his favorite player as a kid, played at the high school level for Saint Joseph, a Catholic prep school in Metuchen, N.J.
After graduating in 2015, Johnstone spent two years with the Chicago Steel of the United States Hockey League. During the 2016-17 campaign, he served as the Steel’s captain and led the team to the league’s championship, the Clark Cup.
That success led him to Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn. That school did not begin playing at the Division I level until 1998-99 and has produced only two NHL players: Johnstone and Columbus Blue Jackets forward Justin Danforth.
Johnstone spent four seasons with the Pioneers, including his junior and senior campaigns as captain.
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“We kind of changed the culture there,” Johnstone said. “We turned it into more of a winning program. … I just owe a lot to that place as well. They trusted me. They believed in me before a lot of people did.”
In the spring after his senior season of 2020-21, Johnstone signed with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays but didn’t last long there, appearing in only five games and recording two assists.
His agent, John Kofi Osei-Tutu, went to work and got Johnstone a new ECHL deal with the Newfoundland Growlers.
“My agent did a great job of reaching out to teams,” Johnstone said. “He came to me with a few right after school. The next year, he came to me with a few more and we ended up in Newfoundland. That was just a dream come true. A great organization, a great coaching staff, great veterans to teach me the pro game. Just from there, I’ve taken their habits and kind of made them my own.”
During the 2021-22 season, Johnstone posted 21 points (seven goals, 14 assists) in 58 games and showed enough to earn an American Hockey League contract for the 2022-23 campaign with the Toronto Marlies, who, like the Growlers, are an affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Last season, Johnstone scored 22 points (nine goals, 13 assists) in 69 games with the Marlies and became something of a favorite of former Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas.
“The Toronto experience was awesome,” Johnstone said. “It was just a lot of my hard work and not taking any shifts off. I’ve got to continue to do what got me here. It’s just playing physical, playing hard and playing every shift like it’s your last and not taking anything for granted. I’ve just got to continue those habits and, hopefully, I can stay here for a little bit.”
In this case, “here” is the Penguins.
After Dubas was fired by the Maple Leafs and hired by the Penguins as president of hockey operations this past offseason, he splurged on several veteran minor leaguers, including Johnstone, in hopes of making the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins a more competitive outfit.
The right-handed Johnstone signed an NHL contract for the first time July 2, agreeing to a two-year, two-way deal that carries a salary cap hit of $775,000.
“That was awesome,” Johnstone said of getting an NHL contract for the first time. “You don’t know or think it’s coming. But when it did, it was a great moment for me and my family. I got the phone call when I was with my dad (Thomas), so that was a pretty special moment for us.”
Assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton out of training camp, Johnstone appeared in 21 games for the AHL Penguins and scored five points (two goals, three assists) before being recalled to the NHL club Dec. 8 when injuries ravaged the ranks of the incumbent forwards.
“It’s incredible how far he’s come,” said Penguins rookie forward Jonathan Gruden, who was recalled to the NHL roster the same day. “It kind of gives you goosebumps a little bit. Just an unbelievable player and an even better person. Couldn’t happen to a better guy.”
Or a more determined guy.
With an economics degree from Sacred Heart, Johnstone has professional options beyond playing hockey. And a lot of other players at this stage of life might have decided to move on to something else than striving for the NHL.
What has kept him on this path?
“I mean, it’s the greatest job in the world to wake up and play the game that you love,” Johnstone said. “Any day that I have the opportunity to play (and) put the skates on, it’s just the best thing you can do. I didn’t want to do anything else. I just stuck with it.”
A healthy scratch for the past two games, a second career game is far from guaranteed.
But the opportunity remains. And that isn’t lost on Johnstone.
“It’s just what you dream about.”