Former No. 1 pick Erik Johnson almost quit hockey in 2021. Now, he’s a Stanley Cup champ nearing 1,000 games

Still wearing some of his gear after the Flyers’ morning skate last week in Tampa Bay, Erik Johnson looked around the visitors’ locker room inside the bowels of Amalie Arena.

“It’s actually fun being back in this locker room because this is where we won,” the defenseman said, showing off a few missing teeth on the top row.

The small room with white walls and light-colored wooden stalls looks quite different now than that late June 2022 day — it was “very wet” back then, he laughed. From the smile and pure joy on his face more than two years later, you could physically see the memory of that day envelop and transport him back to a moment he never thought would happen: becoming a Stanley Cup champion.

“I think the stars aligned and everything happened for a reason and we ended up winning that year. … Kind of crazy how things fall into place,” he said of achieving hockey’s greatest prize with the Colorado Avalanche.

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The next place Johnson will land is on the list of players — it currently consists of 402 — who have laced up their skates for 1,000 NHL games. The rugged defenseman is one away from becoming the 12th player to hit the mark from the 2006 draft class, in which Johnson was drafted No. 1 overall by the St. Louis Blues.

Although he’d much rather play 100 games and win a Stanley Cup than play 1,000 and never win one, Johnson knows that “to do both is kind of a mind-blowing thing I never expected.”

It’s even more mind-blowing because it wasn’t that long ago that Johnson almost quit hockey.

“Honestly it was a lot that had built up before that with injuries,” Johnson said. “I missed half the [pandemic] bubble, I had a high ankle sprain, and then before that, I had an MCL [injury], shoulder surgery, and a broken kneecap, all within like a year and a half.

“So, I was pretty mentally drained of just going through all that injury stuff that really slowed me down. It felt like it kept me from being as good as I could be and I was just kind of tired of not being at my best. And then the concussion came in that COVID-shortened year and I wasn’t doing very well.”

On Jan. 30, 2021, skating in the neutral zone against the Minnesota Wild, Johnson hit the red line and moved the puck down the boards. Within a flash he was crunched along the boards by Jordan Greenway and sent flying, coming down hard and hitting his head on the ice.

“I saw the hit that happened,” said Peggy Johnson, Erik’s mother. “I was like, oh my gosh, I really hope that he quits. Because as a parent, and especially through the injury-prone career that he had — and then especially that particular injury — it was like, is that worth it?”

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Flipping through the chapters of Johnson’s career, the list of injuries is almost as long as a CVS receipt. Among the injuries are a broken foot, a golf cart accident that left him with two torn knee ligaments before his sophomore season, shoulder surgeries, another knee surgery, lost teeth, and a broken finger. Across his 18-year career, he has never played a full NHL season.

“I needed a reset, and the concussion made me go through a kind of a full-body reset almost,” he said. “I ended up getting myself right but there were times where I just thought about walking away from the game just because I was so mentally drained from all the significant injuries that I had. It ended up kind of snowballing at that point.”

The blueliner reached out to his former Blues teammate Paul Kariya, whom Johnson lives near in Orange County during the offseason and dealt with concussions over his Hall of Fame career. Johnson wanted to see the doctor Kariya sought help from, Daniel Amen, a psychologist and one of the NFL’s leading post-concussion experts, who focuses on brain function and health.

“After going through that, I didn‘t think I was going to play again because based on what the scan told me and he told me. He said, ’Your brain doesn‘t look great, but I can probably scan over half the NHL and their brains wouldn’t look great,’” Johnson said.

The now 36-year-old wanted to return to the game he loves and began a program that included getting into a hyperbaric chamber three to five times a week for three months. Over time he started feeling better.

“My husband and I were like, ‘This is your life, this is your career, and we support you in that,’” said Peggy Johnson. “If you feel like you can continue to play, that’s what we want you to do. And that’s the year they won the Cup, and there was no injury.”

Because of his support system, from family to teammates like Avalanche stars Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog, Johnson felt he could suit up again. He returned to the Colorado lineup on Oct. 13, 2021, registering an assist in a 4-2 win against the Chicago Blackhawks.

“I just think I find the greatest comfort being on the ice. That’s kind of my happy place, even when I was a kid, so I just thought, this is what you love to do and if something’s going to happen it might as well be doing something that you love,” he said.

Peggy Johnson will tell you that at the beginning of her son’s hockey career, he told her, “I don’t know if I want to do this.“ But her strong-willed child hit his stride and ”took that energy and focused it all in something he loved.” Hockey became his passion. And while Erik Johnson loves what hockey has given him, he gives it right back.

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A veteran blueliner on a young Flyers squad, he had 18-year-old Jett Luchanko living with him — like Al MacInnis did for him in St. Louis. He jokes around with Matvei Michkov, keeping the 19-year-old loose, and is a mentor to the young defensemen on the Flyers like Emil Andrae.

But it also speaks to who he is because he’ll have thank-you gifts for his teammates when game No. 1,000 hits.

“It’s as much about the people around you as it is yourself going through it,” he said. When asked if it would be cigars, which he is known to indulge in, he wouldn’t reveal the gifts but said he doesn‘t discriminate against alcohol either. And, while he didn’t say it, you’d have to think there will surely be a gift for Brad Shaw. The Flyers associate coach was there for his first game as an assistant with St. Louis and will be there for his 1,000th.

“All the friendships and memories, I think, are the most important things when you look back at your time in the game,” Johnson said. “So, I think the biggest thing is, did you make a difference where you played and where you lived? Who did you impact? Who did you help? I think those are the biggest things that you want to be remembered for. … I think everything after that is secondary.”

Now on the precipice of a major milestone, one that shows resilience for any player let alone a guy who has gone through what he has, Johnson is comfortable taking a step back and looking at the journey.

“I just kind of pinch myself,” he said. “I think being a little kid, if you told me I was going to do all this, I’d sign up every day of the week.”

The journey has been long. He faced immense pressure early on after being the second American-born defenseman chosen No. 1 in the draft, after Bryan Berard in 1995. He struggled to find his game in St. Louis and was quickly traded to an Avalanche team struggling to refind its identity after years of success.

But in the high altitude, among the mountains, Johnson grew into a rugged defenseman — one of 13 players ever to compile both 1,500 hits and 1,500 blocked shots — and a leader on a team that rose from the ashes to win a Stanley Cup in 2022. In the twilight of his career, he is paying it all forward as a veteran mentor, first with the Buffalo Sabres and now with the Flyers.

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Johnson waited 791 regular season and 55 playoff games before being handed the trophy he dreamed of winning his whole life on that June day. He’ll be remembered for drinking Bloody Marys and wine out of the Cup — although, for the record, he said the wine didn’t taste very good out of the metallic bowl — and for bringing the treasured trophy to places like a fire station and a veterans’ hospital.

And now, with his name engraved into the silver cup, and another 209 regular-season games under his belt, he’ll get another piece of silver hardware — a silver stick etched with the commemoration of 1,000 games, as is NHL tradition.

In the end, Johnson is right, the stars certainly aligned.

“It was frustrating at times because there were a lot of serious significant [injuries] that slowed me down and made me feel like I wasn’t able to be at my best. But at the end of the day, I am still grateful for everything I’ve gotten in this game and my career,” he said.

“I feel very grateful and blessed to be able to do this for as long as I have and a lot of people in my corner supporting me and a lot of great friends and teammates I’ve learned from and definitely something I am grateful for and proud of. ”