Ben Johnson, a native of Calumet, Michigan, showcased his hockey talent early on, playing for Calumet High School. He was recognized for his outstanding play during the 2010-11 season when he was named Michigan's Mr. Hockey. Only three juniors have won Michigan's prestigious "Mr. Hockey" award as the top high school player in the state: Former Detroit Red Wings forward Justin Abdelkader (2004, Mona Shores High School, Muskegon) and Ben Johnson (2011, Calumet), who shared the award with Gerald Mayhew (2011, Maple Grove in Brownstown). Johnson had 37 goals and 77 points in 30 games with the Calumet Copper Kings, a nickname tied to the region's copper mining history.
Calumet Colosseum, home of the Calumet Copper Kings
Early Career and OHL Stint
With the 2011-12 season, Johnson joined the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League. After going his first 23 games with the Spitfires without a goal in 2012, he finished with 18 goals and was drafted by the Eastern Conference champion Devils, who had just advanced to the Stanley Cup final before losing to the Los Angeles Kings. After scoring 66 goals with 128 points in 191 OHL games with the Spitfires and Belleville Bulls, he averaged nearly a point per game (143 points in 182 ECHL games) with Adirondack, Orlando, Cincinnati and Kansas City.
"The first thing that got me hooked on hockey was seeing Steve Yzerman and Nicklas Lidstrom winning the Stanley Cups," Johnson said. "They literally raised the spirits of my uncles, my great uncles. All of us were watching. It was amazing what hockey could do to a culture. That's what I wanted to try to do."
AHL and ECHL Career
On April 3, 2014, Johnson signed an amateur tryout contract with the Albany Devils, and played five games with the AHL team near the end of the 2013-14 season.
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Following a two-season stint with the Cyclones, Johnson sat out for the COVID-19 pandemic affected 2020-21 season.
ECHL Player of the Week
Cincinnati, OH- The Cincinnati Cyclones, in conjunction with the ECHL, have announced that Cyclones forward Ben Johnson has been named the Inglasco ECHL Player of the Week for the week of December 9-15. Johnson started his week off with a goal and the game-tying assist in Wednesday’s 3-2, come-from-behind overtime win over the Kalamazoo Wings. Drafted by the New Jersey Devils in the third round of the 2012 National Hockey League (NHL) Entry Draft, Johnson is on a five-game point streak, totaling five goals and five assists in that time, and he is second on the Cyclones in scoring with 11 goals and 14 assists for 25 points.
Legal Issues and Conviction
Johnson was on a direct path to the NHL until St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 2013. It was the final day of the OHL season and the Spitfires had just lost 4-0 against the Plymouth Whalers (now the Flint Firebirds) and missed the playoffs. Johnson, who was 18 at the time, joined teammates for an end-of-season gathering at the now-defunct Mynt nightclub in downtown Windsor. In March 2013, Johnson was charged with two counts of sexual assault in connection with two separate incidents that allegedly took place in Windsor. The first occurred against a 16-year-old girl in the washroom of Mynt nightclub during the Spitfires' end of season St. Patrick's Day party. Johnson forced her to perform oral sex in a bathroom stall while she was intoxicated before he raped her, causing vaginal bleeding. During the course of the investigation, a second woman, aged 20, came forward and told police that she had also been sexually assaulted by Johnson in the washroom of a second bar weeks prior, although Johnson was charged not guilty. Charged with sexual assault in 2013, Johnson was found guilty at age 21 in September 2016. Hours after the guilty verdict was delivered, the Devils started the process of terminating his contract.
Johnson was sentenced to three years in prison for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl who was intoxicated in the bathroom stall of a Windsor nightclub. Released in Watertown, New York, in 2018, after serving one month in a Windsor jail and 12 months in a jail in Kingston, Ontario, Johnson is now 31, out of work and says he's "better, stronger, faster" than when he was a member of the Windsor Spitfires in the Ontario Hockey League and drafted in the third round by the New Jersey Devils in 2012.
In 2017, I went to prison for things that were alleged to have happened," Johnson wrote on Instagram last week. "I’ve already served 13 months in Canadian custody for such damaging accusations. By grace, I came out with a message to proclaim."
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It’s important to note. I’m not justifying my actions from that night, but on the contrary, God promises to use our former lostness. When people slander our name, and harm us, He promises to use it for our benefit. He changes our heart’s desires.
OHL: Ben Johnson
Finding Faith in Prison
By his own admission, Johnson said he wasn't "chasing after Jesus when I was going into the nightclubs." Baptized as a child at First Apostolic Lutheran Church in Howell, he said he rediscovered faith in a Windsor jail on Nov. 21, 2017.
"I had just lost my appeal with the (Ontario) Court of Appeal," Johnson said. "A whole new sense of anxiety and fear overcame me. I was in this suicidal cell area called the bucket, away from the general population because they thought I was so mentally unfit."
"I was weeping uncontrollably and I thought, 'What's going on in my life?' That's when I saw a book on the floor and on the cover it said, 'Redemption.' I started reading Genesis 37 and all of a sudden, I really understood that this book is alive and powerful. ... "Obviously, it would be an amazing thing to play in the NHL. That would be a dream come true. But my biggest message is that the greatest dream that ever could happen is that I have a real relationship with Jesus Christ."
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Seeking a Second Chance
He's 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds, living in Minneapolis with his wife and two daughters, hoping "for one GM to take a chance on me," he told The Detroit News. His agent, Thorsten Wirth of Five Hole Sports Agency in Germany, has made European connections and Johnson has contacted at least three NHL teams, and minor-league teams in the American Hockey League and ECHL.
"I've really done my homework as far as trying to get in contact with as many people as I can," Johnson said. "I'm trying to get my name out there. There's always an opportunity to go back to Slovakia again or potentially Germany, but there's an urgency now. Time is sensitive here in America."
Out of jail for seven years, Michigan native Ben Johnson said he's "learned lessons the hard way" and seeks a second chance to play in the National Hockey League.
"I really think I can play in the NHL today," said Johnson, a forward who had 34 points in 39 games in Slovakia last year with HK Dukla Michalovce and HK Spisska Nova Ves.
"My speed is still where it should be, my shot has gotten better. I don't want to sell myself because it sounds kind of foolish. I just want that opportunity, the open door to play and just show that I can be an impact player. I've gotten way better at hockey because of these storms in my life."
NHL's Response
The NHL doesn't have a specific policy for handling sexual assault cases or convictions, but commissioner Gary Bettman addresses them on a case-by-case basis, guided by a clause in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, (CBA) related to a personal conduct policy. The league may suspend a player pending a formal review if their failure to suspend would "create a substantial risk of material harm to the legitimate interests and/or reputation of the league." Contacted by The News about Johnson's case, the league declined comment.
In 1995, the Pittsburgh Penguins signed forward Billy Tibbetts after he served 2½ years in prison. Tibbetts pleaded guilty to raping a 15-year-old girl in 1994 at an outdoor drinking party in Scituate, Mass. While on probation for the rape case, he was convicted of assault and battery in a separate incident and sentenced to jail. Tibbetts played three years in the NHL with two goals in 82 games with the Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers.
Adirondack Thunder Incident
The coaching staff of the ECHL Adirondack Thunder, an affiliate of the NHL Devils, agreed to sign Johnson on Nov. 18, 2025, but Adirondack ownership released Johnson less than 24 hours later after social media backlash.
Criticism of the NHL
Johnson has also been critical of the NHL as he looks to write a new chapter in his hockey career.
"When I look at the NHL, I see a league that has the image of unity and all inclusive but when I take a peek underneath the surface, what I really see is a league that is pro cancel and pro silencing," he wrote on Instagram last week.
"It's something that is affecting me, my wife and kids personally because the NHL has closed the door on my opportunity to continue to chase down my dream of playing in the NHL one day and they closed the opportunity to make a paycheck in America playing hockey."
Johnson knows his next chapter may be written in Slovakia, but he hasn't given up hope.
"I'm just trying to play hockey in America," Johnson said. "People are saying, 'No Ben, you can't. You're not allowed, basically, is the way I'm getting it. You've been canceled."
"When I got drafted at the young age that I did, I was not even close to being ready mentally, spiritually, physically, all these things. But I am now.
