Erik Johnson retired from the NHL in October and was almost headed to the Flyers’ front office. Instead, the 38-year-old took a one-year trial with, and now he is deep into his first year calling playoff hockey.

That is a quick turn for a player who spent 17 NHL seasons and only finished his career after parts of his final two seasons in Philadelphia. It also puts Johnson in a rare spot for a recent retiree: one of ’s primary color analysts, working rinkside and between the benches alongside play-by-play voice Bob Wischusen.

Johnson’s path to the booth started before he ever left the ice. He began calling local Colorado college hockey after moving into television work, then got a bigger push in 2024 when the NHL launched a new broadcast boot camp to teach players the basics of television and introduce them to local and national broadcasters and executives. NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Ashlyn Sullivan ran a seminar on becoming a rinkside analyst, and she noticed quickly that Johnson already understood the job. She said he always used her name when answering a question, stayed put until the interview ended and even kept giving time to the social media team and the broadcast when he was a healthy scratch or playing only a few minutes for the Flyers.

Sullivan said that kind of habit is not common. “I’m so grateful [the players] give us our time, period, but normally they just run off, which isn’t the best look on TV because you’re standing there awkwardly,” she said. Of Johnson, she added: “E.J. always would stay in place, stay put until we went to commercial break, and hold his gaze into the camera. I was like, ‘Who teaches you these things?’”

She said the fit was obvious from the start. “You just know with some players that they’re going to be good at this, and Erik was always that,” Sullivan said.

Johnson’s own account of the move explains how close he came to a different kind of post-playing career. He said Keith Jones reached out after hearing one of his games and told him, “Don’t do anything else. You’re right where you’re supposed to be.” Johnson said he could still have gone to work with the Flyers the next year if television did not suit him, and the club’s general manager Danny Brière and president Keith Jones were willing to wait.

That safety net never got used. Wischusen, who was paired with Johnson in January for ’s NHL coverage, said he and Johnson had never met before they were assigned to work together, but the chemistry showed almost immediately. “There was hardly any learning curve with him,” Wischusen said. He also said the two had enough easy back-and-forth to make the broadcasts feel loose. “We can goof on each other, and you very quickly realize that he’s someone that’s going to give it back as good as he gets, so we have laughs in that way,” Wischusen said.

For Johnson, the move from player to analyst has been almost immediate. He went from retirement in October to a television trial, then to national broadcasts, and now to the grind of playoff hockey. The front-office path is still there if he wants it. For now, though, he is proving something else: that a player can leave the ice and land on television before the season is even over.