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The top ranked european goaltender by NHL Central Scouting, Sweden’s Filip Gustavsson has excelled at both the club level and on the international stage. Being in the Lulea system, hes mainly played at the J20 level (Sweden’s under 20 league), where he was named the league’s top goaltender this seaosn. Gustavsson also got in 10 games with the big club at the SHL level this year though, and put up a .910 save percentage, playing against men. On the international stage, he put up the best save percentage at the 2015 World Under 17 Hockey Challenge, helping Sweden to a bronze medal. Gustavsson also played for Sweden at the 2015 Ivan Hlinka, helping the team to a silver medal. He saved his best performance for the 2016 IIHF Under 18 World Championships, where he was named best goalie in the tournament, and once again took home the silver medal.He comes from good bloodlines, as his father was a defenceman for Skelleftea in the Swedish Second Division (at the time).
Filip Gustavsson Scouting Report: 2016 NHL Draft #49
Goaltender — shoots Left — catches Left
Born June 7 1998 — Skellefteå, Sweden
Height 6’2” — Weight 185 lbs [188 cm / 84 kg]
Filip Gustavsson has strong reflexes and plays a solid butterfly technique. He stays square to the shooter and gets in and out of his stance quickly and efficently. Quick legs take away the bottom of the net. He has a very good glove hand and blocker to take away the top portions as well. For such a young goaltender, Gustavsson’s rebound control is very good. That isn’t to say he does not need continued work, just that he is ahead of where most goaltenders are at 17-years old. Gustavsson has powerful legs, and gets side to side in his net extremely quickly. He tracks the puck well, though he does occasionally over-commit when moving from post-to-post. This is an area that should be fixable though.
Gustavsson shows poise and leadership in the face of adversity. He remains calm in the face of an onslaught of shots, something that regularly happened during the Under 17, and the Hlinka tournaments. The other quality teams in those tournaments were regularly out shooting the Swedes, but Gustavsson remained calm, and his teammates fed off of it as the tournaments went on. While every goalie will allow the occasional bad goal, he doesn’t let getting scored on bother him, and bounces back quickly to his normal high level of play.
Coming in at 6’2″ tall, Filip Gustavsson is a decent size, but at the lower end in terms of the goaltenders we see drafted highly in the NHL right now. What makes this a little bit more problematic though is that Gustavsson plays very deep in his crease. He prefers to stay back to defend against cross-ice passes, and dekes, but this means that shooters do see a bit more of the net coming down on him. He could also stand to fill out his frame, as he’s a bit skinny right now.
Gustavsson has the potential to be a high end goaltender in the NHL. While the size and sitting on the goal line is a bit of a concern, working with a good goalie coach can help him to play a little further out of the net, and maximize what size he does have. Gustavsson will be a long term project, but could develop into a franchise level goalie. His style is similar to fellow Swedish goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, however this is a stylistic comparison only, not one based on his skill and ability.
Check back tomorrow for the #50 prospect on our NHL Draft Board.
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