Winnipeg Jets: Keep an Eye on Prospect David Gustafsson
Our newest prospect report comes from Sweden, where Winnipeg Jets loanee David Gustafsson is doing extremely well in early season play.
Back in late August, the Winnipeg Jets announced they loaned David Gustafsson to his hometown professional hockey team, Tingsryds AIF. The loan deal does include a clause that allows Gustafsson to return to the Jets for the start of the next season. Many people were happy with this move that allowed one of the Jets’ top prospect to get some much needed gametime before the 2021 season.
Gustafsson had an interesting 2019-2020 campaign. He started the season with the Jets playing in 22 games, but only registered one point and averaged a bleak six minutes and nine seconds of time on ice per game. In the middle of the year, the Jets allowed Gustafsson to represent Sweden at the 2020 World Junior Championships. While earning a bronze medal for his country, Gustafsson picked up an injury at the prestigious tournament.
After recovering from his knock, Gustafsson was sent to the AHL to finish out the season with the Manitoba Moose. He finished the season with two goals and five assists in 13 games played. Gustafsson’s year went in a full circle he was named to Jets postseason roster. Unfortunately, he did not play in any postseason games.
With all of that in the past, Gustaffson is now turning heads with his performances for Tingsryds AIF in Sweden.
Tingsryds (or TIAF for short) compete in HockeyAllsvenskan, which is the second tier in the Swedish hockey pyramid. It is an extremely competitive league with many current NHL players, prospects and draft picks who currently apply their trade for teams around this league in anticipation for the upcoming NHL season.
In his short time so far with TAIF, the former second round pick in the 2018 NHL Entry draft, has played in 13 contests and has amassed 4 goals, 8 assists and a +2 plus/minus. Gustafsson also picked up a goal and assist yesterday in his team’s overtime win against current league leaders Bjöklöven.
Another great stat that we see for Gustafsson is his ice time. Right now he is averaging 19:16 of TOI. It is extremely beneficial for a young player to see lots of ice time to develop his skills and game. In contrast, it was tough for Gustafsson to get anything going in the NHL when averaging just over of six minutes of TOI.
Gustafsson is definitely a loan player to watch and keep an eye on his development. It is clear that he is rated high in the Jets organization, but it will be interesting to see what role Winnipeg puts him in with the organization. If he keeps these performances up and has a solid training camp, there is a great chance we could see him on the Jets roster this upcoming season.
The next time Gustafsson will be in action is on Wednesday November 11th against HC Vita Hästen.
Winnipeg Jets Fans: Do you think David Gustafsson will find himself contributing for the Jets in 2021 or will we see him spending most of his time with in the AHL with the Moose? Leave your comments below!
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*Stats provided by NHL, AHL and HockeyAllsvenskan*