Prospect Info: Round 3, Pick 70: Felix Sandstrom, G, Brynas J20 (Sweden)

[wuf]

We were thin on goalie prospects, and now we're not. Love this and the Tomek pick.

 

[OzFlyers]

 

[FLYguy3911]

I think Button has credited the Flyers with more HRs this year than the Phillies.

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

Does Craig have a relative on the payroll or something?

 

[sa cyred]

Whats funny is Sam HATED the pick when it happened.

 

[Appleyard]

I personally feel like this was a slight reach... but he does have a great skillset and when dialled in is nigh on impossible to beat.

I had been plugging him as a potential Flyers pick... but thought he would be a 3rd or early 4th rounder.

I do think sans injury he would have been talked about in general consensus as in the 2nd tier of goalie prospects this draft with Tomek, Vladar and Booth.

I think I saw him play ~7 full games this season! 3 for Brynas and a few for the national team. He really elevated his play when playing vs men.

His athleticism is really nice, he made some absurd, daylight robbery style saves for Brynas in limited showing.

Will be nice to be able to watch both him and Lindblom play next year! He should get quite a few games as fulltime backup.

 

[FLYguy3911]

I personally feel like this was a slight reach... but he does have a great skillset and when dialled in is nigh on impossible to beat.

I had been plugging him as a potential Flyers pick... but thought he would be a 3rd or early 4th rounder.

...but he went in the 3rd.

 

[Appleyard]

...but he went in the 3rd.

Haha, meant late 3rd.

Tbh if we picked Tomek 70th and Sandstrom 90th I would have said Tomek was still a steal and that Sandstrom still being there was a bonus!

Funny how things work!

Get 2/4 of the top 4 goalies I wanted and were realistic (Vladar and Vehviläinen were the other two, shocked Vehviläinen was not taken... his size is all that is really against him.) but got them in the 'wrong' order in my mind!

 

[flyguy]

There were a decent amount of goalies picked right after Sandtrom. I wonder if other teams had him on their lists too.

 

[Radek27]

Any relation to Tomas Sandstrom?

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Any relation to Tomas Sandstrom?

My guess is there is no immediate relation. There is a reference to a twin brother who plays hockey. Generally, hockey relationships are mentioned within bios of players. If there is a note to the contrary, then we will post it in this thread.

 

[sa cyred]

Sandstrom (and Lindbolm) were invited to the National Games at Lake Placid

 

[Stizzle]

Sandstrom (and Lindbolm) were invited to the National Games at Lake Placid

I see the starting goalie from last year, Soderstrom, is returning. Is there a realistic chance Sandstrom could beat him out? I don't recall Soderstrom being anything special.

 

[SanBlom]

This was my personal favorite goalie, including Samsonov and Blackwood. I'm very excited to see how it turns out. The rumors about Vladar made me think they would go in that direction, but I couldn't be any happier!

 

[sa cyred]

Posting more stuff from the McKeen article, Sandstrom was #2 goalie on their list right next to Blackwood.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

This is from prospect camp...

The 18-year-old netminder's biggest strength?

"I think my skating ability is really good, covering a lot of the net," said Sandstrom, who wasn't at the draft, instead watching at home in Sweden with his family. "I'm good at the angles and have good patience."

Sandstrom would likely have been taken higher than 70th overall, but missing seven weeks with mononucleosis and another month with a hamstring injury caused him to fall on teams' draft boards. According to a story by McKeen's Hockey, the Flyers still had him ranked second among all goalies behind Mackenzie Blackwood, whom the New Jersey Devils selected 42nd overall.

One of the reasons a goalie like Sandstrom comes so highly regarded after the draft is that he's already more mature than some North American goalies because of his development. The goalie, who played mostly for Brynas' junior team in Sweden last year, is able to temper expectations for his development.

"I would like to take a place on the senior team with Brynas in Sweden and play the (World Junior Championship) in Finland next year," Sandstrom said. "I'd take some steps up and then maybe come over here and play a year or so in the AHL and take the big step up."

He was hoping the Flyers would take him in the draft, mostly because of some good reviews he got from Brynas teammate Oskar Lindblom, the winger the Flyers selected in the fifth round of last year's draft.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/st...5/07/07/flyers-european-goalies-nhl/29842061/

 

[markzab]

Good to hear.

 

[Appleyard]

Sandstrom has almost certainly secured the backup job for Brynas SHL team in 2015-16. Sandstrom is the only other goalie on the SHL roster along with starter Bernhard Starkbaum, and the season starts in less than two weeks, and him and Starkbaum have been the only guys involved in pre-season games.

Kind of a 'mundane' update since this has been likely since July, and certain for maybe ~4 weeks... but figured for those not keeping up to date with individual SHL teams goaltender situation it would be news.

 

[Appleyard]

Also for those in need of a hockey fix and a spare hour or so, it is good quality as well, only annoying thing is there is no score even when multiple goals go in! (it finishes 3-3):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCD659sGNLk&ab_channel=BrynäsIF

It is the full Brynas internal game from last month.

Sandstrom is #1 in white (is in net from 1:02:00 onwards), Lindblom #96 in black.

The teams are really good... Lindback, Jarnkrok, Ekholm, Lindholm, Andersen, Djoos, Vrana, Silfverberg and a few more all played in it in while back in Sweden in addition to current squad players.

1:17:10 is also a interesting little segment of play from Flyers fans perspective... though it should be in another players thread really! ;p

 

[DrinkFightFlyers]

Sandstrom has almost certainly secured the backup job for Brynas SHL team in 2015-16. Sandstrom is the only other goalie on the SHL roster along with starter Bernhard Starkbaum, and the season starts in less than two weeks, and him and Starkbaum have been the only guys involved in pre-season games.

Kind of a 'mundane' update since this has been likely since July, and certain for maybe ~4 weeks... but figured for those not keeping up to date with individual SHL teams goaltender situation it would be news.

How many games does a backup get in the SHL typically? Is it going to stunt his development if he only plays in 15-20 games?

 

[Coffe]

How many games does a backup get in the SHL typically? Is it going to stunt his development if he only plays in 15-20 games?

Starkbaum had the most minutes played of any goalie last season and he will be at the top this year as well. Sandström will probably get more than the 55 minutes he had last season but I wouldn't expect him to play in more than 10 games unless Starkbaum starts to suck. He'll get more playing time for the Brynäs J20 I'd reckon.

 

[Appleyard]

How many games does a backup get in the SHL typically? Is it going to stunt his development if he only plays in 15-20 games?

It depends... it is a 55 game season and backups play anything from ~10 games to ~25.

The average starter last year played 38/55 games, and started ~35/55.

Starkbaum last year started ~45 games and played in 49. But they had no 'real' backup, Holmqvist went into the year as backup (after him and Starkbaum split starts the year before_ but they used 5 different goalies as backup by my count, as Holmqvist was 37, and seemed to have fell off quite a bit.)

My guess is the mark of ~10-15 games max is most likely for Sandstrom. He will also play a few for the Swedish U20s at some point, even if he is not starter at the WJC, and will probably get a few J20 games in as well.

Bear in mind though that he would only play ~30-35 games in J20 if he was there all this year... and if he was loaned to the Allsvenskan he would likely get ~20. Also the SHL is arguably the 3rd best league in the world.

Brynas must really believe in him (and it is understandable given his performance in limited SHL games last year, he is raw but very talented) it is very rare for goalies under 20 to be more than a call-up in the SHL. But he did outplay the older Johansson last year, who is a highly regarded goalie in his own right.

Also, about 3 hours ago news was released that yesterday he signed a two year deal for Brynas seniors, and in the accompanying press release the sporting director at Brynas said:

'Felix is a young and very promising goalkeeper who will surely challenge Bernhard Starkbaum strongly next season'

So it does seem from that release they expect him to be at least a 'backup', not just a guy who plays a few games here and there.

 

[DrinkFightFlyers]

It depends... it is a 55 game season and backups play anything from ~10 games to ~25.

The average starter last year played 38/55 games, and started ~35/55.

Starkbaum last year started ~45 games and played in 49. But they had no 'real' backup, Holmqvist went into the year as backup (after him and Starkbaum split starts the year before_ but they used 5 different goalies as backup by my count, as Holmqvist was 37, and seemed to have fell off quite a bit.)

My guess is the mark of ~10-15 games max is most likely for Sandstrom. He will also play a few for the Swedish U20s at some point, even if he is not starter at the WJC, and will probably get a few J20 games in as well.

Bear in mind though that he would only play ~30-35 games in J20 if he was there all this year... and if he was loaned to the Allsvenskan he would likely get ~20. Also the SHL is arguably the 3rd best league in the world.

Brynas must really believe in him (and it is understandable given his performance in limited SHL games last year, he is raw but very talented) it is very rare for goalies under 20 to be more than a call-up in the SHL. But he did outplay the older Johansson last year, who is a highly regarded goalie in his own right.

Also, about 3 hours ago news was released that yesterday he signed a two year deal for Brynas seniors, and in the accompanying press release the sporting director at Brynas said:

'Felix is a young and very promising goalkeeper who will surely challenge Bernhard Starkbaum strongly next season'

So it does seem from that release they expect him to be at least a 'backup', not just a guy who plays a few games here and there.

Sounds good to me.

 

[Appleyard]

Sandstom played the whole game in a 3-2 OT loss to Allsvenskan (2nd tier) side Almtuna earlier today.

Apparently played pretty well and was slightly hung out to dry on the OT goal by some shoddy play from 1st line RW Anton Rodin that led to an odd man rush just after OT started, he got beaten 5 hole.

 

[Appleyard]

Sandström played for the Brynäs J20 team today. (Swedish juniors)

They won 3-2.

He saved 27 of 29 shots for a .931 sv%.

He is still however one of only two goalies signed to play for the Brynäs senior team (the season starts on the 17th) so as previously discussed it seems very likely he plays in J20 games when not committed to games for Brynäs seniors. The schedules are pretty conducive to such an arrangement.

In September and October:

Brynäs SHL play 16 games.
Brynäs J20 play 17 games.

There are only 6 clashes in terms of dates.

19/09. J20 play at 11:00 in Timrå. SHL play at 19:00 in Linköping. Very unlikely/not sensible (though just possible) for him to go from Timrå to Linköping in ~6 hours. He will only attend one of those games.

26/09. J20 play at 13:00 in Gävle. SHL play at 18:30 in Gävle. He could easily simply play J20 and backup SHL, or the other way round. Though likely he just plays/backups in the SHL.

10/10. J20 play at 11:00 in Gävle. SHL play at 16:00 in Gävle. Likely he just plays/backups in SHL as above.

17/10. J20 play at 13:00 in Gävle. SHL play at 18:30 in Gävle. Likely he just plays/backups in SHL as above.

24/10. J20 play at 14:00 in Gävle. SHL play at 18:30 in Gävle. Likely he just plays/backups in SHL as above.

31/10. J20 play at 13:00 in Luleå. SHL play at 16:00 in Göteborg. Unless he can time-travel he cannot be at both.