Columbus Blue Jackets‘ deep 7th round pick in the 2011 draft (#188 overall) Swedish-born goalie Anton Forsberg(35) realized his first pair of NHL starts as a rookie.
He’s thus far absolutely shutting the door on the offense in a pair of AHL starts with affiliate Springfield Falcons.
He won both appearances posting a 1.50 GAA and a .953 SV% along with a getting his first shutout.
It was much the same when he first appeared with the farm club at the tail end of last season and kept a secure 1.13 GAA and .957 SV% in 4 times between the pipes. He also played in 2 Calder Cup Playoff games, running some respectable numbers.
The fairly sizable 6’3″ 195 lbs. fared less well in his two appearances with the big club.
He was credited for only one of the losses but got shellacked on the stat sheet with a dismal 5.32 GAA and .841 SV%. He did earn a third star award in one of the games for at least keeping his team competitive in one of the defeats.
As a teenager he already experienced pro hockey in his home country playing last season in net with MODO of the SHL. He also backstopped 14 games for them in 2011/2012, while still participating in juniors and incidentally won a gold medal at the WJC.
For his first official year of pro hockey he kept the crease clear for Sodertalje of tier two Allsvenskan.
Although he may have come out of the gate in the show less than spectacularly, the still very young 21-year old is best suited playing a good 30+ game schedule in the minors and given plenty of room to develop as he’s signed for a 3-year entry level deal through 2016.
See related: 5/4-2014