Detroit Hockey Now’s Nate Brown continues DHN’s audit of the Red Wings’ prospect system with a profile of big Colgate junior and goaltender Carter Gylander.
Gylander is something of a wild card in the team’s goaltending system: the 21-year-old is a massive 6’5″ and 185 pounds, but he lost his starter’s job last season, which complicated his development.
Here’s Brown’s summary of Gylander’s game and achievements thus far:
Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff wrote about Gylander last year and though on a team that isn’t in the spotlight as say a Boston University, or a University of Michigan, he’s held his own, including his freshman year.
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Gylander is in a line of goaltender prospects that Yzerman has selected to bolster the pipeline. He was at development camp last week and though he might not have the attention that a Sebastian Cossa has, he’s certainly a prospect to keep an eye on.
Gylander’s junior season could be one that raises his profile some more. Gylander’s biggest issue is that his program isn’t as prominent. This certainly isn’t a negative- it’s just a reality. In the aforementioned game where he made 47 saves–it was on 53 shots. Detroit Hockey Now had Gylander ranked fifth in the system in the goaltender snapshot back in June.
The talent is certainly there, and development for goalies is always a bit more of a waiting game. Hammering down an estimated time of arrival is a bit trickier. Gylander’s rights don’t expire until August 15, 2024, which gives him his senior season as well to really showcase where his standing is in the system.
Continued; I think that Gylander’s best chance of making himself stand out in the Wings’ developmental system will to reclaim his starter’s spot next year and to continue developing as a junior and senior at Colgate.
He’s gigantic, and he’s working on tamping down his tendency to boot out big rebounds, but he needs more time to work on his game.
