This evening, Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen profiles a player I’m not quite so certain about in one Victor Brattstrom, who will most likely split time as the Grand Rapids Griffins’ starting goaltender with World Championship MVP Jussi Olkinuora.
Brattstrom’s 25 years old, and he possesses good size at 6’4″ and 201 pounds, as well as a solid set of fundamentals, but he never really found his form over the course of 32 starts with Grand Rapids this past season, going 11-16-and-4 with a 3.32 goals-against average and .894 save percentage.
Brattstrom has “all the tools,” as they say, but once he gets in the net on the North American-sized rink, the seasoned European pro is a bit wild in the net, acrobatically and athletically bounding from goalpost to goalpost. He’s entertaining to watch, to be certain, but there’s a lack of control in his game that tends to cost him concentration, consistency, and goals against.
As Allen suggests, this is probably a win-or-go-back-to-Europe season for Brattstrom (and Olkinuora), and as the Griffins’ stalwart goaltender, Calvin Pickard, is moving on, it’s going to be up to a Swede and a Finn to stabilize the Griffins’ crease:
“I think (Brattstrom) learned over the course of the season,” Grand Rapids Griffins coach Ben Simon said. “In practice, in games in certain situations how to battle more, how to fight through traffic to make that extra effort for that second save, that tertiary save, to really compete on a daily basis.”
With the signing of Villi Husso and Jussi Olkinoura, the Red Wings’ goaltending outlook has changed since last season. Husso and Alex Nedeljkovic will be in Detroit. Nothing has been decided about top goalie prospect Sebastian Cossa. But it seems like he will end up back in the Western Hockey League.
That leaves Olkinoura and Brattstrom in Grand Rapids, while former Michigan State goalie John Lethemon possibly shuttles between the Griffins and the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye if there are injuries.
Victor Brattstrom is 25. That makes it critical that he makes a move this season to secure his place in the Detroit organization. Olkinuora is on a one-season contract and presumably will move elsewhere if he doesn’t get a shot at the NHL.
Allen continues; with the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye having lost star goaltender Billy Christopoulos to military service, the Walleye are searching for a starter, too, and if Brattstrom can’t cut it in GR, a very capable Lethemon will push him for a job.
All of that being said, if Sebastian Cossa’s prospect tournament and training camp performances happen to earn him a job in Grand Rapids, the goaltending situation might be turned on its head.
Two months out from training camp, the situation in the Grand Rapids Griffins’ crease is very fluid, and, by extension, the Red Wings don’t really have a solid injury replacement in goal right now. We’ll see how things shake out in September.
