Devils’ Källgren Key to Goaltending Depth

Nothing has come to fruition to this point, and it’s possible the Devils run it back with Vitek Vanecek and Akira Schmid to start 2023-24. That wouldn’t be the worst outcome considering both goalies finished with save percentages above .910 last season (.920 in Schmid’s case). Still, depth is important, specifically when injuries occur. And fortunately, the Devils may have gotten one of the better No. 3 netminders by signing Erik Källgren in free agency. 

Källgren’s Road to the NHL

Källgren has had quite the road to the NHL since the Arizona Coyotes drafted him in the seventh round (183rd overall) in the 2015 draft. He spent a few years playing in his native Sweden in the HockeyAllsvenkan — Sweden’s AHL — and the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). He had a breakout year in the HockeyAllsvenkan in 2018-19, posting a .920 SV% for AIK. 

That led to him getting time on loan with TPS in the Finnish Liiga in 2019-20, where he posted a .911 SV% in 18 games. He then spent some time with the Tucson Roadrunners — the Coyotes’ AHL affiliate — to end that season. But that was shortlived, as he played for Växjö Lakers HC in the SHL during the 2020-21 season, likely due to the pandemic, where he totaled a .911 SV% again. 

The 2021-22 campaign was Källgren’s first full pro season in North America, spending time between the Toronto Maple Leafs and their AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies. His AHL numbers were solid, as he posted a .904 SV% in 26 appearances. But he struggled in the NHL, with just a .888 SV% in 14 games. 

Källgren’s counting totals in 2022-23 weren’t anything to write home about, but there was improvement. His .898 SV% was right around the league average of .899, and his underlying numbers were actually quite good. He finished with a goals saved above expected of minus-0.6, meaning he essentially stopped what was expected of him at all strengths. But what was notable about his 2022-23 season was how well he played at five-on-five. 

Of goalies to log at least 250 minutes at that game state, Källgren’s five-on-five SV% of .931 ranked fourth in the NHL. He also stopped high-danger shots at a pretty good clip at .852 percent. That’s the same number Jake Oettinger posted this past season and better than Vanecek (.811) and Schmid (.803). Additionally, he saved 4.4 goals above expected at five-on-five, the second-best mark on the Maple Leafs to Ilya Samsonov. Obviously Kallgren isn’t better than Samsonov, Vanecek or Schmid, but there’s reason to believe he can be a viable No. 3 for the Devils. 

It’s also fair to wonder why his overall SV% was .898 this past season when his five-on-five numbers were so good. His .760 SV% on the penalty kill was the reason his overall SV% tanked. There is a catch, though: his high-danger SV% on the penalty kill was actually quite good (.889 percent). He just couldn’t stop anything else. 

While they’re a mixed bag, Källgren’s penalty-kill numbers came in a very small sample of 38:22. Even workhorse netminders like Juuse Saros and Andrei Vasilevskiy log less than 400 minutes on the penalty kill. Källgren’s penalty-kill numbers could easily be noise because the sample size is so minuscule. Granted, his five-on-five sample isn’t much, either (459 minutes), but that’s more telling than what he did shorthanded. And what’s there is quite promising. 

Better to Have Källgren Than Not

Injuries are an unavoidable part of having an 82-game schedule. The Devils were very fortunate this past season that Vanecek never missed significant time with an injury. And they’re even luckier that Schmid stayed healthy and performed to the level he did while Mackenzie Blackwood struggled with injuries for a second consecutive year. 

Those injury woes are part of why the Devils traded Blackwood to the San Jose Sharks just before the NHL Draft began a week ago. He missed significant time in 2021-22, which played a role in the team bottoming out and finishing with 63 points, leading them to draft Šimon Nemec second overall at the 2022 draft. 

But Blackwood wasn’t the only goalie who missed most of the 2021-22 season, either. Jonathan Bernier had hip surgery in Dec. 2021 and hasn’t played in an NHL game since. He’s currently an unrestricted free agent, and it’s quite possible that his career is over. 

No one wishes that injury luck (or lack thereof) on any set of goaltenders or players in the league. But if the Devils run it back with Vanecek and Schmid, they’d be fortunate to go another season without at least one missing a bit of time. That’s why it’s important to have depth, as Pittsburgh Penguins president of hockey ops Kyle Dubas mentioned after he re-signed Tristan Jarry while adding two other goaltenders for depth: 

“Something that’s becoming more regular in the league is that you need [three goalies]. There are a lot of injuries at the position. I think the demands of the position, the way it’s changed, the way goaltenders play it, it makes it more demanding. There are very few goalies who go the whole year without an injury. If you don’t have the depth there built up and you don’t have a system in place, you can really leave yourself shorthanded.”

Kyle Dubas, July 1, 2023, press conference

One reason the Penguins collapsed during the second half of 2022-23 was due to Jarry’s injury woes. But with Alex Nedeljkovic, Casey DeSmith and Magnus Hellberg, the Penguins have four netminders capable of playing NHL games if injuries again become a problem in 2023-24. 

The Devils don’t have the kind of depth with Nico Daws out until December after undergoing offseason hip surgery. But if they start the season with Vanecek and Schmid as their one-two punch in the NHL, Källgren is the ideal depth netminder to have in their system. It’s unlikely the 26-year-old netminder steals a job from anyone, but his five-on-five numbers this past season suggest he’s made strides in his game. And if the Devils need to give him a spot start here and there, which is more likely than not, they should be in good hands. 

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Advanced stats from Natural Stat Trick, Money Puck