The Senators have found a place for another one of their prospects to play while they wait for the 2020-21 season to begin. The team announced (Twitter link) that they have loaned goaltender Filip Gustafsson to Sodertalje of HockeyAllsvenskan in Sweden. In a separate tweet, GM Pierre Dorion released the following statement:
We commend Filip for joining our growing list of prospects making the decision to pursue opportunities to play games in Europe this fall. This is another good development opportunity and we look forward to tracking Filip’s progress.
The 22-year-old played in 24 games last season with AHL Belleville, recording a 3.23 GAA along with a .889 SV%. Gustavsson was also recalled to Ottawa twice this season but didn’t get into any game action. He was originally drafted in the second round by Pittsburgh (55th overall in 2016) and was part of the three-way trade with Vegas and Pittsburgh near the 2018 trade deadline that saw Ryan Reaves go to the Golden Knights and Derick Brassard to the Penguins.
The move will at least allow Gustavsson to get some playing time while waiting for the AHL season to get underway which won’t come until December at the earliest. As part of the agreement, he will return to Ottawa when training camps get underway.