Bo Horvat<\/a>\u00a0said. “I think there’s a spot open for him. It’s just up to him to come into camp and be ready to go.”<\/p>\nProjected NHL arrival:\u00a0This season<\/p>\n
How acquired:\u00a0Selected with No. 13 pick in 2026 NHL Draft<\/p>\n
2025-26 season: HV71 (SWE): 27 GP, 0-3-3; HV71 Jr. (SWE-JR): 19 GP, 4-18-12<\/p>\n
Gustafsson (6-4, 200) appears on target to play for Sweden at the 2027 IIHF World Junior Championship after he had three assists in five games at the World Junior Summer Showcase.<\/p>\n
“He’s so young, but I think he’s a professional,” Sweden coach Magnus Havelid said. “He looks at himself in the mirror first before he talks to someone else or complains to someone else.”<\/p>\n
The 18-year-old signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Islanders on July 14 and will play another season in the Swedish Hockey League, likely with more ice time than the 11:02 he averaged for HV71 last season.<\/p>\n
“I think he has a good picture of his strengths and what he needs to work on,” Havelid said. “When you see a guy like him, he’s focused on the right things. Every practice is a good chance for him to learn something new and be a little bit better, step by step. That’s, I think, one of the keys.”<\/p>\n
Projected NHL arrival:\u00a0Next season<\/p>\n
How acquired: Selected with No. 17 pick in 2025 NHL Draft<\/p>\n
2025-26 season: Barrie (OHL): 56 GP, 28-42-70<\/p>\n
Though Aitcheson (6-2, 200) turns 20 on Sept. 21 and likely will start his first professional season with Hamilton in the American Hockey League, he will get a long look during training camp. He signed a three-year, entry-level contract March 17 after setting a Barrie single-season record for goals by a defenseman. His 171 points in four seasons are the most by a Barrie defenseman.<\/p>\n
“He’s a rare breed,” Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche said. “He’s not afraid to answer \u2026 and there’s not as many players like that as there were 25-30 years ago. He’s going to show us with the way he’s playing where he belongs, and if it’s on the island, we’ll make room. If he needs time in the AHL, it’s OK too.”<\/p>\n
Projected NHL arrival:\u00a0Next season<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How acquired: Selected with No. 16 pick in 2025 NHL Draft 2025-26 season: Djurgarden (SWE): 43 GP, 6-18-24;…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-817488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}