Bio
Stats
Scouting Report
Nothing is ever easy for a NHL general manager. For the Tampa Bay Lightning, the one position that Julien BriseBois can check off every year and not have to worry about is starting goaltending. He can just assume that Andrei Vasilevskiy will start 60+ games and contend for a Vezina Trophy. He just needs to find him a backup for the other 20 games and move on. Well, those plans got turned and flipped upside down this year as Vasilevskiy will miss the first two months of the season.
Not only does Mr. BriseBois need to worry about his number-one starter in net, but he also has to decide what to do with his number-one goaltending prospect in the system, Hugo Alnefelt. The plan this year was for Alnefelt to get the bulk of the starts in net for the Syracuse Crunch as he tries to show the organization he can shoulder the load of a number-one starter after splitting time with Max Lagace last season.
Now, with a spot on the Lightning roster open behind Jonas Johansson, does the Lightning GM put his best option, Alnefelt, there or go with Matt Tompkins and his zero games of NHL experience as the backup while letting Alnefelt cook in Syracuse? The early indications are that Mr. BriseBois is going to stick with the development path and have Alnefelt start the season in Syracuse. The 22-year-old was reassigned to the Crunch as part of the mass roster cut this weekend and is getting his usual reps in training camp.
That could change as the Bolts put the final touches on the roster closer to Opening Night next week, but a quick look at the October schedule doesn’t indicate that they will need to rotate goaltenders too often. There is only one back-to-back series (October 14th and 15th) and the week of the 15th-21st is the only one where they have more than two games scheduled. So get used to a lot of Jonas early in the season. In contrast, the Crunch have six games in October, but they are all back-to-back, weekend games. Alnefelt would see more action with Syracuse than he would in Tampa.
That being said, it wouldn’t be surprising to see an occasional call-up for a spot start, especially if Tompkins struggles, or Vasilevskiy’s recovery is delayed. Alnefelt is still on his entry-level deal so he can pass through waivers without the worry of being claimed. So, the Lightning brass may call him up for a game or two to see how he handles the NHL under a slightly more controlled nature than his league debut a couple of seasons ago.
The best spot for him to be right now, though, is Syracuse. Alnefelt has all of the skills in the world and the best way for him to keep improving is simply getting game reps under his belt. So, as tempting as it is to have him wearing a Lightning uniform to start the season, the best path forward for him is to start the season in Syracuse and play the lion’s share of games while Tomkins gets to enjoy the first-class, NHL lifestyle and wear a baseball hat on the bench during games.
Alnefelt has had a nice steady progression in his development as a prospect since being drafted by the Lightning in 2019. He spent a couple of seasons as a teenage backup in the Swedish Hockey League, posting decent numbers for an average HR71 team. He also backstopped the Swedish Under-20 World Juniors team a couple of times, picking up a bronze medal in the process.
His introduction to North American hockey was a bit dramatic as he played in the ECHL, AHL, and NHL all in his first season while also working through some injuries. Last season was a bit more on script as he split the net duties with Lagace, starting in 33 games, winning 17, and posting 3 shutouts. This year he should see around 40-45 starts for the Crunch (if he can stay healthy) and if he can post similar numbers to last season (2.77 GAA, .904 SV%) it’ll be a good indication that his development is coming along nicely.
Much like a young Vasilevskiy, Alnefelt relies on quick reflexes and phenomenal athleticism to make some extraordinary saves and cover up some occasional bad positioning. There are times that he is a bit overly aggressive and gets into a scramble mode when he doesn’t have to, but that’s not unusual for a young netminder, especially one that had to adjust to different shot angles when transitioning from the larger European rinks.
In the limited action we’ve seen from him in the rookie showcase and his one preseason start, he does seem to have improved a bit in tracking the puck from point to point and moving from side to side in his crease. He’s not overcommitting as much as he has in the past, an issue that leads to some of that scrambling that we sometimes see from him.
The likely path for him right now is to spend this year and next year as Syracuse’s number-one starter and then hit the NHL as a backup for the back half of Vasilevskiy’s career with the Lightning.
As for the writer’s rankings, Alnefelt received one first-place vote, one second place, one third, and two fourth-place votes to slightly edge out Ethan Gauthier. Honestly, the top five prospects were all pretty close in their final vote counts.
