Kristers Gudļevskis

Kristers Gudļevskis
Born (1992-07-31) 31 July 1992
Aizkraukle, LVA
Height 6 ft 4 in (193 cm)
Weight 197 lb (89 kg; 14 st 1 lb)
Position Goaltender
Catches Left
NHL team (P)
Cur. team
Former teams		 Tampa Bay Lightning
Syracuse Crunch (AHL)
HK Ogre
Dinamo Riga
National team  Latvia
NHL Draft 124th overall, 2013
Tampa Bay Lightning
Playing career 2009–present

Kristers Gudlevskis (born 31 July 1992) is a Latvian ice hockey goaltender. He is currently playing with the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL [1] as a prospect to the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League (NHL). Gudļevskis was selected by the Lightning in the 5th round (124th overall) of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.[2]

Gudlevskis is the only player to have played in the ECHL, AHL, NHL, Olympic Games, and IIHF World Championships in the same season.[3]

Playing career

Europe

Gudļevskis started his professional career in the 2009–10 season playing for HK Ogre of the Latvian Hockey League. In the next season, he moved on to play for Dinamo Riga affiliate HK Riga of the MHL.[4] He played for three seasons with HK Riga. Throughout the 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons he made the Dinamo Riga roster several times as a healthy scratch. On 5 October 2012, he finally made his debut during a 2–1 overtime win against Vityaz, replacing injured Mikael Tellqvist after the second period tied at 0–0.[5] Later in the season he played his first full game as starter in a 2–0 loss against Sibir.[6]

Tampa Bay Lightning

Gudļevskis is only the second (after Artūrs Irbe) and highest-ranked Latvian goaltender ever selected in NHL entry draft.[7] Dinamo Riga agreed to release Gudļevskis from the final year of his contract; he later signed a three-year entry-level contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League.[8]

Following the Lightning's 2013 pre-season camp, he was reassigned to their ECHL affiliate, the Florida Everblades.[9] While attending pre-season training camp with the Everblades, Gudļevskis was recalled to join the Lightning.[10] He was later reassigned to the Everblades without making the Lightning roster, and made his official North American debut with 20 saves in a 4–1 win over the Orlando Solar Bears.[11]

Gudļevskis was recalled to the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL on 24 October 2013[12] due to an injury to Riku Helenius.[13] He made his AHL debut on 26 October 2013 with a shutout against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.[14] Gudlevskis became the fifth goaltender in Crunch history to post a shutout upon debut.[15] After four games with the Crunch, Gudļevskis once again was reassigned to the Everblades.[16] On 7 December 2013 Gudļevskis was promoted to the Syracuse Crunch in order to give him more AHL ice time.[17] Gudļevskis cemented his place on the Crunch roster posting 10 wins in 21 games. On 15 January 2014 Gudlevskis was named the CCM/AHL Player of the Week.[18]

On 31 January 2014, due to injuries of Ben Bishop and Anders Lindback, Gudlevskis received an emergency call-up to the Lightning along with Cedrick Desjardins.[19] Kristers made his first NHL start on 11 April 2014 in a game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Columbus Blue Jackets, he stopped 36 shots in a 3–2 win for Tampa. He made his NHL Playoff debut after replacing Anders Lindback mid-game on 18 April 2014 against the Montreal Canadiens in the second game of the first round. He replaced Lindback in game four of the series as well. During this season, Gudlevskis became the first goalie in the history of the sport to play in an ECHL, AHL, NHL and Olympics in the same season, which also included his Stanley Cup playoffs debut.[20]

On 10 June 2015, in game four of the 2015 Stanley Cup Finals against the Chicago Blackhawks, Gudlevskis became the back-up goalie for fellow prospect Andrei Vasilevskiy, who started the game after Ben Bishop was injured in game two (Bishop played injured in game three).[21]

On 24 October 2015, Gudlevskis played in his second NHL regular season game against the Chicago Blackhawks, stopping 31 shots. Though he had a great effort, he lost in overtime 1-0, when a backhand shot slipped by taken from Jonathan Toews.[22]

International play

Gudļevskis became the starting goaltender for Team Latvia in the 2013 IIHF World Championship after original starter Edgars Masaļskis could not recover game form coming from injury. He registered 2–2 win-loss record and was named one of three best players for Team Latvia in the tournament.[23]

On 7 January 2014, Gudļevskis was named to the Latvian national team roster for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.[24] Latvia entered the qualification playoff stage ranked as one of the lowest seeds (ahead of only Norway), amassing no points in group play. In the second round, Gudļevskis got the start in the matchup against reigning Olympic champions Canada, despite the Latvian team upsetting Switzerland earlier with goalie Edgars Masaļskis.

In what was expected to be a routine victory for the Canadian squad, the Latvian team responded with an early equalizer and managed to stay alive behind Gudļevskis' goaltending (saving 55 of 57 shots he faced) until late into the third period, eventually falling in a 2–1 loss. Gudļevskis was praised, especially in Canadian media and sports commentary, for his performance in the quarter-final against the Canadian national team.[25]

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP W L T/OT MIN GA SO GAA SV% GP W L MIN GA SO GAA SV%
2009–10 HK Ogre LHL 9 — — — — — — 6.12 — — — — — — — — —
2010–11 HK Riga MHL 49 26 16 2 2760 101 7 2.20 .920 3 0 3 187 13 0 4.16 .862
2011–12 HK Riga MHL 40 16 16 5 2285 91 1 2.39 .918 4 1 3 257 15 0 3.50 .896
2012–13 HK Riga MHL 56 27 18 11 3190 111 3 2.09 .927 3 0 3 153 19 0 7.42 .747
2012–13 Dinamo Riga KHL 2 1 1 0 82 3 0 2.18 .921 — — — — — — — —
2013–14 Florida Everblades ECHL 11 7 4 0 656 20 2 1.83 .925 — — — — — — — —
2013–14 Syracuse Crunch AHL 34 18 11 4 1901 85 5 2.68 .901 — — — — — — — —
2013–14 Tampa Bay Lightning NHL 1 1 0 0 60 2 0 2.00 .947 2 0 1 40 2 0 3.00 .900
2014–15 Syracuse Crunch AHL 42 24 12 3 2429 109 2 2.69 .905 3 0 3 145 12 0 4.96 .833
2015–16 Syracuse Crunch AHL 41 16 12 2 2332 110 1 2.83 .907 — — — — — — — —
2015–16 Tampa Bay Lightning NHL 1 0 0 1 60 1 0 1.00 .969 — — — — — — — —
KHL totals 2 1 1 0 82 3 0 2.18 .921 — — — — — — — —
NHL totals 2 1 0 1 120 3 0 1.50 .957 2 0 1 40 2 0 3.00 .900

International

Year Team Event GP W L OTL MIN GA SO GAA SV%
2010 Latvia WJC18 6 0 4 0 339 29 0 5.13 .856
2011 Latvia WJC-D1 1 1 0 0 60 1 0 1.00 .941
2012 Latvia WJC 5 1 4 0 279 24 0 5.15 .865
2013 Latvia WC 4 2 2 0 243 9 0 2.22 .925
2014 Latvia OG 2 0 2 0 119 7 0 3.50 .919
WC totals 4 2 2 0 243 9 0 2.22 .925
OG totals 2 0 2 0 119 7 0 3.50 .919

[26] [27]

References

  1. ↑ Lindsay Kramer (14 October 2013). "Syracuse Crunch returns goalie Kristers Gudlevskis to Florida of ECHL". syracuse.com. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  2. ↑ "2013 NHL entry draft 5th round selections". NHL. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
  3. ↑ http://lightning.nhl.com/gamecenter/en/recap?id=2013021207
  4. ↑ "MHL Player profile" (in Russian). mhl.khl.ru. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
  5. ↑ "Vityaz vs. Dinamo – rooster" (in Russian). khl.ru. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
  6. ↑ "Sibir vs. Dinamo – game report" (in Russian). khl.ru. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
  7. ↑ "Gudļevskis kļūst par otro latviešu vārtsargu, kuru izvēlas NHL draftā" (in Latvian). DELFI.lv. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
  8. ↑ "Lightning Sign Kristers Gudlevskis to Entry-Level Contract". nhlnewslightning.com. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
  9. ↑ Tampa Bay Lightning (29 September 2013). "Lightning announce roster cuts". nhl.com. Retrieved 17 November 2013.
  10. ↑ Tampa Bay Lightning (11 October 2013). "Bolts Recall Gudlevskis". nhl.com. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  11. ↑ floridaeverblades.com (24 October 2013). "Goaltender Gudlevskis Recalled to AHL Syracuse". floridaeverblades.com. Retrieved 17 November 2013.
  12. ↑ Tampa Bay Lightning (11 October 2013). "Goaltender Gudlevskis Recalled to AHL Syracuse". nhl.com. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  13. ↑ Lindsay Kramer (24 October 2013). "Injury will keep Syracuse Crunch goalie Riku Helenius sidelined at least two weeks". www.syracuse.com. Retrieved 17 November 2013.
  14. ↑ Jeremy Houghtaling (26 October 2013). "Gudlevskis, big second period lift Syracuse Crunch over Sound Tigers, 5–0". auburnpub.com/. Retrieved 17 November 2013.
  15. ↑ Jeremy Houghtaling (30 October 2013). "Superstitious Gudlevskis Making Most of Opportunities". boltprospects.com. Retrieved 17 November 2013.
  16. ↑ floridaeverblades.com (11 November 2013). "Gudlevskis Reassigned to Everblades". floridaeverblades.com. Retrieved 17 November 2013.
  17. ↑ Damian Cristodero (5 December 2013). "Gudlevskis shakes up Lightning's organizational depth in net". tampabay.com. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
  18. ↑ http://theahl.com/gudlevskis-named-ccm-ahl-player-of-the-week-p189791
  19. ↑ "Lightning recall goalies Desjardins and Gudlevskis". Tampa Bay Lightning. 2014-01-31. Retrieved 2014-01-31.
  20. ↑ Smith, Joe (24 September 2015). "Consistency eludes Lightning goalie Kristers Gudlevskis". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  21. ↑ "Vasilevskiy starts Game 4 for Lightning; Bishop out". National Hockey League. 2015-06-10. Retrieved 2015-06-13.
  22. ↑ Hedger, Brian (24 October 2015). "Toews gives Blackhawks win against Lightning". NHL.com. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  23. ↑ "Best players of each team selected by coaches" (PDF). IIHF. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
  24. ↑ LHF (7 January 2014). "Nolans nosauc sastāvu Olimpiskajām spēlēm" (in Latvian). lhf.lv. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
  25. ↑ Andrew Podnieks (19 February 2014). "Canada avoids upset in 2–1 win". iihf.com. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
  26. ↑ "KHL Player profile" (in Russian). khl.ru. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
  27. ↑ "IIHF Player stats" (PDF). iihf.com. Retrieved 2 August 2013.

External links

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