Jonas Gustavsson

Sweden Jonas Gustavsson


Date of birth	October 24, 1984
place of birth	Danderyd , Sweden
Nickname	The monster
size	191 cm
Weight	87 kg

position	goalkeeper
number	# 50
Catch hand	Left

Career stations

1990-1999	Stocksunds IF
1999-2007	AIK Solna
2007-2009	Färjestad BK
2009–2012	Toronto Maple Leafs
2012-2015	Detroit Red Wings
2015-2016	Boston Bruins
2016-2017	Edmonton Oilers Bakersfield Condors
since 2017	Linköpings HC

Jonas Gustavsson (born October 24, 1984 in Danderyd ) is a Swedish ice hockey goalkeeper who has been under contract with Linköpings HC in the Svenska Hockeyligan since May 2017 .

Career

Gustavsson started playing ice hockey as a child. At the age of six he played in the youth department of Stocksunds IF , a club from Stocksund not far from his birthplace in the parish of Danderyd . The young Swede remained loyal to the club for a total of nine years until the summer of 1999, before he was signed by the capital club AIK Solna and moved to its junior department. Shortly before his 16th birthday in autumn 2000, the goalkeeper made it into the team's U18 junior squad. There he established himself straight away as a goalkeeper and played twelve of his team's 14 season games in J18 Allsvenskan , the highest Swedish league in this age group. In the following season 2001/02 Gustavsson shared the starting position in the gate with Gustaf Wesslau and came so only eight missions. Nevertheless, he was able to reduce his goalscoring average from 3.78 to 1.78 and also increase his catch quota by over 7.5 percent to 93.23 percent. This earned him a place among the top five goalkeepers in the league in both categories. Since Wesslau also had a good year, the goalkeeper team had a significant share in the second main round table position of the team in the Norra division behind Luleå HF . In the playoffs, the team reached the fourth round, with Gustavsson denying all matches.

For the 2002/03 season, Jonas Gustavsson was promoted to AIK Solna's U20s, who were in the J20 SuperElit - the highest league in this age group. As in the previous game year, he formed a duo with Gustaf Wesslau for most of the season. After he had shared the regular place with him in the first half of the season, he played all 15 games in the back series. So he came to 21 missions in which the club get twelve wins. In contrast, there were nine defeats. The keeper from Danderyd placed himself with the team at the end of the season on a solid eighth place in the table and was thus in the middle of the league as well as with his personal statistics. Due to the eighth rank in the main round, the team succeeded in qualifying for the playoffs, which ended after four encounters. From the 2003/04 game year Gustavsson was the third goalkeeper in the professional team. Although he was unable to prevail against his two competitors, he made his professional debut during a brief assignment during the SuperAllsvenskan . His time in the professional squad meant that he rarely played for the U20 juniors. The same became apparent in the 2004/05 season. In the meantime, however, he had taken over the first two positions in the professional squad together with Wesslau after the team had been relegated to third-class Division I in the preseason . Together they led the team back to the second-rate HockeyAllsvenskan as the first in the group B , with Gustavsson having an excellent goal average of 1.45 in 19 games. Nevertheless, the club's management went with his competitor as a regular goalkeeper in the 2005/06 season. Gustavsson was content with sporadic assignments with the professionals in the Allsvenskan and in the J20 SuperElit . Only with the transfer from Wesslau to the Malmö Redhawks did the regular position become vacant. Nevertheless, the then 21-year-old could not prevail against the new competitor Emil Lundgren . The following season began in a similar way, in which, after a weak start to the season, he initially occupied the substitute position at AIK behind Jimmy Danielsson . Only at the end of the series did he get more regular working hours. The second half went like the first half of the season, with Danielsson showing the better statistical values in the end. The team finished ninth in the final ranking and landed in the secured midfield.

Gustavsson winning the Swedish championship in 2009

After eight years at AIK Solna, the never drafted goalkeeper moved to the Elitserien club Färjestad BK , where he had signed a two-year contract. At the beginning of the 2007/08 season he formed the goalkeeper team with compatriot Christopher Heino-Lindberg , whose substitute he was. Shortly after the start of the season, Heino-Lindgren was injured, but instead of trusting the 23-year-old substitute keeper, the club management signed the Finn Juuso Riksman . This replaced Heino-Lindgren during his forced break and allowed Gustavsson only rarely missions, so he was used three times in Färjestad Farmteam Skåre BK in Division I to collect match practice. Even after the return of Heino-Lindgren and the renewed transfer of Riksman nothing changed in this situation, but Gustavsson still came to 20 games in which the team scored eight wins. In the playoffs he received the regular place in goal during the first round series against Frölunda HC after Heino-Lindgren was injured again. With him, the team failed in the second round at the eventual runner-up Linköpings HC . For the 2008/09 season Gustavsson received a new opponent in the form of the former Austrian national goalkeeper and NHL experienced Reinhard Divis . At the same time, Heino-Lindgren had left the association. Gustavsson established himself as a regular goalkeeper straight away, with 24 wins in 42 games with a catch rate of 93.16 percent and an average goal conceded of 1.96. Both were the top scores in the entire league, although he had to fend off the third most shots of all goalkeepers. As the first in the main round, he led Färjestad as a favorite for the championship title in the playoffs. There the Swede underlined his exceptional class, which had earned him the reputation of the best goalkeeper outside of the NHL during the year. He won twelve of his team's 13 playoffs, played five times to zero and had a catch rate of 96.08 percent with an average goal against 1.03, which led the club almost single-handedly to the eighth Swedish championship title . He also won the gold puck for Sweden's ice hockey player of the year.

Gustavsson in November 2009

Since his contract had expired at the end of the 2008/09 season and Gustavsson had made a name for himself not only in Sweden, the franchises of the National Hockey League became aware of the goalkeeper who was considered a free agent . His status as a rookie also allowed them to consider an obligation even with little leeway at the so-called salary cap , as the Swede was allowed to earn a maximum of 875,000 US dollars due to the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement . Gustavsson himself already expressed his interest in wanting to play in the NHL in the fall in early May and also confirmed the interest of various teams. In June he finally went to North America with his advisor to get an impression of the teams he favored. These had since been reduced to four - the Colorado Avalanche , Dallas Stars , San Jose Sharks and Toronto Maple Leafs . However, he was only allowed to sign an NHL contract from July 1. On July 7, 2009, he signed a one-year contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, which was worth $ 810,000 including a hand money of $ 90,000. In his first season in the NHL he was scheduled as a substitute for Vesa Toskala . However, the training camp began with little promise. After the Swede complained of a rapidly accelerated heartbeat in a fitness test in mid-September, he underwent an ablation a few days later . At the beginning of the season he was in the regular squad of the traditional Canadian club and shared the starting position with Toskala, who was injured for a while. In a game between the Maple Leafs and the Montréal Canadiens on December 1, 2009, Gustavsson complained again after the first third of an increased pulse . As a precautionary measure, he was taken to a nearby hospital during the game, but was able to leave the hospital a little later. As a result, he went to a cardiologist and underwent an ablation, as he had done in mid-September. It took until December 18th to return to the game. Just one day later, he posted his first NHL shutout in a 2-0 win over the Boston Bruins .

In February 2011 he underwent another heart operation and made five appearances in the AHL for the rest of the season.

In July 2012, he signed a two-year contract with the Detroit Red Wings . After an extension of an additional year, his contract in Detroit ended for good after the 2014/15 season, so he joined the Boston Bruins on a probationary basis . This resulted in a new one-year contract for the Swede at the beginning of October. After the 2015/16 season, however, this contract was not renewed, so he joined the Edmonton Oilers as a free agent in July 2016 , where he also signed a one-year contract.

Gustavsson then returned to his Swedish homeland after eight years in North America and signed a three-year contract with Linköpings HC .

International

Gustavsson with goalkeeping coach Erik Granqvist at the national team's training camp

Gustavsson made his international debut for his home country Sweden as part of the Euro Hockey Tour of the 2008/09 season, after he had always been preferred to other goalkeepers in the junior division. Although the number of his appearances on the Euro Hockey Tour was limited to just three due to injuries and illnesses, he was nominated for the 2009 World Cup in Switzerland , along with Stefan Liv and Johan Holmqvist, as one of three goalkeepers . The left-catching goalkeeper traveled late to the Swedes' training camp due to his mother's illness, but entered the tournament with his two colleagues on an equal footing. In the course of the world championship he fought his way to the starting position against the established Liv and Holmqvist and finally won the bronze medal by beating the United States in the game for third place.

A year later, Gustavsson formed the Swedish goalkeeper trio at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver together with Henrik Lundqvist and Stefan Liv . He came to a use in the preliminary round match against Belarus. The team finally failed in the quarterfinals. At the 2014 Olympics, he won the silver medal with the Swedish national team.

Achievements and Awards

2009 Swedish champion with Färjestad BK
2009 guldpucken
2009 bronze medal at the world championship
2010 bronze medal at the world championship
2014 silver medal at the Olympic Winter Games

Career statistics

Status: end of the 2016/17 season

			Main round								Playoffs
season	team	league	GP	W.	L.	OT / T	MIN	GA	SO	ATM	GP	W.	L.	T	MIN	GA	SO	ATM
2000/01	AIK Solna	J18-Allsvenskan	12	6th	6th	0	667	42	1	3.78	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2001/02	AIK Solna	J18-Allsvenskan	8th	5	2	1	439	13	2	1.78	4th	2	1	1	239	12	0	3.01
2002/03	AIK Solna	J20 elite series	21st	12	9	0	1261	69	0	3.28	4th	2	2	0	198	9	0	2.72
2003/04	AIK Solna	J20 elite series	9	4th	4th	1	505	24	0	2.85	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	AIK Solna	Kvalseries	1	0	0	0	16	1	0	2.95	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2004/05	AIK Solna	J20 elite series	10	4th	4th	1	557	32	0	3.45	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	AIK Solna	Div. I.	19th							1.45	2							2.80
2005/06	AIK Solna	J20 elite series	5	2	1	2	258	14th	0	3.26	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	AIK Solna	Allsvenskan	6th	2	1	2	351	14th	0	2.39	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2006/07	AIK Solna	Allsvenskan	23	9	9	2	1269	59	2	2.79	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2007/08	Färjestad BK	Elitserien	20th	8th	6th	4th	1102	44	2	2.40	10	3	6th	0	517	31	0	3.60
	Skåre BK	Div. I.	3				180	10	0	3.34	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2008/09	Färjestad BK	Elitserien	42	24	12	4th	2475	81	3	1.96	13	12	1	0	819	14th	5	1.03
2009/10	Toronto Maple Leafs	NHL	42	16	15th	9	2340	112	1	2.87	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2010/11	Toronto Maple Leafs	NHL	23	6th	13	2	1242	68	0	3.29	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Toronto Marlies	AHL	5	3	1	1	263	5	0	1.14	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2011/12	Toronto Maple Leafs	NHL	42	17th	17th	4th	2301	112	4th	2.92	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2012/13	Detroit Red Wings	NHL	7th	2	2	1	349	17th	0	2.92	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Grand Rapids Griffins	AHL	1	1	0	0	60	1	0	1.00	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2013/14	Detroit Red Wings	NHL	27	16	5	4th	1551	68	0	2.62	2	0	2	0	133	6th	0	2.71
2014/15	Grand Rapids Griffins	AHL	2	1	1	0	119	4th	0	2.02	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Detroit Red Wings	NHL	7th	3	3	1	351	15th	1	2.56	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2015/16	Boston Bruins	NHL	24	11	9	1	1258	57	1	2.72	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2016/17	Bakersfield Condors	AHL	20th	8th	9	1	1114	45	1	2.42	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Edmonton Oilers	NHL	7th	1	3	1	331	17th	0	3.10	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
HockeyAllsvenskan total			29	11	10	4th	1620	73	2	2.71	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Elitserien total			62	32	18th	8th	3577	125	5	2.10	23	15th	7th	0	1336	45	5	2.15
NHL overall			179	72	67	23	9723	466	7th	2.88	2	0	2	0	133	6th	0	2.71

International

Represented Sweden at:

year	team	event	GP	W.	L.	T	MIN	GA	ATM
2009	Sweden	WM	5	3	2	-	276	13	2.83
2010	Sweden	Olympia	1	1	0	-	60	2	2.00
2010	Sweden	WM	6th	4th	2	-	370	11	1.79
Men overall			12	8th	4th	-	706	26th	2.21

( Legend for the goalkeeper statistics: GP or Sp = total games; W or S = wins; L or N = defeats; T or U or OT = draws or overtime or shootout defeats; min. = Minutes; SOG or SaT = shots on goal; GA or GT = goals conceded; SO = shutouts ; GAA or GTS = goals conceded ; Sv% or SVS% = catch quota ; EN = empty net goal ; ¹ play-downs / relegation ; italics : statistics not complete)