Malte Gustafsson, the No. 13 overall pick in last month’s draft, is now officially part of the Islanders’ organization.
They signed Gustafsson to a three-year entry-level deal — which carries an average annual value of $1.575 million, according to Puckpedia — less than three weeks after the draft. Gustafsson told The Post at development camp that he planned to play for HV71 in the Swedish Hockey League again next season, and after signing his deal, that’d mark a similar route to the one that 2025 first-round pick Victor Eklund took last year.
Eklund inked his entry-level deal July 14, played for Djurgårdens IF in the SHL, skated in 11 games for AHL Bridgeport between the regular season and playoffs and then even made his NHL debut in Game 82. If Gustafsson skates in fewer than 10 NHL games next season, the first year of his entry-level deal would likewise slide and he wouldn’t burn that initial season of his deal.
Plenty still has to happen for Gustafsson to reach that point, to where he’s potentially an option to help either the Islanders or AHL Hamilton. But he arrived “as advertised” to development camp, head coach Peter DeBoer told reporters earlier this month, and his blend of size, physicality and two-way ability already positioned the 18-year-old as someone who could develop into a critical piece of the Islanders’ blue line in the future.
“He’s mature beyond his years,” DoBoer told reporters after the final day of development camp, “and I thought in the game yesterday, he got better as it went on. I thought the second period of that game, I thought you started to see him get more confident. These rookie camps are tough. I can remember over the years some of the best players I had didn’t look great at rookie camp.
“So you’ve got to take them with a grain of salt sometimes, but I thought Malte came as advertised. He did a great job.”
