The Jackets opened day two of the draft by tabbing Oscar Dansk as their goaltender of the future. Dansk was the second-ranked European goaltender behind first rounder Andrei Vasilevsky. Drafted from Brynas of the SEL, Dansk intends on making the jump to the Canadian Hockey League next season. The CHL import draft has yet to take place, so it remains to be seen which junior team he’ll suit up for, but there’s whispers he may end up with the London Knights of the OHL.
The CHL Import Draft isn’t really a draft, per se. It’s more or less a formality, a vast majority of the time European players work out a deal with a junior squad and he is “drafted” by the team. The Import draft is this coming Wednesday. It will be interesting to see if fellow 2012 goaltender and draftee Joonas Korpisalo has a deal in place to join the CHL as well.
Dansk has experience in North America- he spent time at Shattuck St. Mary’s in Minnesota before returning back to Sweden. He’s also represented Sweden at various international tournaments. Last season with Brynas’ junior team, he put up a 2.82 GAA, 0.910 SV% and a pair of shutouts in 28 games.
He immediatly improves the quality of the Columbus goaltending pipeline. He’ll likely be brought along slowly, putting in a season or two of junior before making the jump to the minor pro ranks.
My first thought when seeing Dansk get drafted was that he reminded me of Javob Markstrom in Florida- a Swedish goaltender drafted with the first pick of the second round of the draft. Markstrom is considered to be a can’t-miss prospect, and is the heir apparent to the cage with the Panthers. Time will tell if Dansk will have the same hype and expectations that Markstrom has, but the Jackets have put themselves in a fantastic position by drafting Dansk.