Malte Gustafsson

July 2026 – Gustafsson was the defenseman the public kept overlooking and NHL teams kept slotting inside the top 20, and the Islanders took him 13th, with Matthew Schaefer announcing the pick that could one day sit beside him. He is a 6-4 left shot with a pro-ready frame and, more important, real mobility for his size. The defensive game is what sells: tight gap control, sharp reads in the neutral zone, and a habit of riding forwards into the boards and erasing them, the kind of size-and-skating combination that translates straight to the NHL. He spent most of his draft year as an SHL regular for a thin HV71 team, which held his offense to three assists in 27 games, then added 12 points in 19 J20 games and capped the season as the best defenseman on Sweden’s gold-medal Under-18 team. The shot lacks power for now, partly a function of a very long stick, so the offense is a projection rather than a present skill.

He signed a one-year extension with HV71, so he develops in Sweden next season, and his fantasy relevance hinges entirely on whether the point production arrives. Andrew Epps

June 2026 – Gustafsson was drafted 13th overall by the New York Islanders as the team looks to make it impossible to score on them in three to five years. Pat Quinn