- Tampa Bay acquired Dennis Hildeby and two draft picks from Toronto on July 1
- The 24-year-old Swede gets his first real path to a full-time NHL job
- Read below for what Julien BriseBois and Hildeby said about the fresh start
Dennis Hildeby is finally getting a real shot at the NHL.
The Tampa Bay Lightning landed the 24-year-old goalie and two draft picks from Toronto on July 1, sending forward Nick Paul the other way. The move gives Hildeby a clear path to a full-time NHL job for the first time in his career.
General manager Julien BriseBois wasn’t shopping for a goalie this offseason. Hildeby changed his mind.
BriseBois explained why Tampa moved once the young Swede became available, telling the team’s website the value was too good to pass up:
“When we found out he was available we said, ‘Okay, that’s something that’s worth exploring’ because he’s 24 and did really well this year at the NHL level, has a track record of doing really well at the NHL level, has size. We just think he’s ready to be an NHL backup.”
The Bolts rolled out the welcome for their new netminder:
Hildeby posted the best numbers of any Toronto goalie last season. He went 5-7-4 with a .914 save percentage and a 2.86 goals-against average across a career-high 20 games.
The 6-foot-7 goalie leans hard on his frame, and he wants to keep an aggressive edge in the crease. Hildeby talked about how he uses his size:
“My size is something I have very much to my advantage, and it’s something I want to always use to my advantage while still not becoming this back-in goalie. I still want to have an aggressive approach with the mindset of being very big.”
His first NHL shutout came against his new team. Hildeby stopped all 29 shots in a 2-0 Toronto win over Tampa Bay on Dec. 8, the kind of performance that had the Lightning’s scouts paying attention.
Watch the shutout that put him on Tampa’s radar:
Sharing a room with Andrei Vasilevskiy wasn’t lost on him, either. Hildeby grew up watching the Lightning star and admitted it hit him quickly:
“To meet him, who’s been a big role model for me growing up, that was one of the first things I thought about.”
Hildeby is signed for two more years on an NHL-minimum deal and is already back home in Sweden getting ready for camp. He arrived as part of the July 1 trade that sent Paul to Toronto, and now he’ll push for starts behind Vasilevskiy.
