On July 12, the Youngstown Phantoms of the United State Hockey League announced that Melvin Strahl, a 19-year-old, 6'3", 175-pound goaltender prospect from Sweden, had committed to play for their club through the 2024-2025 season.
While I'd like to imagine CBJ Director of Amateur Scouting Ville Sirén did a little jig when he heard the news, I doubt it.
Strahl was picked during Phase II of the USHL draft this past season, where he joined a recent conga line of Europeans who have committed to play in Youngstown. Recent names that hopped across the Atlantic to play in Y-Town include 2021 NYI seventh-rounder Tomas Machu, 2023 CHI second-rounder Martin Misiak, and 2021 BUF third-rounder Stiven Sardaryan. On top of this, recent CBJ draft picks like Andrew Strathmann, James Fisher, and William Whitelaw have all played for the Phantoms in the last three seasons.
Youngstown has a good record of developing NHL-ready talent since its inception in 2003. The team has also been fantastic at attracting promising young prospects to its roster, especially in the past five years, with Strahl being no exception.
The 2023 Clark Cup champions count recent CBJ trade acquisition Jordan Harris; Kiefer Sherwood, Stanley Cup champ Ryan Lomberg, and NYI alternate captain Scott Mayfield among their notable alums.
When Strahl was drafted in 2023, there was little information about him, to the point that we here at U&B couldn't find much about projections or his style of play at the time. Since then, he's gone on to play a solid season with MoDo Hockey of the J20 national league in Sweden, posting a 2.91 GAA and a .903 save percentage and being selected to a Swedish U-20 national team that has been participating in a 5-team tournament in Switzerland that is currently ongoing.
Melvin is an underrated but still young prospect in the unheralded and underappreciated Jackets goaltending pipeline, which is suddenly one of the best in hockey, per Byron Bader of hockeyprospecting.com.
Sergei Ivanov is dominating the KHL despite his small stature and looks ready for North America if he so chooses. Jet Greaves has turned from an undrafted, undersized, and underdeveloped CHL goalie to possibly being the team's answer at backup goaltending for the foreseeable future.
Evan Gardner adds a decently sized body with great initial returns in the best junior league in the world. And finally, Daniil Tarasov began to achieve his potential towards the end of last season; if he can keep the same performance level up, the Jackets may have finally found their answer in net after fumbling around at the position for a half-decade.
On top of all of that, having Strahl in the Jackets' proverbial backyard and with such a solid developmental club will make taking a look at Melvin this season much easier on both Jackets fans and the CBJ scouting staff. Strahl has an NHL-ready height and a frame that he needs to continue to fill out, but the preliminary results are favorable for a guy who had most scouts saying, "huh?"