How Adam Gajan went from total obscurity to become one of the top goaltenders for the 2023 NHL Draft

Last spring, Adam Gajan knew where he wanted to play: in the United States. The problem? Nobody there knew who he was.

He spent his free evenings cutting up clips from his GoPro. They were nothing special, but they got the job done. After being far off the draft radar in his first year eligible, Gajan knew he needed to move quickly if he was going to make his mark. He didn’t have all the same resources back home in the Slovakian system like most North American goaltenders. He had to get out of there.

Eventually, his clips made it out to the Chippewa Steel’s coaching staff. They were impressed, signing him on for the 2022-23 season. It wasn’t Gajan’s first time moving away from home – he played in Finland about half a decade ago – but moving across the world to a city with a population of just under 15,000 people in Northwest Wisconsin is a totally different experience.

Suddenly, he was starting the home opener against the Johnstown Tomahawks on Sept. 14, 2022. There were a couple hundred fans, and a handful of scouts, in attendance. The online stream went out a couple times. In his first start with his new team in his new home, Gajan outdueled Swedish keeper Alec Rajalin-Scharp to win 6-1, stopping 26 shots.

The story had just begun.

His early season success was good, and it earned him consideration to the NHL’s initial Central Scouting watch list. Still, he was far from being a high-end goaltending draft prospect in a class without a true No. 1. But as the story goes, everything changed in an instant – and, perhaps, even by accident.

After playing two games with the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers – snagging a shutout in his second game – Gajan was given the call to join Slovakia’s world junior team. He arrived on Dec. 21, but didn’t factor into the team’s two pre-tournament games. He started as the third goaltender behind Patrik Andrisik and Matej Marinov and was given a start in what felt like a throwaway game against the United States on Dec. 28. There was absolutely no way the Slovaks were going to beat one of the pre-tournament favorites with an unheralded goalkeeper.

Except, they did. And Gajan was the star of the show.

Gajan made 33 stops, stealing a 6-3 victory. The coaching staff elected to ride Gajan the rest of the way, and he rewarded their faith with a 28-save shutout against Slovakia and a 32-save effort against Switzerland. It could have been easy to write off Gajan and the Slovaks in their quarterfinal game against Connor Bedard and Canada, but they gave the Canadians the ultimate scare. Gajan was incredible, stopping 53 saves in an eventual 4-3 overtime loss. But that night, the crowd celebrated him every time he made a huge save. They knew they were witnessing a special Cinderella run.

And that’s where the fun really began.

“A few years ago, I was playing in front of 500 people,” Gajan said. “And then I was playing in front of 12,000 in Canada. It was crazy.”

Gajan returned to Green Bay for a handful of games after the juniors before finishing the year in Chippewa. The team was knocked out of the playoffs early, but Gajan – the top goaltender at the WJC – still looked strong in the NAHL. The USHL is often considered to be the best developmental league in the United States, with the NAHL’s focus being more on sending players directly to the NCAA – mostly due to it being dominated by older competition. While the higher-end talent typically ends up in the USHL, the NAHL has produced goaltenders such as Ben Bishop, Jack Campbell, Craig Anderson, Cal Petersen, Cory Schneider, Alex Stalock, and, most notably, Connor Hellebuyck. For goaltenders, the opportunity to get plenty of shots is appealing.

Gajan’s whole world junior tournament performance was eye-opening. But his start against Canada was what got scouts excited about his potential. It didn’t feel like your average one-game superstar performance from an overmatched nation. Scouts noticed a lot more than a guy who can handle a heavy workload – there are plenty of translatable skills, too.

“From a raw talent perspective, he’s exceptionally athletic,” a scout said. “His legs are explosive. He makes lateral saves like it’s nobody’s business. And he has the size, too. He needs to control those slides better, but college coaching can help with that.”

In Gajan’s ice, nothing really changed from 12 months ago, other than his platform.

“I don’t think I’m a different goalie from a year ago, I just don’t think I ever really got a chance,” he said, adding, “I never played with the national team or anything. My first chance was at the world juniors, and everything changed.”

At 6-foot-3, Gajan has ideal size for an NHL goaltender. He doesn’t give shooters much room to work with and is quick enough on his feet to adjust himself to where he needs to be. He doesn’t overthink things, either; he has a good head on his shoulders that allows him to bounce back after a bad goal. Gajan is never stuck in his own mind – he always appears relaxed, whether it’s on the ice or while talking to hordes of reporters at the NHL Draft Combine.

But goalies are such a wild card every year, and there’s no true top goaltender this year. But after polling a group of scouts about who they think will be the best goaltender out of this crop, two names stood out: Michael Hrabal and Gajan’s.

“The biggest thing here is not evaluating where he is now based on a hot few months, but where he’ll be,” a scout said about the young Slovakian. “And I’m not sure anyone knows. It has a ‘sky’s the limit’ feeling here.”

Are scouts worried that his rise up draft boards could just be a smokescreen?

“Sometimes, we miss things,” the same scout said. “Nobody is making that mistake this time.”

Where a prospect plays matters significantly, and that’s why Gajan wanted to go to the United States. By going to Green Bay for a couple of games, the team was able to protect him for full-time duties in 2023-24, preventing him from getting drafted. Gajan plans to return to Green Bay for another season before challenging for starting duties at the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 2024-25.

Teams will be willing to play the patient route for a guy they didn’t know much about nine months ago. It might be another three to four years until he’s ready for his NHL shot. But there’s a reason scouts label him as a possible “starting goaltender.” He has the size, mindset and athleticism to succeed in the pro game. It’s about harnessing all that and proving he’s more than just a guy who went on a hot streak and took the scouting world by storm. Early projections suggest he’ll go in the second round – some wouldn’t be shocked if a team took a flier on him late in the first.

Either way, there might not be a more interesting goaltender in the NHL Draft – or one that smiles and has as much fun as him, either.

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How Adam Gajan went from total obscurity to become one of the top goaltenders for the 2023 NHL Draft

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