HCB Südtirol Alperia officially announces that an agreement has been reached to sign Finnish goalkeeper Christopher Gibson. He will replace Gianluca Vallini for the duration of his injury. The 32-year-old Gibson, an extremely experienced and reliable goalie with 16 NHL and 254 AHL appearances, has signed a contract until the beginning of February.
The career
Christopher Gibson was born in Karkkila (Finland). His father Peter – an artist and kickboxer from the Caribbean state of Saint Lucia – and his Finnish mother Ulla Nurse moved with him to Espoo, where he grew up. At the age of 15, Gibson moved to Saskatchewan and attended Notre Dame College. In 2011 he was drafted by the Los Angeles Kings in the second round, 42nd overall. He later moved to the Toronto Maple Leafs organization and made his AHL debut in 2013 with the Toronto Marlies farm team. In the following season he established himself as a regular player there and impressed with a catch rate of 92.1% in 45 regular season games. In 2015, Gibson was part of a trade to the New York Islanders, where he also celebrated his NHL debut: After his first appearance as a backup, he made 29 saves and a win in his first start on April 6, 2016, which secured the Islanders’ participation in the playoffs. In five years he played 14 NHL games for New York and was also the starting goalkeeper for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in the AHL.
Another memorable date is March 11, 2018: With 50 saves against the Calgary Flames, Gibson became the first rookie goaltender since Billy Smith in 1972 to achieve this feat in a single NHL game. After his contract expired, Gibson became a free agent in 2020 and was part of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers and Seattle Kraken organizations in the following years. He was used twice more in the NHL – in the season in which Tampa Bay won the Stanley Cup – and played in the AHL for the Syracuse Crunch, Charlotte Checkers and Coachella Valley Firebirds. After completing his North American career with a catch rate of 91.0% in the AHL and 90.1% in the NHL, he returned to Finland in 2023 and played for Lukko in the Liiga. Last season he played first in Slovakia at HC Nové Zámky and then in Kassel in the DEL2.
“I’m over the moon to be joining this team,” explains Gibson. “I’ve only been told positive things about both the club and the city, so it was an easy decision for me when the call came. I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone over the next few days and getting on the ice with my new teammates.”
hcb.net , Image: Michael Miller, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
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