2025 NHL Draft Eligible
Position: G, Catches: L
H/W: 6-foot-0, 179 pounds
Date of Birth: 2007-05-22
While the undersized goalie has become a rarity in the NHL, it’s not as if it can’t happen for one such as Jack Ivankovic. We’ve seen Juuse Saros stand at 5-foot-10 and dominate the league for years as one of its top starting goalies, and more recently, there has been a resurgence in the smaller goalies either being picked highly or developing well. We’ve seen Carter George (6-foot-1), Ilya Nabokov (6-foot-1), Evan Gardner (6-foot-1), and Trey Augustine (6-foot-1), all get picked in the second round in the past two seasons. Not to mention Dustin Wolf (6-foot-0), Devon Levi (6-foot-0), Dylan Garand (6-foot-0), and Carl Lindbom (6-foot-1), who were all late-round picks that developed into some of the best and most promising goalies of their respective classes. Even five years ago, Ivankovic would still have likely been relegated to a depth pick. However, while the height barrier still hasn’t been fully toppled, his predecessors have slowly but surely cracked it, paving the way for Ivankovic, allowing him opportunities that historically, goalies his size wouldn’t have gotten at his age.
That being said, there is still uncertainty in Ivankovic because of his height. Because there has been a lack of established NHL goalies to play in the past 10 years at his size, it’s much harder to draw NHL comparisons and project Ivankovic safely. Ivankovic is arguably the most overall talented goalie in his class, but because of the size disparity, he lags behind the behemoth Joshua Ravensbergen (6-foot-5), who could be considered to have more raw potential, given that he naturally covers more net and ground. But even though he’s smaller right now, there’s an outside chance he can grow further, given that his father is 6-foot-4”
But as said previously, the talent that Ivankoivc has is immense. He plays a lot like Saros. He shares the same world-class ankle and hip mobility, has the same kind of skating, and with a strong lower body, he’s still able to explode through the crease, making him one of the fastest goalies in the draft. Not only does he have some of the best overall movement and athleticism, but he’s also generally a strong technical goalie with great positioning, at times, poised, economical movement, and generally a very strong play-reading capability. Not to mention, easily the best puck mover in the draft - a quality that, while not integral to a goalie, adds a lot of additional value.
Although he is an elite, talented goalie in many facets, he still has valid concerns outside of his size. His season with Brampton this year wasn’t quite what many would have hoped to be, as his numbers as a starter didn’t keep up with his rookie season as the backup behind Leenders. This is largely because he’s been inconsistent throughout the year in performance. He can play overly aggressively and on the wilder side, opening up his technique and moving with less intention and more about getting to his destination. It’s made for a goalie who can be a bit erratic and is prone to having bad games. But on the flip side, he’s proven he can steal games and has shown up big time in junior international play at every level so far.
He is a flawed goalie, plagued by inconsistencies and his diminutive stature. Still, the talent is far too great to deny him a high pick, and it would be better to get him earlier in the draft rather than later, so teams don’t miss out on a potential starting-caliber goalie simply because they’re worried about his height.
Athleticism
As alluded to previously, Ivankovic is one of the best athletic goalies in the class, excelling more in mobility in his joints rather than having explosiveness and flexibility. However, he’s still exceptional in those areas. At 5-foot-11-6-foot-0, a goalie has to have a certain level of athleticism to make it work, especially in the NHL. With their already diminutive stature and shorter legs, they will generally cover less net both in a regular direct stance and in motion. But even still, Ivankovic separates himself even further with his athletic ability than other elite goalie prospects at his size. He easily makes up for covering the net less because he’s able to travel much faster than most goalies. With a little more refinement, he will be able to maximize his speed and gain a significant advantage by reaching places quicker and having his feet set and prepared much faster than the average goalie, allowing him to read and track the shot more effectively. But he’s also someone who excels at exploding into stretched-out saves already, because of his mobility, enabling him to move out of a butterfly with ease.
On the rush, he fields a contested shot to his right pad, as the shooter was cutting to the glove side. This causes Ivankovic’s weight and momentum to be shifted to his left, while the rebound goes to the opposite side in a high danger area. He quickly planted his left leg for a push, and even though momentum physics were actively acting against him, he was able to get an impressive amount of power to stretch out his right leg to make a save on what should have been a goal.
Again on the rush, as the puck carrier moves in close, Ivankovic begins to alter his stance wider and begins entering a butterfly. Because of his edges no longer being perpendicular to the ice and his legs being stretched out, it is a lot harder to generate any kind of mobility and power for a push. Ivankovic starts to enter a butterfly in this wide stance, but with a quick pass to the doorstep, Ivankovic is still able to grab enough ice from an awkward position to allow for an explosive push, extending his limbs to make another huge save.
Here’s another similar save, where Ivankovic’s weight is moving to his left as he’s already in a butterfly. The change of direction forces Ivankovic to bring up his left leg, where he makes a very explosive, compact push with an outstretched right leg. While this save isn’t solely made through athleticism, and is greatly influenced by his mental processing, it is extremely impressive that his body can react that quickly to such a difficult push to make that save.
After allowing a rebound, Ivankovic again uses that left leg to make an explosive push. But what’s so impressive is that he’s not only pushing laterally, but backwards as well. It takes significant ankle and knee mobility to be able to get enough power in such a situation to push off well. He also combines that explosive push with his natural flexibility to stretch out his leg, where he makes a good save off the rebound.
Grade: 60
Technique
Generally speaking, Ivankovic has a good technique. While he is more of the quick, high-octane type of goalie, he has a great positional foundation to base his game off of. He uses great edges to zip around the crease and is good at adjusting his feet to alter his angle or depth to the shooter. This is shown when he’s attacking someone off the rush, where he will aggressively be out of the crease, but is still able to match the speed of the player, cutting down the angle of the shot so there’s practically nothing to shoot at, while still being mindful of his position relative to his posts. He’s also been shown to have some of the best hands in the draft class, with very quick and active hands, which has led him to excel in stopping high shots, an area that’s often a concern for someone of his height. The hole in his technique stems from his stance. He plays in a low and wide stance a lot, and tends to open up his 5-hole when he’s sliding or even when he’s dropping into a butterfly. This wide stance limits mobility, and it causes him to often go down prematurely, which can leave him vulnerable to changes of direction. A problem, but a fixable one nonetheless.
Here, Ivankovic is playing on the post while the puck is behind the net, looking to be moved to the slot. When the pass happens, all Ivankovic does is make a single double c-cut off the post. He’s able to get enough power in just such a small movement, where he gets to a very good position for the shot with respectable depth. What’s impressive is how his feet are set for the shot. A lot of more athletically inclined goalies struggle in setting their feet, making it harder to read the shot as they’re moving forward, as their brain has to subconsciously focus on the body that’s in motion before dropping down to make the save. But when he goes down in a butterfly, he propels himself forward, getting that same benefit of cutting the angle down more after the shot comes, but doing this lets him react to the shot better. To top it all off, he makes a great glove save, dropping it from up high to above the pad, which is the hardest glove movement to make and a lethal shot location.
With Ivankovic’s aggressive style, it’s common to see him coming out of the blue paint to attack the shooter on a 1-on-0. Forcing him to deke, Ivankovic uses rapid, successive c-cuts backward, matching the speed of the shooter, where he loads his right leg for a clean butterfly slide. He keeps his body upright and his glove projected on the puck, tracking it all through the motion. You can see that in his slide, though, he opens his 5-hole slightly. An area where he’s been beaten frequently, and could have been this play with a smarter shot, but he makes a great and controlled save either way. He just should work on not exposing that 5-hole.
Here’s a prime example of how Ivankovic opens up his 5-hole in his stance. He starts widening a lot as the puck gets closer, and he’s trying to prepare for a slot pass. He cuts his right foot back, which fully exposes the 5-hole. And with an opening that large, he would be extremely vulnerable to any shots to that area. But this stance causes a few other issues. Because he’s so wide and low to the ground, he won’t have good upper-body mobility to maneuver his stick. Meaning that pucks that go low will bounce right out to the slot. He is also exposing himself up top more because of how low he gets, but thankfully, his hands are very quick, and he still keeps them projected, so it isn’t much of a problem.
Starting on the post, Ivankovic begins more square to the puck in the corner. But as he foresees a pass to the slot, he swings his left leg back to compensate. The lateral pass isn’t very clean, and it pops out to the middle of the slot. Ivankovic grabs ice with his left leg and quickly propels himself to the middle of the crease. This is a more appropriate stance. He’s locked into going down, a bit wider, but he’s still staying tall enough and not opening up any holes down low. He does a similar thing to what was shown earlier, where he allows himself to fall forward in his butterfly, cutting down the angle further. And because of his glove positioning, he easily makes a really good high glove save. It all stems from the initial post positioning and quick footwork. His flattening himself on the goal line made it much easier to see the puck through the confusion, and put himself in a better position where he could quickly get to a spot where he could effectively challenge the shooter.
Grade: 55
Play Reading
When it comes to play reading, Ivankovic excels. His tracking is one of his best assets, and having that constant, quick focus and vision on the puck allows him to consistently anticipate play, no matter how fast. There are times when he will execute the wrong plan because of his aggressive nature, and will prematurely butterfly, but that would be more of a composure and patience issue. In terms of actually reading the play, he’s consistently demonstrated that he’s top-notch, whether it’s adjusting his position for passes he predicted or in 1-on-0 situations. He will often challenge the shooter, baiting them to attack in tight, where Ivankovic is already in the process of moving back and reading the angle of the player's stick to predict the side they go to and stuff the play. It’s an asset that, when combined with his elite skating and lightning-quick agility, is a very dangerous tool to have at his disposal.
It’s not often that you see a clear visual representation of a goalie anticipating the play, as it’s a cerebral thing and can be mistaken for quick reflexes and speed. But here, Ivankovic is anticipating the play by actively pointing out the passing threat to his teammates. Because of it, he reacts to the pass very quickly, getting to his position and stance before the puck gets to the shooter. But the play still results in a goal, which could be caused by two different things. 1: he’s playing Norway, much worse competition than he’s used to. He could be expecting a quick shot because he might not expect a Norwegian player to be able to recognize the open space and make that slick of a move to go to his backhand. 2: He generally plays at a fast pace, and even though he reads the play very well, he lacks patience and can jump the gun and bite too early, as seen here.
Playing the rush, Ivankovic starts aggressively, challenging the shooter. The carrier moves in tighter on a bad angle, where Ivankovic parks his position so that he completely takes up all the short-side net so that there’s nothing to shoot at. But because the carrier makes a loose puck deke on the defender to get around him, the puck is actually off the stick until it lands in front of Ivankovic. Due to the angle that the shooter is relative to the puck, he isn’t in any position to shoot it. Reading this fact, Ivankovic anticipates correctly that the only possible move is for him to cut across the crease. He begins to load up a butterfly slide early to follow the shooter laterally. It allows him to make an upright controlled slide, giving him an advantage if the shot is elevated. A lesser goalie likely would have stretched out, leaving room up top. But this way, Ivankovic gets there faster, in a better position, and is prepared more for a change of direction because of his flawless anticipation of the play.
On this rush play, there are two forwards involved. The puck carrier is being pressured by two defenders, making him unable to get enough space for a shot, and would only be able to keep moving down the boards, a non-dangerous area. Ivankopvic recognizes this fact and sees the open F2 moving towards the slot. He starts to adjust his positioning and swings his right leg back to prepare himself for movement. Moving deeper allowed him to only have to make two small shuffles over and be right on top of the play when the pass was made right on the doorstep. If he mistakenly challenged the shooter, it would have taken much more time for that movement to follow the pass, and would have made the save much harder.
Ivankovic follows the perimeter pass well and fights through traffic to track the puck. Having seen the forward coming off the half wall before the initial pass, he knows that there is someone who’s going to be in that general area. He also recognizes that the puck carrier’s blade is loading up behind him and pointing toward the area where he knows that player is going to be, so he can safely anticipate a pass is coming. He starts to c-cut backward so that he will shorten his route and movement time laterally. Doing so allowed him to make a controlled slide to follow the pass, enabling him to easily track the shot as his boyd wasn’t moving in a stretched athletic frenzy.
Grade: 52.5
Compete/Temperament
It’s no secret that Ivankovic is a natural-born competitor. Never once will the Brampton goalie struggle in moving with urgency or purpose. He gives it his all on any play. The downside to this style of fast-paced, athletic play is that a lack of composure typically accompanies it. Now he doesn’t struggle to a point of genuine concern where it could hold him back from reaching the NHL, but it is an area of weakness to target for his future goalie coaches. He tends to go down early because he’s trying to be too fast in getting on top of the play. He lacks the patience to allow the play to come to him and keeps it in front of him, where he is more than capable of easily following and anticipating the play. Becoming a methodical, slower-paced guy would start to detract from his identity, but every goalie can benefit from having patience, and if Ivankovic developed that, he could become a premier goalie in the NHL.
There are a few different issues in this clip. One could argue it’s more play-reading, but given how easily he tracked the puck, evidenced by how quickly his head turned, I think he was at least subconsciously aware of a pass. Another issue could be his technique, playing a wide stance made it much harder to rotate and laterally move to make the save. This “poor technique” is a good representation of his lack of patience. He’s almost playing too fast, like he wants a shot to happen. He enters that low stance, essentially going all in on the shot because he wants to get to a butterfly as quickly as possible. He was practically already entering the butterfly when the pass was made, and because of this lack of patience, he got completely burned backdoor.
The play is really in tight with both the carrier being a dangerous threat and there being a prime passing option on the doorstep. This goal is due to two things: a bit of a misread, but also a severe lack of patience. The carrier doesn’t make much of a move to shoot, but Ivankovic, like he does frequently, is anxious to get down early. But butterflying here made him incapable of following the pass, which he would've been able to do so much easier if he had remained on his feet. He does make a nice diving attempt, showing his competitive level, but the initial mistake is too much, and the goal is inevitable.
Here, Ivankovic is doing a bit of both poor composure and high competitiveness. Off the first shot, Ivankovic reacts by sliding farther to the same side post, taking him more out of position. But he makes up for his mistake by making fast pushes to the other posts with great urgency to make a save. Now, because he had to overmove, he’s on his back. But he recovers impressively fast to push over, then again with great quickness he changes directions abruptly, where he’s finally able to reset himself. It’s impressive that while he did sort of create this situation, he was still able to keep up with the play and recover so quickly because of his athleticism and competitiveness.
This isn't necessarily a flashy clip, but it’s like many clips throughout this report that can highlight many different areas. In this one, he’s playing more anticipatory and technical, but the key is that he’s pretty patient here, fully allowing the play to develop before reacting. But that doesn’t slow him down. He moves very quickly with a ton of urgency. This is a perfect example of how Ivankovic should be playing; he just hasn’t quite fully put it together yet. He’s using all of his skills at a high level, staying composed in his technique, remaining patient, anticipating play, and competing hard by moving very quickly. It seems obvious to move that quickly, but a lot of calm goalies, even if capable, might not move with that much urgency often because they don't think it necessary, and can get beaten because of it. A common issue seen in Frederik Andersen or Anthony Stolarz. But here, Ivankovic is striking that perfect balance.
Rebound Control
Rebounds are the one seriously concerning area of Ivankovic’s game. He lacks the proper rebound technique for low shots. His stick can be very inactive, and anything low, especially in the middle 2/3s of his body, he should be directing pucks to corners, but he fails to do so. Pucks just bounce off his pads all the time. He plays a wide and flared butterfly stance, so when the pucks do hit him, they’re usually angled to come right out to a dangerous area. His pads also seem to be on the softer end. When pucks hit him, they don’t shoot out; they will die in the inner slot and make it easier for players to capitalize on. Some goalies compensate for having a weak stick by kicking their bouncy pads to shoot the puck out with a ton of speed, which is harder to react to for an immediate shot off the rebound, a worse and more inefficient method of control, but can be effective. Ivankovic’s lack of rebound control has led him to be scored on a lot from rebounds, and in the NHL, that will only get worse if he doesn’t make serious changes.
If Ivankovic wasn’t athletic and couldn’t use it to recover from rebounds, Ivankovic would often be dead in the water. While playing damage control isn’t ideal, it certainly is helpful. This rebound is much less Ivankovic’s fault than normal, given the location of the puck hitting him in the high shoulder, a difficult shot to control, and it being screened. But the puck drops down right in front of him, and it moves to his right for a quick rebound shot. He has to make a crazy, stretched-out pad save from an already compromised position, which, if he were any less athletic, wouldn't have been possible.
First of many representations of poor stick control. It’s a low shot to his left pad, and his stick doesn’t even move. He has to get the stick on this one to direct it to the corner, and since he didn’t, it kicked right back out. Ivankovic made a good attempt to push over to recover, but the shot off the rebound was just far too quick, allowing for an easy goal from Oshawa that should never have happened.
This shot actually goes right dead center of the 5-hole. It’s harder to direct rebounds from here, but there are still techniques to do so. If he kept his stick stable and rotated his upper body, it should have directed it just fine. He also could have just kept his stick right in front of his pads, almost sitting on them, and corralled the puck, completely killing it where he could bring his glove over top of it, freezing it. Instead, he flicks his stick outward, perhaps just a poor reflex, which pops it to a shooter waiting to pounce in the slot. If it weren’t for Ivankovic’s athleticism again, he would’ve been burned.
Another similar rebound issue here. The puck is shot in a very controllable area, but he fails to make and move to redirect the puck with his stick, allowing a rebound, causing a goal that he could have avoided with proper rebound control.
Grade: 47.5
Puck Skills
There have been maybe two goalies in the past couple of years to have such genuine skill in playing the puck that they are adding serious value in a skill that’s otherwise relatively unimportant for a goalie’s overall effectiveness. Those goalies are Carter George from the 2024 draft and Jack Ivankovic. He’s an aggressive puck handler, has no qualms about leaving the crease to make a pass. He’s also calm at the same time, not freaking out with the puck in his hands. He’s confident with his passing abilities and handling them, so he tends to go for passes that many wouldn’t think about making. He uses his great vision to see up ice, and if he sees the opportunity, he will jump out to make the breakout pass to kick off a rush.
Here, he corrals a long dump in and immediately stands up to make a pass. Most goalies would leave the puck for #5 to pick up. But if he did that, there would have been two players pressuring him. Instead, he makes a quick outside pass, leading perfectly to his target's backhand, drawing him away from the forechecker to open up space to make another pass.
Teams with lesser puckhandling goalies would see their defensemen come back to the DZ deeper on an icing for shorter passes that would lead to a much slower powerplay setup. But with how good Ivankovic is, they were prepared for a quick long stretch pass from Ivankovic to the blueline, which directly leads to a high danger shot because Ivankovic capitalized on North Bay changing.
Here’s a pretty aggressive play from Ivankovic. He catches the puck high with his glove, and in one fluid, textbook motion, slaps it on the ice and stands up. He does this because he recognizes all the Slovakian players who are diving into the zone. So if he gets off a good enough outlet pass, which he does, they possibly could break out and create an odd-man rush. Unfortunately, the backcheckers do a good job breaking up the play, but the sentiment was great with a good potential payout.
Here’s a bit of deception from Ivankovic. His defensemen give him two possible outlets, but Ivankovic holds the puck until the forechecker commits to either side. As he commits to the right, Ivankovic reverses it to eh other defenseman, a safer pass. In doing this, it forces F2 to attack the dman with the puck, and F1 is now going behind the net to the puck carrier. This leaves the other defenseman with a ton of space to receive another pass because the forecheckers were shaken off, all due to Ivankovic’s plan and execution.
Grade: 55
OFP: 53.875
A note on the 20-80 scale used above. We look at five attributes (skating, shooting, puck skills, hockey IQ and physicality) for skaters and six for goalies (athleticism/quickness, compete/temperament, vision/play reading, technique/style, rebound control and puck handling). Each individual attribute is graded along the 20-80 scales, which includes half-grades. The idea is that a projection of 50 in a given attribute meant that our observer believed that the player could get to roughly NHL average at that attribute at maturity.