Kristers Gudļevskis

Kristers Gudļevskis (born July 31, 1992 in Aizkraukle) is a Latvian ice hockey goaltender. He is currently playing with the Fischtown Pinguins of the DEL. Gudļevskis was selected by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 5th round (124th overall) of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.

Gudlevskis is the only player to have played in the ECHL, AHL, NHL, Olympic Games and IIHF World Championships in the same season.

Europe
Gudļevskis started his professional career in the 2009–10 season playing for HK Ogre of the Latvian Hockey League. In the next season, he moved on to play for Dinamo Riga affiliate HK Riga of the MHL. He played for three seasons with HK Riga. Throughout the 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons he made the Dinamo Riga roster several times as a healthy scratch. On October 5, 2012, he finally made his debut during a 2–1 overtime win against Vityaz, replacing injured Mikael Tellqvist after the second period tied at 0–0. Later in the season he played his first full game as starter in a 2–0 loss against Sibir.

Tampa Bay Lightning
Gudļevskis is only the second (after Artūrs Irbe) and highest-ranked Latvian goaltender ever selected in NHL entry draft. Dinamo Riga agreed to release Gudļevskis from the final year of his contract; he later signed a three-year entry-level contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League.

Following the Lightning's 2013 pre-season camp, he was re-assigned to their ECHL affiliate, the Florida Everblades. While attending pre-season training camp with the Everblades, Gudļevskis was recalled to join the Lightning. He was later reassigned to the Everblades without making the Lightning roster, and made his official North American debut with 20 saves in a 4–1 win over the Orlando Solar Bears.

Gudļevskis was recalled to the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL on October 24, 2013 due to an injury to Riku Helenius. He made his AHL debut on October 26, 2013 with a shutout against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Gudlevskis became the fifth goaltender in Crunch history to post a shutout upon debut. After four games with the Crunch, Gudļevskis once again was reassigned to the Everblades.

On December 7, 2013 Gudļevskis was promoted to the Syracuse Crunch in order to give him more AHL ice time. Gudļevskis cemented his place on the Crunch roster posting 10 wins in 21 games. On January 15, 2014 Gudlevskis was named the CCM/AHL Player of the Week.

On January 31, 2014, due to injuries of Ben Bishop and Anders Lindback, Gudlevskis received an emergency call-up to the Lightning along with Cedrick Desjardins. Kristers made his first NHL start on April 11, 2014 in a game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Columbus Blue Jackets, he stopped 36 shots in a 3–2 win for Tampa. He made his NHL Playoff debut after replacing Anders Lindback mid-game on April 18, 2014 against the Montreal Canadiens in the second game of the first round. He replaced Lindback in game four of the series as well.

He played for Syracuse Crunch until 2017. In 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons, he played one game for Tampa Bay.

Bridgeport Sound Tigers
Gudļevskis spent the 2017-18 season in AHL playing for Bridgeport Sound Tigers. After this season, he moved back in Europe.

Back in Europe
Gudļevskis signed a two-years contract with Dinamo Riga of the KHL. At the beginning of the 2019-20 season, his performance was not good enough, so he moved to Germany to play here for Fischtown Pinguins of the DEL.

International play
Gudļevskis played at the 2010 World U18 Championship, 2011 World Junior Championship Division I and 2012 World Junior Championship.

Gudļevskis became the starting goaltender for Team Latvia in the 2013 IIHF World Championship after original starter Edgars Masaļskis could not recover game form coming from injury. He registered 2–2 win-loss record and was named one of three best players for Team Latvia in the tournament.

On January 7, 2014, Gudļevskis was named to the Latvian national team roster for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.

Latvia entered the qualification playoff stage ranked as one of the lowest seeds (ahead of only Norway), amassing no points in group play. In the second round, Gudļevskis got the start in the matchup against reigning Olympic champions Canada, despite the Latvian team upsetting Switzerland earlier with goalie Edgars Masaļskis.

In what was expected to be a routine victory for the Canadian squad, the Latvian team responded with an early equalizer and managed to stay alive behind Gudļevskis' goaltending (saving 55 of 57 shots he faced) until late into the third period, eventually falling in a 2–1 loss. To get an understanding of disparities, Canada entered the tournament ranked fifth and is home to roughly 2450 indoor rinks to Latvia's 11th-place ranking and 17 rinks. As a result, Gudļevskis was noted, especially in Canadian media and sports commentary, for his performance in the quarter-final against the Canadian national team.

Gudļevskis played also at the World Championship same year. He played in 4 games, but his save percentage was under .900.

He also played at the 2016 Olympic Qualification, but Latvia did not qualify. And he also participated at the 2018 and 2019 World Championships.