A Clean Sheet: Gabe Landeskog

ABOUT THIS ENTRY

A Clean Sheet is a six-part docuseries chronicling Colorado Avalanche Captain Gabe Landeskog’s unprecedented attempt to return from a radical knee surgery that no NHL player had ever successfully returned from. Told in real time with intimate, first-person access, the docuseries redefines the comeback story by exploring identity, mental health, and resilience beyond the game.

How does this represent "Excellence in Engagement"?

A Clean Sheet establishes a new benchmark for what we call “Access with Purpose.”

This is not traditional behind-the-scenes content. It is radically honest and responsibly intimate storytelling that treats mental health and identity as core to sports performance, not side commentary. 

It also establishes a modern model for sports documentaries built entirely around the unknown. There was no guaranteed comeback, no predetermined arc, and no promise of triumph. The stakes were real and unresolved.

Creatively, the series proves that premium storytelling does not require large crews or overproduction. Athlete trust yields deeper candor, driving sustained fan connection. 

Strategically, it offers a blueprint for athlete-first chronicling in which the athlete is not just the subject, but a co-author of the narrative.

A Clean Sheet helps normalize emotional transparency in professional sports and encourages leagues, networks, and athletes to expand the boundaries of how performance stories are told.

Objective

A Clean Sheet was born from a gap in sports storytelling.

While comeback victories are widely celebrated, few stories examine the identity crisis and psychological toll that accompany career-altering injury, particularly in professional hockey, where emotional expression has historically remained behind closed doors.

When Gabe Landeskog underwent a radical osteochondral allograft, a procedure that had never produced a successful return at the NHL level, he faced a fundamental question: Who am I if I am no longer a hockey player? Searching for a story that reflected his reality, he found none.

The objective became clear: create the story he wished existed. Rather than centering on a guaranteed path back to the ice or a results-driven framework, A Clean Sheet was designed as an in-the-moment, unfiltered chronicle of resilience with an unknown ending. We committed to telling this story not because we knew how it would end, but because its uncertainty was the point.

The goal was to expand the recovery narrative from physical comeback to identity reconstruction, while setting a new precedent for vulnerability and transparency in professional sports.

Strategy & Execution

Modern sports fans no longer connect solely through competitive outcomes; they connect through story. In an era shaped by creator culture and athlete-led media, audiences expect access not just to highlights, but to humanity.

A Clean Sheet was built to meet that expectation.

This series widens the lens to examine who Gabe is beyond the rink. His childhood in Sweden, the influence of his father, leaving home at 16, meeting his wife Melissa, and becoming a father were not supplemental backstories. They were foundational to understanding the stakes of the present moment.

By exploring marriage and family life alongside rehab sessions and medical appointments, the series reframed the approach from “Will he return?” to “Who is he becoming through this process?”

Gabe’s personal journal entries and camcorder footage (“Daddy Cam”) captured private family moments and his raw and honest feelings. Blending professional cinematography with personal documentation created first-person credibility aligned with how modern audiences consume and trust content.

Told in the moment, the docuseries places equal narrative weight on the man, husband, and father, not just the captain, reflecting how today’s fans engage with athletes as multidimensional humans.

Organizations

• Fresh Tape Media

• LLC

  Warner Bros. Discovery

Links

•   Website

Featured

• • Gabriel Landeskog
  • Steven Stamkos
  • Nathan MacKinnon
  • Erik Johnson
  • Cale Makar

Credits

Gabe Landeskog
Professional Hockey Player
Colorado Avalanche

Jared Kleinstein
Founder + CEO
Fresh Tape Media

AJ Oscarson
Head of Studios, DP
Fresh Tape Media

Alana Moritz
VP, Creative
Fresh Tape Media

Gabby Akinsanya
Head of Business Development
Fresh Tape Media

David Herman
General Manager
Fresh Tape Media

Brad Ross
Creative Director
Fresh Tape Media

Avalon Koenig
Head of Production
Fresh Tape Media

Brandon Messner
Art Director
Fresh Tape Media

Nathaniel Rateliff
Singer-Songwriter
N/A

Connor Aidan
Producer
Fresh Tape Media

Katie Nehring
Graphic Designer
Fresh Tape Media

Chris Tetzeli
Founding Partner
7S Management

Charles Lian
Head of Finance
Fresh Tape Media

Phoebe Greene
Operations Manager
Fresh Tape Media