45th pick for Latendresse is it fair ???

[montreal]

stick to hockey or take it to pm.

 

[ZombieMatt]

If the guy was that good none of that would matter. If Crosby got hurt in his first game last year and missed the whole year, he still would have gone #1.

Not true (the first part).

Injuries and games played and being seen by scouts always plays a major role in draft position.

And I would guess that's even more important with goaltenders because they are the most difficult to forecast. Teams want to be comfortable taking a keeper, they want to have seen him a lot. Especially because I don't think all teams carry a goaltending scout or necessarily even have a goalie consultant very carefully outline what to look for.

The point is this...his lack of ice time (and there is no shame in being outplayed by a 19 yr old) was a huge, huge, huge factor. Did he not perform to expectations? Probably not. But his lack of starts after Christmas is almost certainly the deciding factor.