Ovechkin or Lehtonen?

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Amen evil king

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Apr 11, 2004
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Wally112pac said:
Goaltending wins championships

Iginla Vs Khabibulin. Who won?

Yes, i know Hockey is a team sport but hopefully you can see my point.

The Calgary Flames without Iginla vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning without Khabibulin.. Not even close! Iginla is the Calgary Flames.. Tampa could put Vinny in goal and they'd still have a shot :D

Iginla or Khabibulin? I'd take Iginla, and I think a lot of other people would too.

I do see your point however, and its really hard to compare different positions in 'who would you rather have' threads like these. I try to think of it as if your team is all made up of identically averagely skilled players, both in goal and otherwise. Would you rather upgrade your goaltending with Lehtonen, or upgrade one of your forward positions with Ovechkin. I guess you'd have to answer Lehtonen, even if you thought Ovechkin will be the 'better' player, as I do.
 
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PSUhockey34

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I would take a goalie of Lehtonen's potential every time over a potential franchise foward...we see it every year in the playoffs how much of an impact a goalie can have in swaying a series one way or another...dont get me wrong, its the more risky of the two choices but also has the bigger payoff in the end IMO

The should thread should be changed to Franchise Goalie or Franchise Foward
 

Thmooth Thelen

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NYRGoalieGlut said:
U bring up a good point. Goalies go #1overall VERY rarely (did anyone go #1overall other than Luongo and Fleury?). I wonder why.
Luongo wasn't drafted first overall. Rick DiPietro was the other goalie #1.
 

NYRGoalieGlut*

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Thmooth Thelen said:
Luongo wasn't drafted first overall. Rick DiPietro was the other goalie #1.

U'r 100% right. Brain Cramp, both were Isles picks. I actually thought of Luongo first and then remembered that it was Dipietro and made a mental note that it was him and not Luongo, but I guess it didn't work. :)
 

GodZillaAteMyZamboni

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BMWM3owner said:
I would take a goalie of Lehtonen's potential every time over a potential franchise foward...we see it every year in the playoffs how much of an impact a goalie can have in swaying a series one way or another...
Take a look at the goalies who've played in the last 10 finals. Only three (Brodeur, Giguere, and Kolzig) were first rounders. Only 2 (Giguere, and Kolzig) were even the first goalie taken in their draft. None were top 10 picks.

Recent history shows that you don't get a team to the finals by taking a goalie with a top 10 pick.
 

FINNtastic

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Dark Metamorphosis said:
i'd take ovechkin. great franchise goalies come along every couple of years too...1997 Luongo, 2002 Lehtonen, 2003 Fleury
I think the same can be said about the "franchise forwards"... 2000 Dany Heatley, 2001 Ilja Kovalchuk, 2002 Rick Nash, 2004 Alexander Ovechkin, 2005 Sidney Crosby(?)...I might be using the term "franchise" a bit loosely but IMO all of these forwards (not really sure about Crosby though..time will tell) can be considered as potential franchise forwards. If Fleury is considered as a franchise goalie then all of these forwards should be franchise "material" too.
Lehtonen or Ovechkin that's a tough question... I'd probably take Lehtonen because a great goalie can change the whole direction of the team, as we saw what happened to Calgary when Kiprusoff took control. Of course a great forward can do the same but I have my doubts about Ovechkin's scoring capability (Small doubts but still... I hope I'm wrong for hockey's sake! :) ) Anyway both of them are extraordinary talents with bright futures ahead of them :yo:
 

infinitesadd

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I did a post similar to this on the Pens board. I put Malkin vs Fleury, since we had them both. It was actually pretty split. I go with the franchise goalie though. Lehtonen is on another level.
 

PSUhockey34

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GodZillaAteMyZamboni said:
Recent history shows that you don't get a team to the finals by taking a goalie with a top 10 pick.

I completely agree with you on that and probably in all honesty I would be real hesistant in taking a goalie with a high pick hoping he'll a winner out of my franchise in a few years...what I was trying to get at is that I feel you get a higher reward if you have a goalie turn out to be your franchise compared to the type of impact a franchise foward would have
 

Puckhead

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Behind you!!!
Even if Ovechkin dominates the NHL as eveyone is suspecting he will, and there is no proof that he will, I take Lehtonen!!! The goaltender has the greatest impact on any given game. Taking into account that the way the game is played these days, a forward, franchise or not will not single handedly win the game for you, whereas a franchise goalie can and in most games will decide the outcome.
 

Blatny Spears

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GodZillaAteMyZamboni said:
Take a look at the goalies who've played in the last 10 finals. Only three (Brodeur, Giguere, and Kolzig) were first rounders. Only 2 (Giguere, and Kolzig) were even the first goalie taken in their draft. None were top 10 picks.

Recent history shows that you don't get a team to the finals by taking a goalie with a top 10 pick.
Well, it's only been in recent history that teams have "gambled" on taking goalies in the top ten so you really don't have much of a statistical sample to examine.

Roberto Luongo sure as heck looks like a goalie that can win a Cup if he's got a solid team in front of him. I'd wager that Lehtonen will be that caliber of goalie too eventually.
 

GodZillaAteMyZamboni

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Blatny Spears said:
Well, it's only been in recent history that teams have "gambled" on taking goalies in the top ten so you really don't have much of a statistical sample to examine.
In the 25 drafts from 1970-1994, there were 8 goalies taken in the top 10 and one at 11. I'll leave out the most recent years, since those guys are still developing. That's 1 out of every 3 years. I wouldn't say that's a recent trend.

Anyway, being picked high in the first round is only part of what I'm saying. Out of the last 10 finals, only 2 goalies were even the first one chosen in his draft. Some, Roy, Hasek, and Richter come to mind, were at least the 3rd goalie taken.

Don't get me wrong, there are a bunch of examples of franchise type forwards and defensemen also being picked later in their draft, I'm simply saying it isn't such a slam dunk that you take a goalie over a franchise forward.
 
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