What happened to DiPietro?

Hows he doing, I haven't heard anything about how he is progressing.

 

Where have you been?

 

I heard he played in a Roller Hockey league during the lockout.

 

He was great in the 1993 Stanley Cup run !

 

I think Dipietro has to be considered somewhat dissapointing. Thats not to say he cannot become a great goalie, his progress has however being slow. For example, someone such as Raycroft probably passed DiPietro in one year.

 

Raycroft was also drafted 2 years before DiPietro, and took a lot longer to make it to the NHL.

I think DiPietro catches a lot of unnecessary flak. He's still pretty young as goalies go, and has shown some nice stuff on a pretty average Islanders team. I personally thought he was pretty awesome in international competition.

 

What happened to DiPietro?

He turned into a pretty good goalie.

 

He's been playing in Switzerland the past 5 years

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=1355

 

he bowled in a league in AMF Garden City Bowl this year!

 

Considering he'll probably be Team USA's starting goalie in the Olympics, I'd say he's doing pretty well.

 

23 yr old RD took over as the team's #1 by the end of 2003-04.

He's played less then 100 nhl games,he's still a work in progress,but the nyi and most of their fans are pleased with how he's developing.

Isles are trying to ink him to a longterm deal.

 

The pros and cons of being the #1 pick(pros being the cash?)

 

I think he has developed just fine. People that expected much more from him this early on had unreasonable expectations.

Look for similar development with Fleury.

 

Indeed, I think DP have been developed very nicely. I think he will turn into one heck of a goalie.

 

Well at 23 he was the starting goalie on an NHL team and at 24 he's now the starting goalie on Team USA. I'm pretty happy with the way he's developed and he has so much skill you just know he's going to get a lot better over the next few years.

 

Homer question but, why would you start RD over Esche on Team USA? Esche has more experience and he's not under the same pressure to perform?

 

Esche could very well end up taking over the starting spot if Dipietro falters for Team USA at the Olympics. But Dipietro is fully capable of carrying the load already, and USA Hockey sees him as the backbone of their national program going forward. After Dipietro's outstanding performance at the World Championships it is his job to lose IMO.

 

We isn't he "under the same pressure." You can't get much higher pressure than Team USA.

I think they should start whichever player wins the job.

 

Dipietro is right on track as far as I'm concerned.

 

Dipietro gets a bad rep for two reasons:

1.) He was traded for Roberto Luongo at draft day and became the first goalie drafted at #1 overall. Heatley went #2 that draft.

Not only did the Isles get ripped exchanging the goalie they had (soon to be the best goalie in the league) for an unproven, cocky ******* from BU - but - Dany Heatley, the consensus best player of the 2000 draft was available.

2.) His attitude turns a lot of fans off. He's overly cocky and when you're overly cocky like that (in itself a rarity for goaltenders) you better put your money where your mouth is. He's failed to back up all that talk, especially in the earlier part of his career.

He can still be a very good goaltender in this league and my money is that he'll show that in the next few years. He's got to tone down the puck handling mistakes (which might be negated by the new handling rules anyway) and he's got to be more consistent.

Right now, too many people view his attitude as a front because his game lacks the confidence that he displays outside the rink. He's just got some growing up to do.

Goaltenders are traditionally late bloomers, give this kid another 1-2 years and he'll come into his own.

 

The Islanders picked DiPietro with there own #1 pick. The Loungo trade happened right before the draft, so the 2 things get lumped together. I do agree with Heatley getting picked with the next pick really makes it seem worse(ie who would you rather have Heatley and Loungo or Dipietro and Parrish). As it stands now i would rather have Heatley, but i am not upset anymore they overlooked Gaborik(who i think the islanders might have taken if they didn't trade Loungo).