Absolutely. But I and most people have no way of knowing that, you literally just hope for the best. Which I am, but as far as picking one? I'll never do, because I honestly believe even if I'm right in a goalie being good or bad, it'll be purely chance that I was right. But if I'm wrong, it'll be because I'm an idiot. I'm not saying I'm not an idiot, but a goalie outcome has nothing to do with my smarts.
did the nhl approve his helmet?Schmid, add:
Barabossha
and he is still part of the oilers old boys club.Not anymore. The last player to be grandfathered in and wear that style helmet was Craig MacTavish, in the 80s.
The 1780s.
Reid Boucher just scored twice as many goals as Grits for Omsk this past reg season. And then 3 times as many playoff goals.
No one would would even think of ranking Stillman as one of our top prospects if we drafted him in the 3rd round and he produced the way he has. He’s closer to a non-prospect than one of our top prospects.
It wasn't too long ago that many of us were penning in Blackwood as our goalie of the future. Everyone thought the Canes were crazy for trading Nedeljkovic coming off a Calder finalist campaign and he's been well below average in Detroit. Goalies are tough to evaluate and Schmid doesn't have a long enough resume of production to be certain of his NHL future.
Grits was pretty clearly on a shooting heater in 2022. He scored one less goal in 27 less games this season. His ppg rate was down fairly significant yoy.
Stillman has a pretty high floor and is a very likely bottom 6 NHL forward. He skates well and plays a two-way high energy game with extreme physicality. He is absolutely a prospect.
Boucher is a veteran. Gritsyuk is still a kid. Boucher could never make it as a top 6 NHLer and lacked the qualities to make it in a bottom 6 role. Gritsyuk absolutely possesses top 6 upside, and his developing all-around game suggests he could be a versatile player to slot throughout an NHL lineup.
Gritsyuk still put up 40 points in 66 games and finished top 50 in scoring in the KHL this season as a 21 year old.
Not to mention Boucher was an elite AHL level scorer. There's no shame in a 21 year old being less productive than a player that put up 67 points in 53 games and led the AHL in PPG. A 20 year old Jason Robertson scored only 47 points in 60 games by comparison that same year in the AHL.
Murray was probably gonna be really good, but injuries just broke him down. He was also almost emaciated looking when he first came into the league and probably too skinny. Like even skinnier than Ryan Miller (who had a long career and didn't have durability issues) when adjusted for height. I'm not saying that had something to do with how broken down he became, but sometimes I wonder if it did. Especially since he's now listed at over 25 pounds heavier than he was like 5 years ago.
Don’t get me wrong, goalie prospects can still be very valued but it’s not like Schmid prior to his NHL success this season was being propped up as an elite goalie prospect. Someone like wallstedt I’d rank above everyone not named Hughes and Nemec, but I don’t feel confident in Schmid yet to value him higher than Casey, Holtz or Grits.
I don't want to turn this into another chain of me pumping up Jack Quinn and dumping Alex Holtz, but I always felt like I was being gaslit whenever I talked to people about Holtz vs Quinn or whenever I was reading prospect writers talk about the two. Holtz's hype was basically that he could shoot really damn hard and occasionally accurately. Not a single other standout trait. Meanwhile, Quinn was obviously a better all around player and goal scorer, but people basically just said that he was old for his draft year and he played on too good of a team, so his stats were inflated. I felt like it was never about his actual play, always about his circumstances. His most common linemate on that 67s team was f***ing Mitchell Hoelscher. You want to know why the 67s were so good, it was because of Jack Quinn! It was always Rossi this and Rossi that, ignoring the fact they basically never played together. Holtz had way more question marks as a player, but people were just enamored with one standout trait that has been proven time and time again to not translate well to the NHL. Quinn was one of the more well-rounded winger prospects I had seen come through the draft in some time.YOU just don't want to rank a goalie this high cause you don't like evaluating them
As for Holtz, it was a pipe dream, but I REALLY, REALLY liked Quinn at the time, but I would never have drafted him over Holtz, just because of the hype Holtz had and the question marks Quinn had.
And I can role out skaters who did well in lesser leagues but didn't pan out in the NHL, such as:
It wasn't a dump on Grits, it was just looking at his numbers. They were good, but imo they didn't warrant him getting the nod over Schmid.
I'll close it in an hour (there's no way to immediately shut it down) and fire the new one up tomorrow
