Al Montoya stats, concerns??

[Levitate]

dubnyk also plays in a different league...i dont' think you can really compare #'s across leagues

and yes i know the rangers likely took into consideration the fact that montoya likes the rangers, but my point is that something like that would not be a deciding factor in whether or not they draft them. it's a nice bonus, but it's not like they looked at him and said "ehh i dunno, oh wait! he's a rangers fan! we gotta get him now!" if he really wasn't that good, or was just ok and they didnt' feel he was skillwise the best player availible, they wouldn't have drafted him at #6 no matter if he's a rangers fan or not

Personally at the most montoya will be an all-star, but to me lots of people are making it seem like he'll be a franchise goalie and i don't think he can do that.

well this is about what i think of him really...he's not gonna be the next roy or something, he's not gonna be the next amazing goalie in the NHL...but he can be very good, like you said all-star quality, and can win his team a cup (if the team is good enough obviously). i think less of broduer and more of turco...turco is very good, i'm not really sure he's franchise amazing, but he's definatly a #1 and good enough to win a cup and be considered a very valuable player.

 

[Postman]

well this is about what i think of him really...he's not gonna be the next roy or something, he's not gonna be the next amazing goalie in the NHL...but he can be very good, like you said all-star quality, and can win his team a cup (if the team is good enough obviously). i think less of broduer and more of turco...turco is very good, i'm not really sure he's franchise amazing, but he's definatly a #1 and good enough to win a cup and be considered a very valuable player.

I'm as big of a Montoya fan as you'll find, and I agree 100%.

It was only after he was drafted 6th overall that he really started getting the franchise goalie label, which he is not. IMO, Lehtonen... and possibly Fleury are the only two goalie prospects that could potentially be franchise players.

Montoya has always been compared to Marty Turco more than anyone, and that is certainly a lot closer to his potential than a Marty Broduer.

 

[ZombieMatt]

Personally I agree with most of the previous comments. Everyone plays poorly, and sometimes, as a goalie, a high goal total has very little to do with his play and far more to do with a collapse of team defence.

 

[Levitate]

just to be a dick, Toivenen got lit up for 4 goals in one period tonight and got yanked (against the wolfpack no less)

 

[Mountain Dude]

A few bad games doesn't mean ****, he's a really good goalie and will probably play fine with a good team in front of him.

 

[bruins4777*]

just to be a dick, Toivenen got lit up for 4 goals in one period tonight and got yanked (against the wolfpack no less)

Fyi, thats his first bad game of the year.

 

[BrettNYR]

and yes i know the rangers likely took into consideration the fact that montoya likes the rangers, but my point is that something like that would not be a deciding factor in whether or not they draft them. it's a nice bonus, but it's not like they looked at him and said "ehh i dunno, oh wait! he's a rangers fan! we gotta get him now!" if he really wasn't that good, or was just ok and they didnt' feel he was skillwise the best player availible, they wouldn't have drafted him at #6 no matter if he's a rangers fan or not

It's the Rangers, they probably did do that. A monkey could draft better than them (Next to Chris Rockstrom, of course, he found Tyutin and the other European steals).

 

[Kubera55]

Well i'm not a big montoya or fleury fan. I kinda like montoya, but then everybody made him seem like the next amazing brodeur, which i don't think he'll match.

Personally at the most montoya will be an all-star, but to me lots of people are making it seem like he'll be a franchise goalie and i don't think he can do that.

From what i've see his reflexes, puckhandling, size, etc. "raw skills" are above average, but to me not close to lehts or fleury. Sure he's clutch and all, but look at his resume. He's only ever had ONE dominant performance. Look at lehtonen. Dominated a league of men in the finnish league since 17, then dominated on arguably the worst AHL team in the league, then exceled in his brief NHL stint, also not to mention his great WJC performances. Also lets not forget on team finland at the world cup, he beat out vesa toskala for the backup job. toskala is a proven nhler who put up an outstanding 93 percent save percentage while the sharks were struggling and nabokov was injured/struggling. This all speaks volumes about lehtonen's play at many different situations. On montoya's side you have him being out performed by supposed "lesser" prospects in jordan sigalet and one great WJC performance.

I don't think the "tilted" ice thing matters at all to me. If you ever get into an argument with me about brodeur being overrated, because of the trap i will always defend brodeur as being the controller of that trap, his puckhandling and stick work are the reasons he faces so few shots not the defense as much, but thats anotehr argument. Sure montoya does great in those situations, but to me college isn't up to the kind of competetion the finnish elite league is and maybe even the QJMHL.

You mention other guys, ok i've boasted about my fav lehts enough Look at hannu toivenen. He has a history of playing for underdog crappy teams (his finnish team was very poor, team finland at the recent WJC was considered to not even win a medal, providence bruins) yet he has constantly put up outsnading numbers. The reason he was drafted at the end of the first round, was because people said he didn't have a solid history of great winning to fall back on.However comparing toivenen to montoya playing wise i see toivenen as better. I mean he's faster, better reflexes, more poised, and is overall a better goalie. Toivenen is currently dominanting the AHL (94.1 save %) on a mediocre team. Sure montoya has that amazing endurance and is doing pretty good on a great team, but to me it just seems like his skill set and him as a goalie is overblown by one great performance.

What other goalie prospects outside of lehts, toivenen, and fleury do you mean? Personally in terms of the tracks they are heading now. I think lehts and toivenen will defeninently be better than montoya, but fleury might reach the same level as montoya if he can't over come his bad head.

In part, I think you are actually agreeing with me here Bruins. Remember, I'll grant you that Montoya is not as accomplished, or possibly as talented, as M.A. Fleury or Kari Lehtonen. It's my assertion that he belongs right in that 'next category' of guys, probably somewhere between the 3rd best and 8th best prospects. You can argue who is in that next group of five, (clearly you are a Toivenen fan), but how can you argue Montoya doesn't rank? And if he is among the 7 or 8 best goalie prospects in the world, how can he be overrated? It's not like he was drafted No.1 overall in the best draft class of the decade (like Fleury). He was drafted 6th overall in a much weaker year. That doesn't make him overrated, that makes him what he is: A blue-chip goalie prospect with all the talents he needs and the years to learn the job.

Let's put it this way: Can you name 10 goalie prospects that you thing are clearly, and unquestionably, better than Montoya? Can you name 7? 5? I can name 2. After that I'm open to debate, but I think Montoya's physical skill set and accomplishments at least merit him a solid case to be mentioned with just about anybody out there.

As for Toivenen, I can only comment on the few games I've seen of him at the AHL level. He's a very good goalie. But I'm not sure that I'd put him anywhere near Lehtonen or Fleury. First off, he's pretty small (I have no idea how he got listed at 6'2"... he looks more like 5'11" to me). Second, like a lot of European goalies, his puckhandling is below average. His reflex's and positioning are very good though, and he's very mentally sound. Is he better than Montoya? No clue, I haven't seen Montoya against AHL competition yet. But certainly with Montoya's bigger body, NA experience, and puck-skills, I see no reason why he can't achieve all that Toivenen has.

 

[Kubera55]

It's the Rangers, they probably did do that. A monkey could draft better than them (Next to Chris Rockstrom, of course, he found Tyutin and the other European steals).

Horse-sh*t.

The Rangers have drafted pretty well over the last few years, in particular the class of 2001. They just traded away a ton of prospects and picks, preventing them from building a serious farm system (until recently).

Go back and look at the Sather draft classes. He's actually done quite well overall, especially considering he traded away two top ten draft picks in his short tenure here in NY.

 

[BrettNYR]

Horse-sh*t.

The Rangers have drafted pretty well over the last few years, in particular the class of 2001. They just traded away a ton of prospects and picks, preventing them from building a serious farm system (until recently).

Go back and look at the Sather draft classes. He's actually done quite well overall, especially considering he traded away two top ten draft picks in his short tenure here in NY.

The only good picks have been Euro's, and everyone knows that Rockstrom picked them. W/O him, they are horrible. Name me one guy who has made an impact for the Rangers that Sather drafted that isn't a Euro.

 

[NYRangers]

Yeah there not bad drafters. Every year they get at least one solid NHLer. The last two years they've seemed to do a lot better. Heres 2001.

2001-
Dan Blackburn (possible #1 goalie)
Fedor Tjutin (top pair defensemen)
Garth Murray (should be one of the better 3rd liners in the league)
Bryce Lampman (5th/6th defensemen)
Marek Zidlicky (Top defensemen/all star)

No other team might have had as good of a draft that year.

 

[NYRangers]

The only good picks have been Euro's, and everyone knows that Rockstrom picked them. W/O him, they are horrible. Name me one guy who has made an impact for the Rangers that Sather drafted that isn't a Euro.

Rockstrom isnt the only scout in Europe.

 

[NYRangers]

By the way, Sather doesn't even run the draft. Not in the least. The draft is run by Maloney and Renney.

 

[bruins4777*]

In part, I think you are actually agreeing with me here Bruins. Remember, I'll grant you that Montoya is not as accomplished, or possibly as talented, as M.A. Fleury or Kari Lehtonen. It's my assertion that he belongs right in that 'next category' of guys, probably somewhere between the 3rd best and 8th best prospects. You can argue who is in that next group of five, (clearly you are a Toivenen fan), but how can you argue Montoya doesn't rank? And if he is among the 7 or 8 best goalie prospects in the world, how can he be overrated? It's not like he was drafted No.1 overall in the best draft class of the decade (like Fleury). He was drafted 6th overall in a much weaker year. That doesn't make him overrated, that makes him what he is: A blue-chip goalie prospect with all the talents he needs and the years to learn the job.

Let's put it this way: Can you name 10 goalie prospects that you thing are clearly, and unquestionably, better than Montoya? Can you name 7? 5? I can name 2. After that I'm open to debate, but I think Montoya's physical skill set and accomplishments at least merit him a solid case to be mentioned with just about anybody out there.

As for Toivenen, I can only comment on the few games I've seen of him at the AHL level. He's a very good goalie. But I'm not sure that I'd put him anywhere near Lehtonen or Fleury. First off, he's pretty small (I have no idea how he got listed at 6'2"... he looks more like 5'11" to me). Second, like a lot of European goalies, his puckhandling is below average. His reflex's and positioning are very good though, and he's very mentally sound. Is he better than Montoya? No clue, I haven't seen Montoya against AHL competition yet. But certainly with Montoya's bigger body, NA experience, and puck-skills, I see no reason why he can't achieve all that Toivenen has.

Ya, i misread your lehts and fleury thing at first, but after i looked back i was like, bleh i'm going to leave my leths rant up there. Lehts is my fav goalie prospect, and best goalie prospect i've ever seen, so i felt like leaving that up there

As for toivenen? How'd you guess i was a fan Its actually funny that you say he looks small, i actually thought he looked HUGE and so did a few other bruins and prospect people in general who saw him. I really only put 3 goalie prospects ahead of montoya. Toivenen, niitymaki, and schwarz. I'll explain each.

Toivenen:
Toivenen's legs. Are amazing, his fast blazes around like just the wind. He to me is faster, better positional, and has better poise than montoya. And to this point its all speculation to whether montoya can do big things OUTSIDE of that ONE WJC performance. Toivenen has had multiple dominant performances. As you can see his season thus far in providence has been amazing. 93.7 percentage. below 2 gaa. Playing on a subpar team with a 500 record. This speaks volumes about how great he is. To me the finnish league is harder than the college level, don't you agree? He played in the elite league on a horrible team and exceled. Montoya plays in an easier league and excels, but not to even that great of an amount. Montoya had to be on a fantastic best ever U.S. WJC squad with guys like mark stuart, ryan suter, and zach parise to name a few. He was clutch no doubt, but compare it to how toivenen was thrusted on a very so so finland squad and stole them a bronze medal over the russians and many other great squads. Has montoya achieved this? Nope. Montoya to me can be a marty turco like goalie. He can be a great all-star goalie who is the basis for a defensive system, but to me his potential isn't as high as toivenen, because i don't think his physical set or mental set is as high. No doubt montoya is an outstanding and can be a great goalie, but thus far he hasn't been as outstanding as toivenen and has been much higher hyped. To me his ceiling isn't as high either.

Niitymaki:
I've seen niity a great deal of niity, more than most AHL goalies. To me he also has more potential than montoya. Montoya like i said has the potential for a great puckhandling defensive goalie. But to me i don't think montoya has the ability to steal games to the degree that niity will. Niity is a great butterflyer with a calm smoooooth poise. So to me i think he is better than montoya. Much better than the no. 50 ranking he gets.

schwarz:
Sure number wise he is far below montoya, but lets think about the team he's been on. The czech team he was on was constantly collapsing, he was thrown around the league and played so well as a youngster the team that lended him wanted him back. I think he has the potential to surpass montoya because of his higher ability to stop the puck.

Honestly i really do think montoya is a great prospect, i wont' deny that. But to me, people are overselling his potential. I have heard people say he will lead the rangers to be the "next wave of devils" and he would be the "next brodeur". Personally the rangers as a team have the potential to be very "devil-esque" but to me to suggest that montoya can really equal brodeur? Thats crazy. Montoya just has to prove more to me outside of one great performance and dominate on a higher level 7 games isn't enough for me. He has to show me more. Thats why i feel he is overrated. People are selling him so high, but he hasn't proved as much as other prospects. Sure i know i only put three guys ahead of montoya, but thats because i do think he is a great prospect, but just not as great as most people and rags fans in general are selling him. You know what i mean?

 

[Kubera55]

The only good picks have been Euro's, and everyone knows that Rockstrom picked them. W/O him, they are horrible. Name me one guy who has made an impact for the Rangers that Sather drafted that isn't a Euro.

Well, again, you have to take into account the lack of first round picks. Sather's only been in town for what, five draft years? And as a general rule, NO ONE makes an impact until 3-4 years after their draft year unles they are a super-stud (and it goes without saying that those guys are almost always drafted high in the first round).

Still, Blackburn, Garth Murray, and Bryce Lampman are non European players drafted by Sather who've already made the NHL. That's not exactly chicken feed considering the Europeans , and that really only 1-2 of Sather's draft classes has had enough time to actually 'ripen'.

Are there better drafting teams than NY? Sure. But are they bottom of the barrel? Not even close. I'd actually rate the Rangers drafting success rate as top ten under Sather. The problem is that he hasn't made enough picks, or kept enough prospects, not those who he actually took.

 

[Kubera55]

Ya, i misread your lehts and fleury thing at first, but after i looked back i was like, bleh i'm going to leave my leths rant up there. Lehts is my fav goalie prospect, and best goalie prospect i've ever seen, so i felt like leaving that up there

As for toivenen? How'd you guess i was a fan Its actually funny that you say he looks small, i actually thought he looked HUGE and so did a few other bruins and prospect people in general who saw him. I really only put 3 goalie prospects ahead of montoya. Toivenen, niitymaki, and schwarz. I'll explain each.

Toivenen:
Toivenen's legs. Are amazing, his fast blazes around like just the wind. He to me is faster, better positional, and has better poise than montoya. And to this point its all speculation to whether montoya can do big things OUTSIDE of that ONE WJC performance. Toivenen has had multiple dominant performances. As you can see his season thus far in providence has been amazing. 93.7 percentage. below 2 gaa. Playing on a subpar team with a 500 record. This speaks volumes about how great he is. To me the finnish league is harder than the college level, don't you agree? He played in the elite league on a horrible team and exceled. Montoya plays in an easier league and excels, but not to even that great of an amount. Montoya had to be on a fantastic best ever U.S. WJC squad with guys like mark stuart, ryan suter, and zach parise to name a few. He was clutch no doubt, but compare it to how toivenen was thrusted on a very so so finland squad and stole them a bronze medal over the russians and many other great squads. Has montoya achieved this? Nope. Montoya to me can be a marty turco like goalie. He can be a great all-star goalie who is the basis for a defensive system, but to me his potential isn't as high as toivenen, because i don't think his physical set or mental set is as high. No doubt montoya is an outstanding and can be a great goalie, but thus far he hasn't been as outstanding as toivenen and has been much higher hyped. To me his ceiling isn't as high either.

Niitymaki:
I've seen niity a great deal of niity, more than most AHL goalies. To me he also has more potential than montoya. Montoya like i said has the potential for a great puckhandling defensive goalie. But to me i don't think montoya has the ability to steal games to the degree that niity will. Niity is a great butterflyer with a calm smoooooth poise. So to me i think he is better than montoya. Much better than the no. 50 ranking he gets.

schwarz:
Sure number wise he is far below montoya, but lets think about the team he's been on. The czech team he was on was constantly collapsing, he was thrown around the league and played so well as a youngster the team that lended him wanted him back. I think he has the potential to surpass montoya because of his higher ability to stop the puck.

Honestly i really do think montoya is a great prospect, i wont' deny that. But to me, people are overselling his potential. I have heard people say he will lead the rangers to be the "next wave of devils" and he would be the "next brodeur". Personally the rangers as a team have the potential to be very "devil-esque" but to me to suggest that montoya can really equal brodeur? Thats crazy. Montoya just has to prove more to me outside of one great performance and dominate on a higher level 7 games isn't enough for me. He has to show me more. Thats why i feel he is overrated. People are selling him so high, but he hasn't proved as much as other prospects. Sure i know i only put three guys ahead of montoya, but thats because i do think he is a great prospect, but just not as great as most people and rags fans in general are selling him. You know what i mean?

Actually Bruins, I think we agree here. Montoya's reputation as being a tad inconsistent is borne out by his so-so start this season. I might quibble a bit with your assessments, but not the sentiment.

Personally I can't understand how anyone rates Schwarz ahead of Montoya right now... Schwarz got ignored by a heck of a lot of GMs, which shouldn't be ignored. And Montoya's NA experience and puckhandling are enormous advantages over a strictly puck-stopping Euro like Schwarz. And given Schwarz' very shaky start on this side of the pond... well I'd need a lot of convincing to believe he's ahead of Montoya, even given Montoya's iffy beginning to this season.

Toivonen is hard for me to read. Honestly, he reminds me a bit of Blackburn. Elite reflexes, terrific mental game... but not huge, no puck skills, doesn't earn space in the crease (a la Billy Smith). I dunno, he could be the next Cujo... or he could be the next Archie Irbe (well bigger and less lovable anyways). I personally have no ability to tell, and I'll take the argument that he's at least as good as Montoya, and certainly he's more accomplished, at least at this point in their careers (though remember Toivonen is older).

Nittymaki has never impressed me.. I dunno, maybe I'm just too anti-Flyer. Though to be honest, given his age, I find it really hard to rate him ahead of a 19-year-old's potential. He's more competing in my mind with prospects like Labarberra and Lundqvist, guys closer to his age ... and frankly, his achievements don't exactly dwarf those two. Eh, just one guys opinion, as I keep saying

 

[bruins4777*]

Actually Bruins, I think we agree here. Montoya's reputation as being a tad inconsistent is borne out by his so-so start this season. I might quibble a bit with your assessments, but not the sentiment.

Personally I can't understand how anyone rates Schwarz ahead of Montoya right now... Schwarz got ignored by a heck of a lot of GMs, which shouldn't be ignored. And Montoya's NA experience and puckhandling are enormous advantages over a strictly puck-stopping Euro like Schwarz. And given Schwarz' very shaky start on this side of the pond... well I'd need a lot of convincing to believe he's ahead of Montoya, even given Montoya's iffy beginning to this season.

Toivonen is hard for me to read. Honestly, he reminds me a bit of Blackburn. Elite reflexes, terrific mental game... but not huge, no puck skills, doesn't earn space in the crease (a la Billy Smith). I dunno, he could be the next Cujo... or he could be the next Archie Irbe (well bigger and less lovable anyways). I personally have no ability to tell, and I'll take the argument that he's at least as good as Montoya, and certainly he's more accomplished, at least at this point in their careers (though remember Toivonen is older).

Nittymaki has never impressed me.. I dunno, maybe I'm just too anti-Flyer. Though to be honest, given his age, I find it really hard to rate him ahead of a 19-year-old's potential. He's more competing in my mind with prospects like Labarberra and Lundqvist, guys closer to his age ... and frankly, his achievements don't exactly dwarf those two. Eh, just one guys opinion, as I keep saying

Honestly lets look at the teams that passed over schwarz. Personally i feel like the rangers really don't need to pick montoya, i have no idea why they did it i mean they got valiquette, lababera, and blackburn.

panthers, luongo
bluejackets, leclaire and denis
ducks,gigantic, bryglazov sp?
thrashers, lehts
kings, garon and turkonnen was open. turkonnen was a better prospect than montoya and schwarz to me. I put turkonen as my no.5
wild, harding
sabers, miller, biron
oilers, deliasieurs i killed his name...i don't even know why they picked dubnyk
predators, finley, vokoun. plus radulov was open and as a preds fan they needed radulov who is obviously developing VERY nicely
and this leads us to the blues who picked schwarz.

So if you think about it that way, the only team that probably should have picked the blues was the wild. But then again the wild picked A.J. thelen who is a local minnesota guy who they really liked and with a somewhat thin defense that minnesota has they need thelen more than a tender.

P.S. i've talked to a very close giants follower and they said that schwarz is actually doing very good, its more so the team around him has a great offense, but the defense is collapsing horribly, regularly turning over like theres no tomorow

I've see lots of toivenen and to me he is very big. He has loads of potential and is a future franchise goalie. I don't think he's as injury prone as blackburn. I think toivenen will develop similar to his idol patrick roy, minus the irritating arrogance. I'd say he'd be very cujo-esque, but he is more techinical so he has the reflexes to be cujo-esque at times but can fall back strongly on his beautiful butterfly and techinical game otherewise.

Well personally what impressed me so much about niity was the fact that his first AHL season was HORRIBLE like just scary. Down right marty turco chokejob scary. To me what was so impressive was that after this horrible season he comes back shows true poise, refines his game in the off season, comes back and is fantastic stealing the starting job from neil little who is a legendary AHL netminder. And this season he has improved EVEN FURTHER. Which is why niity has impressed me so much.

I'm a HUGE goalie and defense fan. Which is why prospects have been such a joy lately with the flood of goalies and defensemen lately And to me poise is the most important thing about being a goalie. Look at raycroft, brodeur, roy, etc. They have all exceled and with what? EXTREME poise. How many easily ratteld goalies have exceled? so few i can't even think of any. Can you name any? Chris osgood, brent johnson, brian boucher? I don't think they really "excelled", i mean look at them now. I'm not trying to say montoya doesn't have a lot of poise, but to me guys like toivenen and niity go ahead cause of their INCREDIBLE poise. Especally toivenen. 2 out of the 4 games i saw toivenen in he gave up some really really really really soft goals and seemed ultra pissed after them, but did he flip out and screw up? No way, he remained calm and despite taking the loss performed admirably and to me was the best and 2nd best player in both of those games. Considering the game after each he put up 1 goal and shutouts it speaks even more about how great his poise is. My emphasis on poise is why i dislike marc-andre fleury so much. His poise is non-existent.

Anyways, i might lighten up on montoya once he reaches the NHL. I use to HATE jose theodore, you can probably guess why i'm a bruins fan and watching him own us game in and out is frustrating as hell But i talked to this one person a lot about theo and now i'm a fan :lol We'll just see.

I actually am a huge puckhandling goalie fan. I'm a puckhandling standup goalie myself. I really look up to brodeur, belfour, vokoun, and richter as my main influences. I play a lot of pad stacking-brodeur. puckhandling-all of them excluding vokoun paddle down-belfour/brodeur and the acute standup stance that i learned from vokoun and richter. So when i see guys like turco, dipietro, and brodeur i can do nothing except respect their incredible puckhandling. So i might lighten up to montoya we'll see

 

[LaVal]

Well, to start with, none of the those guys were picked #6 overall. Dubnyk at #14 has better numbers than Montoya, is a year younger and is playing on a horrible Kamloops Blazers team that has no defence! As for Schwarz, well, let's not get into that! Schneider is also a year younger that Montoya and has decent numbers to start this year. Shantz and Peters are both 2nd rounders and shouldn't really be compared to Montoya.

who said they were picked 6th overall? all i made was a statement that none of the high picked goaltenders last year are doing too particularily well. you just managed to argue about absolutely nothing.

 

[SwisshockeyAcademy]

I will back Toivonen any day and put him against most any goalie prospect. Whoever says he is small probably needs another look. He looks huge to me and his terrific butterfly mixed with tremendous quickness/poise make him top notch. Schwartz seems to be all over the place in his crease, he's ridiculously quick ,almost so quick he's out of control. I watched Montoya get lit up by Minnesota and it was not pretty. He did not really make a save of any importance. One game is not a season though and i'm sure he will be a good yet perhaps not great goalie.

 

[HabLover]

A few bad games doesn't mean ****, he's a really good goalie and will probably play fine with a good team in front of him.

I thought Michigan was a 'good' team?? I guess they suck?

 

[Vlad The Impaler]

I thought Michigan was a 'good' team?? I guess they suck?

They are far from sucking and people who suggest the contrary are misrepresenting the situation. Some people will go to any length and lose any objectivity to "defend" a guy, even when he doesn't need to be defended all that much. It's a solid team. Only thing is I've heard that perhaps they could play a little better based on the talent that's there. Then again, the same could be said of Montoya.

He will pick it up and will probably be very solid in the WJCs. Then a thread will be started after 3-4 games to tell us how magnificient he is. Kind of like when Lehtonen was God. Then Fleury had a great WJC and suddenly the simple-minded said he was much better then Lehts. The following year Fleury struggles a little and now Fleury was not as good as Lehtonen and was considered a choker. It's just a lot of bandwagonning and really, worrying (or getting your hopes too high) based on statistics from a relatively small sample of games is completely useless.

He remains a very solid goalie, IMO. He's part of a team and shouldn't be blamed for everything, just like his team shouldn't be blamed for his stats. It's simply not a bad team enough to hinder him significantly.

 

[Levitate]

it's not that michigan sucks...it just doesn't seem like they're playing up to their potential, and a lot of michigan fans have been frustrated with them and feel they're taking it way too easy and expecting to win based on talent alone

 

[dawgbone]

Honestly lets look at the teams that passed over schwarz. Personally i feel like the rangers really don't need to pick montoya, i have no idea why they did it i mean they got valiquette, lababera, and blackburn.

Valiquette is 29... he doesn't really fit into the group.

oilers, deliasieurs i killed his name...i don't even know why they picked dubnyk

Yeah you did... Deslauriers... but anyways. They picked him because it was a weak draft in every area except goaltending, and they had Dubnyk as the 2nd best goaltender. So they chose their BPA.

 

[bruins4777*]

Valiquette is 29... he doesn't really fit into the group.



Yeah you did... Deslauriers... but anyways. They picked him because it was a weak draft in every area except goaltending, and they had Dubnyk as the 2nd best goaltender. So they chose their BPA.

ya, valiquette doesn't really...but i like his name

As for deslauriers, I don't know why they ranked dubnyk over schwarz. I think i heard somewhere it was because it would be easier to keep track of dubnyk cause he'll play closer or something. i dunno. I rank schwarz way above dubnyk, but regardless i still like dubnyk a lot.

 

[Levitate]

i think it'd be more accurate to say "the rangers have blackburn, lundqvist, and to a lesser extent, labarbera, why did they draft montoya?"

but, then i think you have to look closer at the situation...labarbera, though he has shown significant improvement in the last couple of years, doesn't seem to really have the top end talent to be a starting #1 goalie in the NHL. maybe a backup (i'm actually kinda pulling for him to win the backup job). but not a real blue chipper type.

lundqvist is awesome and is doing exceptionally once again in sweden, against NHL players.

blackburn is a question mark though...again he's STILL out with an injury, has been out for a year and a half now, and for like, 8 months of that he was doing absolutely NOTHING, no skating, nothing. now he's trying to work his way back into game shape and get into some AHL games this season...but because of his waiver status, he can't play in the AHL again after this season. the rangers have to protect him and would have to expose him to waivers if they wanted him to play in hartford. so he basically has to hope to get into some games this year, manage to shake off the rust, and then be ready to play in the NHL next year. (this is assuming that the lockout is over and the waiver rules don't change). it's a sticky situation, and again he's still not even all the way back yet. so he's a question mark.

now if blackburn is a question mark, the rangers don't know how they're gonna be able to handle him...they're only left with one real legit #1 goalie prospect that is a "sure" thing, lundqvist.

personally i don't feel comfortable with only 1 good goaltending prospect. so the rangers took the best player available (they felt) who was also a goalie to help solidify that spot in their farm system that might not be as solid as it appears