Kubera55 said:
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