Dustin Slade

Kuzmenkshow

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Jun 21, 2006
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How can you break records in the WHL, absolutely shut down teams in the WHL playoffs, lead your team to the memorial cup, and not even be drafted. You'd think a team would want to take a chance on a goalie that has obviously proven himself. Whoever signs him will be very lucky.
 

Russian_fanatic

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Jan 19, 2004
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At worst IMO I see Slade becoming an NHL back up. This guy is good enough to be a starter in the NHL.
 

Tuff Gong

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Russian_fanatic said:
At worst IMO I see Slade becoming an NHL back up. This guy is good enough to be a starter in the NHL.
He has a LONG way to go to be an NHL goalie, lets not get too far ahead of ourselves.
 

UserName

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sec17 said:
Assuming you're asking that as a serious question, the answer is "Acquire a reputation as a gigantic headcase".
Please watch some Giants games, Slade is not a bonafide headcase anymore, he has been very calm this seaon and has avoided being in scuffles and brewhahas. I do believe that he is good enough to be a starter in the nhl provided that he has a demanding coach and strong defense.
 

Big Daddy

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Dec 16, 2005
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sec17 said:
Assuming you're asking that as a serious question, the answer is "Acquire a reputation as a gigantic headcase".

I am assuming your post is just based in ignorance and not by any cynical motives you may have towards him. Man do labels in juniors stick or what. Get yourself familiar with his progress under Don Hay this season regarding his immature outbursts from a couple of years ago.
 

therobman27

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This place overates so many prospects its not even funny Slade is small, has a tendency to let in weak goals and does have some character issues, i said some. His great numbers were mainly due to the system the Giants employed this season. So no he is not on the fast track to the NHL, i would really have loved to see his numbers for defensively challenged teams like the Winterhawks or Lethbridge. He is a lot like Kelly Guard, in that his numbers in junior were mainly due to his being a solid goalie on a great team. If he ever makes it the NHL it will be due to a team having 3 hurt goalies or after working his way up through the ECHL and AHL. How many legitimate starting goalies are there in the NHL that are 5'10?
 

MS

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Mar 18, 2002
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therobman27 said:
This place overates so many prospects its not even funny Slade is small, has a tendency to let in weak goals and does have some character issues, i said some. His great numbers were mainly due to the system the Giants employed this season. So no he is not on the fast track to the NHL, i would really have loved to see his numbers for defensively challenged teams like the Winterhawks or Lethbridge. He is a lot like Kelly Guard, in that his numbers in junior were mainly due to his being a solid goalie on a great team. If he ever makes it the NHL it will be due to a team having 3 hurt goalies or after working his way up through the ECHL and AHL. How many legitimate starting goalies are there in the NHL that are 5'10?

Agreed completely.

Someone will, rightly, give him a pro contract and he'll get a chance to prove himself. But this is not a bluechip prospect.

The team in front of him was absolutely sick defensively - one of the best defensive squads in CHL history. The Giants outshot their opposition every night (almost literally) and I don't know if there's ever been a goalie who recorded so many 17-save victories. The stats are nice but they don't really tell the whole story. And he's small as hell.

The attitude/temprament issues from 2-3 years back seem pretty much behind him, though, and he was pretty much as solid a citizen as could be for the Giants. I doubt that will be much of a factor in his development.
 

Avery4Byng*

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Dustin Slade is this years version of former kelowna Rocket kelly Guard. A decent goalie with an unreal team in front of him. Now time to toil around the minors.
 

nomorekids

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Feb 28, 2003
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tray said:
Dustin Slade is this years version of former kelowna Rocket kelly Guard. A decent goalie with an unreal team in front of him. Now time to toil around the minors.


I was going to make that exact point. And I remember when Guard went undrafted, a thread JUST like this one came up, and a lot of "yes he is! no he's not!" went on. Same thing when Ottawa signed him as a UFA. "JUST YOU WATCH, HE'S GOING TO PWN THE VEZINA!" It's silly. Just let the chips fall where they may. If Slade was so great, he would have been drafted, you'd think...at least with a throwaway seventh rounder or something.

Time will tell.
 

nuckfan insk

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Nov 3, 2005
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tray said:
Dustin Slade is this years version of former kelowna Rocket kelly Guard. A decent goalie with an unreal team in front of him. Now time to toil around the minors.
well kelly guard sure didnt have a good team in front of him and fared quite well in binghampton this year (ahl) he was also called to be 3rd stringer for the post season run with ottawa)
 

nuckfan insk

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he will get another camp invite. no team is going to waste one of their 7 draft choices on him when he can be brought into camp for free, especially with all the question marks around him
 

Avery4Byng*

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dannoabram said:
well kelly guard sure didnt have a good team in front of him and fared quite well in binghampton this year (ahl) he was also called to be 3rd stringer for the post season run with ottawa)
I was making more of a comparison to when Kelly was the same age as Dustin is right now. Kelly has made great strides in the Pro ranks. I am not too sure if Dustin can do the same. Time will tell.
 

OHLArenaGuide

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UserName said:
Please watch some Giants games, Slade is not a bonafide headcase anymore, he has been very calm this seaon and has avoided being in scuffles and brewhahas. I do believe that he is good enough to be a starter in the nhl provided that he has a demanding coach and strong defense.

Kindly avoid the personal attacks please. I said "reputation", nothing about whether it was deserved or where it came from. He has a reputation as a headcase and it probably affected his lack of being drafted. End of.
 

Kuzmenkshow

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Jun 21, 2006
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I don't know if a lot of you doubters have watched this season of Giants games, but he has a VERY fast glove and is INCREDIBLY flexible. It isn't a walk in the park to beat him with a quick shot.
 

Avery4Byng*

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CanucksMorrison said:
I don't know if a lot of you doubters have watched this season of Giants games, but he has a VERY fast glove and is INCREDIBLY flexible. It isn't a walk in the park to beat him with a quick shot.
That is usually the case with goalies at the Major Junior level.
 

therobman27

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CanucksMorrison said:
I don't know if a lot of you doubters have watched this season of Giants games, but he has a VERY fast glove and is INCREDIBLY flexible. It isn't a walk in the park to beat him with a quick shot.
Did u watch him at the Memorial Cup? He certainly didnt set the world on fire there, nor did he during the season. His team did. There prolly were 10-15 starters in the WHL this season that could have put up much the same numbers for the Giants this year.
 

langdak

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Dec 13, 2005
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therobman27 said:
Did u watch him at the Memorial Cup? He certainly didnt set the world on fire there, nor did he during the season. His team did. There prolly were 10-15 starters in the WHL this season that could have put up much the same numbers for the Giants this year.


Name your 10-15 guys then

I am very interested to see your list
 

therobman27

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Im a Giants fan behind the Winterhawks, so I follow this team a lot, and I think Sexsmith has a lot better pro prospects than that of Slade. Maybe all those guys wouldnt have had the exact same numbers, but many could have certainly stole a game at the Memorial Cup, and its not like Slade stole many games for the Giants this year. Take off your homer glasses and realize Slade was nothing special until he had one of the best teams the WHL has seen in the last 5 years. Trust me, if scouts saw much in him dont u think he would have been drafted even with his supposed attitude problems. I mean Blake Grenier broke a ton of Winterhawk goalie records in 2 months of work due to a more defensive gameplan and I think Slade really benefitted from his team more than his ability, and I think most pro GM's share that opinion. Im curious as to why people think a small goalie who before this season hadnt done much could all of a sudden be a probable NHL goalie. He's not bad, but he's not a great goalie, great goalies dont get called out by other teams coaches for being the weak link of a great team.
 

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