So, did Aidan Campbell report to the Otter's training camp? Any inclination as to where he wants to play? Being that he is from Cranberry, PA, as is Gritz, maybe a connection there. Yes, I thought the goalie situation would be a bit better than it is. It seems that lately we have not done well with our goalie picks. Maybe we need to spend more time and money scouting in Europe for a good goalie.
Campbell went to the rookie camp in May. Don’t believe he was at the training camp. I don’t know if he is the answer. Maybe in the future but even if we signed him, he will still be a 16 year old and only 17 next year.
Goaltending is an issue. It was last year. It remains this year. Heck it wasn’t really that great from 2014-2017. Williams was solid but never elite. Lawr was a bust. Timpano was good for half the year but collapsed at the end, Murdaca saved the day but even he was just solid.
Williams is the last goalie we drafted, developed. But he was never elite. Before that, the import draft supplied us with Dansk and Sadikov. Before that it was Josh Disher. Add Janus from the import draft. Other than that our goalie play has been crap for 10-15 years. Idk what the solution is. Import draft this year is an option but with a top 15-20 pick in the draft, I prefer we go after a young forward. Imo Brown should try to find a Murdaca like goalie trade. Someone who is more stable in net for the rest of this year and next year as a veteran. Than hopefully we can get someone like Campbell to sign and maybe he’s the guy.
To be fair to Erie, they have drafted some good goalies but haven’t signed them. Colton Point would have been elite but he went to college. Mitchell Gibson also could have been special, but he chose college route. Both Point and Gibson went on to be nhl drafted in the 5th and 4th round respectively.
The other issue? We don’t draft goalies in higher rounds.. since 2012, we have taken 12 goalies
2nd round - Lawr (major bust)
Other than that these are the rounds in which we have picked goalies since 2012:
8th round
9th round (2 times)
10th round
11th round
12th round (2 times)
14th round
15th round (3 times)
Maybe if we used more resources (higher picks) we would have better success. I would like to see more 4-7th round picks of goalies