Off-Season Fantasy Draft #2 Voting - Sean Avery Division

[LT]

1A
Max Pacioretty - Jack Eichel - William Nylander
Ilya Mikheyev - Mikael Backlund - Tyler Toffoli
William Carrier - Anton Lundell - Michael Amadio
Emil Bemstrom - Lars Eller - Yegor Sokolov

Thomas Chabot - Nick Jensen
Jake Walman - Noah Dobson
Jordan Harris - Jonathan Kovacevic

Sam Montembeault
Marc-Andre Fleury

VS.

1B
Evander Kane - Connor McDavid - Connor Brown
Adam Henrique - Dylan Cozens - Patrik Laine
Dillon Dube - Cody Glass - Tyler Johnson
Connor McMichael - Travis Boyd - Jimmy Vesey

JJ Moser - John Carlson
Ivan Provorov - Scott Mayfield
Kevin Korchinski - Justin Barron

Antti Raanta
Akira Schmid

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2A
Michael Bunting (0.95M) - Dylan Larkin (6.1M) - Mitch Marner (10.9M)
Quinton Byfield (0.89M) - Nick Suzuki (7.88M)- Joe Pavelski (5.5M)
Pavel Zacha (3.5M) - David Krejci (1M) - Conor Garland (4.95M)
Patrick Maroon (1M) - Steven Lorentz (1.05M) - Matt Coronato (0.93M)

Adam Pelech (5.75M) - Damon Severson (4.17M)
Ryan Graves (3.17M) - Justin Schultz (3M)
Mark Giordano (0.8M) - Ethan Bear (2M)

Semyon Varlamov (5M)
Lukas Dostal (0.82M)

VS.

2B
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Wyatt Johnston - Andrei Kuzmenko
Adam Fantilli - Anthony Cirelli - Kyle Palmieri
Vitali Kravtsov - Filip Chytil - Anthony Mantha
Brandon Tanev - Mark Kastelic - Vladislav Namestnikov

Brenden Dillon - Adam Fox
Jake McCabe - Anthony DeAngelo
Kevin Bahl - Nikita Zadorov

Igor Shesterkin
Daniil Tarasov

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3A
Alexis Lafrenière - Jack Hughes - Jordan Kyrou
Max Domi - Logan Couture - Andrei Svechnikov
Miles Wood - Andrew Copp - Sonny Milano
Pontus Holmberg - Thomas Nosek - Luke Kunin

MacKenzie Weegar - Ryan Pulock
Torey Krug - TJ Brodie
Josh Mahura - Alexandre Carrier

Stuart Skinner
Pheonix Copley

VS.

3B
Brad Marchand - Sam Bennett - Matthew Tkachuk
Nils Hoglander - Ryan Strome - Tom Wilson
Trent Frederic - Nick Paul - Josh Anderson
Nicolas Deslauriers - Brett Howden - Alexey Toropchenko

Brayden McNabb - Jacob Trouba
Arber Xhekaj - Neal Pionk
Robert Hagg - Luke Schenn

Juuse Saros
Aaron Dell

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4A
Brayden Schenn - Evgeni Malkin - Owen Tippett
Joel Farabee - Chandler Stephenson - Matt Barzal
James van Riemsdyk - Adam Lowry - Philipp Kurashev
Zemgus Girgensons - Joe Veleno - Max Jones

Jonas Siegenthaler - Kris Letang
Ryan McDonagh - Braden Schneider
Kaiden Guhle - David Savard

Vitek Vanacek
Joseph Woll

VS.

4B
McCann - Thomas - Buchnevich
Vrana - Nelson - Dach
Texier - Steel - Atkinson
Voronkov - Sillinger - Bastian

Anderson - Karlsson
Kylington - Perbix
Rosen - Hakanpaa

Kuemper
Wedgewood
​

Click to read more...

 

[Panda Bear]

nailbiter.

who's going to win? the McDavid team with good offence, adequate goaltending, and a porous "oh god why is this happening to us" defence?

or the Eichel team with good offence, adequate goaltending, and a good defence that fits together like a glove?

 

[Panda Bear]

rip beautifully drafted team

stupid McDavid cheat code

 

[Nucker101]

rip beautifully drafted team

stupid McDavid cheat code

i say any polls that are within a vote swing away from being a tie should get a re-poll with gm's from both teams getting a chance to make their case before the poll opens

 

[biturbo19]

nailbiter.

who's going to win? the McDavid team with good offence, adequate goaltending, and a porous "oh god why is this happening to us" defence?

or the Eichel team with good offence, adequate goaltending, and a good defence that fits together like a glove?

I don't even actually mind the McDavey team's defence tbh. It's like most of the other defences, 3 solid minutes guys and a sort of aspirational filler. After really thinking about it though, my bigger issue is the complete lack of size, physicality, two-way play with the Forwards for that team. The defence corps though, it's the other team that seems a bit lacking in physicality and defensive reliability. Built around a pair of pure offensive defencemen with Chabot/Dobson who aren't real proven hard minutes guys.

If i were gonna vote again, i'd think about changing my vote. I actually like the forward group there slightly more, in spite of personally disliking Toffoli a lot, and a Patches that is probably completely cooked. It's a much deeper group with a better mix of skillsets.



But then...wtf do i know? My team is getting it's doors blown off by a team with Sam "i scored 28 points with Kaprizov" Steel as a 3rd line Center and a Kylington-Perbix second pairing duo.

 

[ujju2]

rip beautifully drafted team

stupid McDavid cheat code

Rip overrated defence and weaker offence

 

[Panda Bear]

Rip overrated defence and weaker offence

weaker offence = doesn't have McDavid

not sure how defence is overrated tho. pairings super balanced too

 

[biturbo19]

weaker offence = doesn't have McDavid

not sure how defence is overrated tho. pairings super balanced too

I don't think it's really just about McDavid. The bigger problem with that team to pick at, is the complete lack of a real high end penalty killers. Cozens, Henrique, and that's kind of it. Other team has more depth of guys who can succeed in a defensive role, PK assignment, etc. That's the thing that would kind of sway me that direction.


But i don't like that defence corps nearly as much as you do. Chabot is a liability and minus machine in top matchup minutes. He's not very defensively robust. Dobson has huge potential, but he's basically the #3RHD when it comes to matchups. He destroys soft minutes and puts up points...but that's pretty similar to what Chabot is. I like Walman as a player too, but his strength is chemistry with Mo Seider. I don't think Dobson has shown any signs that he's nearly as complete an all around defenceman as Seider at this point yet. Both "anchors" of that blueline are kind of suspect in terms of taking on top matchup minutes and winning.

 

[hockeynorth]

@biturbo19 right, 4A seems better to me

Think they would’ve done better had lines been:

Brayden Schenn - Mat Barzal - Owen Tippett
Joel Farabee - Evgeni Malkin - Chandler Stephenson
James van Riemsdyk - Adam Lowry - Philipp Kurashev
Zemgus Girgensons - Joe Veleno - Max Jones

Jonas Siegenthaler - Kris Letang
Ryan McDonagh - Braden Schneider
Kaiden Guhle - David Savard

Vitek Vanacek
Joseph Woll

People hate Schenn in here

 

[biturbo19]

@biturbo19 right, 4A seems better to me

Think they would’ve done better had lines been:

Brayden Schenn - Mat Barzal - Owen Tippett
Joel Farabee - Evgeni Malkin - Chandler Stephenson
James van Riemsdyk - Adam Lowry - Philipp Kurashev
Zemgus Girgensons - Joe Veleno - Max Jones

Jonas Siegenthaler - Kris Letang
Ryan McDonagh - Braden Schneider
Kaiden Guhle - David Savard

Vitek Vanacek
Joseph Woll

People hate Schenn in here

This is fascinating feedback.

I looked at a ton of different configurations, because i drafted a team where fully 3/4 of the forwards can conceivably play Center and that makes for a lot of flexibility and possible configurations.


But this is not one that i ever even thought about. What would be the justification for Barzal as #1C over Malkin who is getting older, but still a Top-30 producer in the league and with years of experience as a top Center including years where Crosby was MIA with his head trauma? He's shown he can take on #1C duties and Barzal has thrived when he can feast on secondary opportunities.

My whole thinking was to move Barzal to the wing, at least on paper. Give him someone like Stephenson who does all of the Center things that he's not great at. I thought about listing that line with Barzal in the middle. Stephenson-Barzal-Farabee. Stephenson is coming off a cup win where he split time as a LW supporting Eichel like that, and a #2C. That made sense to me as he's a great, versatile player. Seemed like the perfect complement to Barzal who has great offensive traits but kind of questionable two-way ability and cannot win a faceoff to save his life. They both play with a ton of speed. Farabee also had his best season as a predominantly a RW. But i clearly don't know how to read the room on this stuff.


Why do people hate Schenn? He's basically a slam dunk ~60pt forward who can play any position and brings size and some actual grit to the game. His contract is big, but what's not to like about the player? He's a playoff proven peformer too.

Let me guess...people don't like Tippett either? Do they know he was at the fringes of hitting 30G last year on a bad Philly team with very little Center help at all? He's big, fast, laser of a shot, one of the better snipers in the game...he'd be lethal on the wing of either of genuine playmakers Malkin or Barzal imo.


But i clearly misread things. Or prioritized the wrong things. I'd still make the same decisions over again though.

 

[hockeynorth]

This is fascinating feedback.

I looked at a ton of different configurations, because i drafted a team where fully 3/4 of the forwards can conceivably play Center and that makes for a lot of flexibility and possible configurations.


But this is not one that i ever even thought about. What would be the justification for Barzal as #1C over Malkin who is getting older, but still a Top-30 producer in the league and with years of experience as a top Center including years where Crosby was MIA with his head trauma? He's shown he can take on #1C duties and Barzal has thrived when he can feast on secondary opportunities.

My whole thinking was to move Barzal to the wing, at least on paper. Give him someone like Stephenson who does all of the Center things that he's not great at. I thought about listing that line with Barzal in the middle. Stephenson-Barzal-Farabee. Stephenson is coming off a cup win where he split time as a LW supporting Eichel like that, and a #2C. That made sense to me as he's a great, versatile player. Seemed like the perfect complement to Barzal who has great offensive traits but kind of questionable two-way ability and cannot win a faceoff to save his life. They both play with a ton of speed. Farabee also had his best season as a predominantly a RW. But i clearly don't know how to read the room on this stuff.


Why do people hate Schenn? He's basically a slam dunk ~60pt forward who can play any position and brings size and some actual grit to the game. His contract is big, but what's not to like about the player? He's a playoff proven peformer too.

Let me guess...people don't like Tippett either? Do they know he was at the fringes of hitting 30G last year on a bad Philly team with very little Center help at all? He's big, fast, laser of a shot, one of the better snipers in the game...he'd be lethal on the wing of either of genuine playmakers Malkin or Barzal imo.


But i clearly misread things. Or prioritized the wrong things. I'd still make the same decisions over again though.

I can address most of these

I think Malkin IS the better 1C, I just know voters like seeing the two best Cs at C and I love Barzal/Tippett duo personally. More a voting thing than an effectiveness thing IMO. I also think a Stephenson - Barzal - Tippett line could be electric.

I think we all love Tippett, if not, I’m at least very high on him and I know Panda is too. Great player.

Idk why there’s Schenn hate tbf, I just know teams that have him tend to not do well for some odd reason.

Good team, I did vote for you, I think it’ll look good in 12 months time when Tippett/Farabee take another production step. I do kinda wish you had only one of JVR/Kurashev L3, not both, as I don’t think either are slam dunks to have great years, but everyone is lacking somewhere in a draft that is intentionally trying for parity.

 

[ujju2]

I don't think it's really just about McDavid. The bigger problem with that team to pick at, is the complete lack of a real high end penalty killers. Cozens, Henrique, and that's kind of it. Other team has more depth of guys who can succeed in a defensive role, PK assignment, etc. That's the thing that would kind of sway me that direction.

This is actually fair. I'd argue though that Connor Brown belongs in the conversation as an elite PKer as well. McDavid and Kane have also had spot duty on Edmonton's PK.

 

[hockeynorth]

Yeah not acknowledging Mcdavid as a PKer is weird…

 

[Panda Bear]

I don't think it's really just about McDavid. The bigger problem with that team to pick at, is the complete lack of a real high end penalty killers. Cozens, Henrique, and that's kind of it. Other team has more depth of guys who can succeed in a defensive role, PK assignment, etc. That's the thing that would kind of sway me that direction.


But i don't like that defence corps nearly as much as you do. Chabot is a liability and minus machine in top matchup minutes. He's not very defensively robust. Dobson has huge potential, but he's basically the #3RHD when it comes to matchups. He destroys soft minutes and puts up points...but that's pretty similar to what Chabot is. I like Walman as a player too, but his strength is chemistry with Mo Seider. I don't think Dobson has shown any signs that he's nearly as complete an all around defenceman as Seider at this point yet. Both "anchors" of that blueline are kind of suspect in terms of taking on top matchup minutes and winning.

(1) Chabot has been fed a steady diet of Zaitsev for years. Whenever they have been split, Chabot's metrics improve drastically -- like 10% improvement in xG% drastic. Zaitsev is terrible.
(2) What happened to Nick Jensen here? He's the yin to Chabot's yang.
(3) Walman wouldn't have chemistry with Seider if he weren't good enough to play that role in the first place.
(4) This is for next year. You would imagine Dobson can handle second pairing duties at even strength by this point.
(5) Harris and Kovacevic looked good together in Montreal, but haven't been acknowledged either.

 

[Panda Bear]

I don't even actually mind the McDavey team's defence tbh. It's like most of the other defences, 3 solid minutes guys and a sort of aspirational filler. After really thinking about it though, my bigger issue is the complete lack of size, physicality, two-way play with the Forwards for that team. The defence corps though, it's the other team that seems a bit lacking in physicality and defensive reliability. Built around a pair of pure offensive defencemen with Chabot/Dobson who aren't real proven hard minutes guys.

If i were gonna vote again, i'd think about changing my vote. I actually like the forward group there slightly more, in spite of personally disliking Toffoli a lot, and a Patches that is probably completely cooked. It's a much deeper group with a better mix of skillsets.



But then...wtf do i know? My team is getting it's doors blown off by a team with Sam "i scored 28 points with Kaprizov" Steel as a 3rd line Center and a Kylington-Perbix second pairing duo.

(1) Steel is on the third line with Texier and Atkinson. It's clearly a softer minutes offence line with the team's grit and hitting (but with offensive upside) on the fourth.

What were your thoughts on JvR - Lowry - Kurashev?

(2) Kylington was fantastic with Tanev in 21-22. His biggest weakness is likely his concentration and tendency to pinch when he shouldn't, which Tanev covered. Perbix showed this rookie season that he can handle top four minutes with ice in his veins--he's like a Stralman or Tanev to me with his awareness, composure, concentration and technical skills. It'll be a good 23-24 pairing.

Meanwhile, I'm not sure how well Braeden Schneider is going to fare as he's really struggled this past season.

 

[Panda Bear]

This is fascinating feedback.

I looked at a ton of different configurations, because i drafted a team where fully 3/4 of the forwards can conceivably play Center and that makes for a lot of flexibility and possible configurations.


But this is not one that i ever even thought about. What would be the justification for Barzal as #1C over Malkin who is getting older, but still a Top-30 producer in the league and with years of experience as a top Center including years where Crosby was MIA with his head trauma? He's shown he can take on #1C duties and Barzal has thrived when he can feast on secondary opportunities.

My whole thinking was to move Barzal to the wing, at least on paper. Give him someone like Stephenson who does all of the Center things that he's not great at. I thought about listing that line with Barzal in the middle. Stephenson-Barzal-Farabee. Stephenson is coming off a cup win where he split time as a LW supporting Eichel like that, and a #2C. That made sense to me as he's a great, versatile player. Seemed like the perfect complement to Barzal who has great offensive traits but kind of questionable two-way ability and cannot win a faceoff to save his life. They both play with a ton of speed. Farabee also had his best season as a predominantly a RW. But i clearly don't know how to read the room on this stuff.


Why do people hate Schenn? He's basically a slam dunk ~60pt forward who can play any position and brings size and some actual grit to the game. His contract is big, but what's not to like about the player? He's a playoff proven peformer too.

Let me guess...people don't like Tippett either? Do they know he was at the fringes of hitting 30G last year on a bad Philly team with very little Center help at all? He's big, fast, laser of a shot, one of the better snipers in the game...he'd be lethal on the wing of either of genuine playmakers Malkin or Barzal imo.


But i clearly misread things. Or prioritized the wrong things. I'd still make the same decisions over again though.

Seeing Barzal play wing on the Islanders hurt me, while Stephenson playing wing in Vegas didn't.

I know that some argue the lineup doesn't matter that much--especially since we see so much flux in lines within a game let alone a season--but it does to me since it indicates whether the GM knows how to put his players in a position to succeed.

Another issue for your team is Vanecek, whose playoff performances have cast a lot of doubt about him being able to handle pressure going forward.

 

[Panda Bear]

Thomas Chabot doesn’t deserve the criticism

Chabot has been unfairly criticized for much of this season’s struggles

www.silversevensens.com

 

[biturbo19]

I can address most of these

I think Malkin IS the better 1C, I just know voters like seeing the two best Cs at C and I love Barzal/Tippett duo personally. More a voting thing than an effectiveness thing IMO. I also think a Stephenson - Barzal - Tippett line could be electric.

I think we all love Tippett, if not, I’m at least very high on him and I know Panda is too. Great player.

Idk why there’s Schenn hate tbf, I just know teams that have him tend to not do well for some odd reason.

Good team, I did vote for you, I think it’ll look good in 12 months time when Tippett/Farabee take another production step. I do kinda wish you had only one of JVR/Kurashev L3, not both, as I don’t think either are slam dunks to have great years, but everyone is lacking somewhere in a draft that is intentionally trying for parity.

Interesting approach. This is obviously the stuff where i wasn't aware of how the voters would view things, and how that'd be different from what i think would be most effective in the hypothetical real world.

I did actually almost post the roster with that Stephenson-Barzal-Tippett line. Like...really close. I think i even had that briefly in the roster thread. I really liked the idea of the sheer speed that line would have...and the mix of skillsets with the pure passer + the pure sniper + the all-around "glue guy". But swerved to balance things a little bit more. Thinking Tippett's speed and goal-scorers mentality would bring a different element to that Schenn-Malkin duo who are a little bit slower and more passing-inclined.

This is actually fair. I'd argue though that Connor Brown belongs in the conversation as an elite PKer as well. McDavid and Kane have also had spot duty on Edmonton's PK.

Yeah. Fair enough. I don't really think of McDavid as a quality PKer. He's out there because he's a threat to score with his breakaway speed, but if i were lucky enough to have him...i don't think i'd even want him out there where he can potentially get hit with a stray puck and just nuke my team with one random injury.


Connor Brown is fair as well, though i often just forget he exists. I don't know if i can think of a single thing he does at an above average level. To me, he's the most medium player to ever medium.

The roster as a whole though, just feels to me like it's lacking in defensive conscience up front.

 

[EdJovanovski]

A complete & utter sham!

 

[Panda Bear]

Chabot getting short shrift.

He's only a minus machine when he plays with Zaitsev...because Zaitsev is shit.

 

[biturbo19]

(1) Chabot has been fed a steady diet of Zaitsev for years. Whenever they have been split, Chabot's metrics improve drastically -- like 10% improvement in xG% drastic. Zaitsev is terrible.
(2) What happened to Nick Jensen here? He's the yin to Chabot's yang.
(3) Walman wouldn't have chemistry with Seider if he weren't good enough to play that role in the first place.
(4) This is for next year. You would imagine Dobson can handle second pairing duties at even strength by this point.
(5) Harris and Kovacevic looked good together in Montreal, but haven't been acknowledged either.

Zaitsev definitely had a negative impact on Chabot when he was stuck to him out of lack of other options. But the way i see it, he's always been a bit of wishy-washy defensive player himself. He's hugely rangy and a good offensive defenceman, but his puck management is poor and he's always had a tendency to skate himself way out of position overextending offensively.

He'd be more compelling for me if he had a really steady partner listed beside him. But i'm not a big believer in Nick Jensen as a real "stabilizing presence". He's a solid complementary D, but that's about it for me.

I don't mind Walman-Dobson at all as a second pairing. It's entirely possible he'd find some of that same chemistry he has with Seider. But i'd want to see more of a plan to keep them in softer minutes...where Chabot kind of precludes that with the other top pairing. Ultimately, Dobson is a #5 by EVTOI and plays behind two other pairings that are leaned on more heavily for matchups.


Combine those things and it's a hard sell for me as a defence corps that can handle the toughest minutes.

(1) Steel is on the third line with Texier and Atkinson. It's clearly a softer minutes offence line with the team's grit and hitting (but with offensive upside) on the fourth.

What were your thoughts on JvR - Lowry - Kurashev?

(2) Kylington was fantastic with Tanev in 21-22. His biggest weakness is likely his concentration and tendency to pinch when he shouldn't, which Tanev covered. Perbix showed this rookie season that he can handle top four minutes with ice in his veins--he's like a Stralman or Tanev to me with his awareness, composure, concentration and technical skills. It'll be a good 23-24 pairing.

Meanwhile, I'm not sure how well Braeden Schneider is going to fare as he's really struggled this past season.

The thing with Sam Steel for me, is that he's barely an NHL player. At all. He scored his points playing prime Top-6 offensive minutes with Kaprizov and Zuc/Boldy...and still didn't even manage 30 of them. He's just a real soft, slow, defensively suspect player. There's a reason he's constantly getting bounced from teams and playing on the waiver wire or minimal salaries.

I think it's exacerbated by the fact he's flanked by a guy who is at the cusp of LTIRetirement and a guy who peaced out of the NHL entirely last year for personal reasons. I can see the intent of a "soft minutes" line, but i'm not sure how good they even are in that role unless we ignore Atkinson's serious injury issues, and it feels like it'd have to rely heavily on the top line to actually handle matchup minutes.


The JVR-Lowry-Kurashev line is definitely something i'd reconfigure differently with a mulligan. It's just a big "crash the puck into the net" sort of line. Kurashev is there because he's a pretty smooth transition player and passer through the neutral zone which seemed important to offset JVR who is really more of an "offensive zone only" player. Between Kurashev in transition and Lowry digging out pucks defensively, i thought it could work. Lowry has shown that he can play effectively with skill guys. But realistically...i was pretty inclined to swap Lowry and Veleno to create a "3rd offensive line" and a big heavy, true "checking line" with Girgensons-Lowry-Jones. I just wasn't sure how to present that because it's a bit weird to represent the fact that it'd be the 3rd line by even strength minutes. But i erroneously figured people would want to see more of that "soft minutes offensive line" as the third unit.

Now i'm also realizing that i probably should've just stuck Stephenson at #3C and run it that way. It just seemed like a bit of a waste to me.



Kylington was fine with Tanev, yes. But he's not playing beside Tanev there. He's playing beside Perbix, who is part of that weird Tampa carousel of guys who platoon with their top defencemen. I think it's fair to question Braden Schneider as a Top-4D. I don't agree that he really "struggled" last year at all. But he is stuck behind two huge minute RHD with Fox and Trouba. So that's very much a "projection" element. We're all reaching in some way or another because of the parity of this sort of game. But to me, it makes a difference whether you're putting that "spare wheel" aspirational sort of guy next to a proven big minutes stud like McDonagh, versus putting them beside a guy who wasn't even in the NHL last year as the "anchor" of that pairing. We could go back and forth all day on Perbix vs Schneider, but to me...that's the biggest issue. When it's two defencemen who have always leaned on a better partner...vs a top pairing caliber guy carrying someone.

Seeing Barzal play wing on the Islanders hurt me, while Stephenson playing wing in Vegas didn't.

I know that some argue the lineup doesn't matter that much--especially since we see so much flux in lines within a game let alone a season--but it does to me since it indicates whether the GM knows how to put his players in a position to succeed.

Another issue for your team is Vanecek, whose playoff performances have cast a lot of doubt about him being able to handle pressure going forward.

This is fair. The way i approached it was, Barzal is a great offensive Center, but i set out to make sure i'd have options to play with him to actually win faceoffs and handle a lot of the down low defensive heavy lifting. Whether that was Stephenson or Schenn. I think we're seeing more and more these days, that centers like this are becoming more "ambiguous". I looked at it like...regardless of which way i plotted it out on the roster sheet, Stephenson is going to be the primary "center" on a line with Barzal defensively and in terms of taking faceoffs...so i posted it that way. But Barzal would still be the primary puckhandler and play that center role offensively. Heck, this is exactly the way things typically worked when Stephenson was playing with Eichel. I somehow thought that would come across, but where you can't actually elaborate on things beyond the roster...that obviously did not come across properly.

I'm realizing this was definitely the wrong way to convey the intent though, with the way i posted the roster.


Vanacek questions are also fair. I think he demonstrated that he's at the very least, a solid regular season goaltender. I think a little bit too much is made of his playoff faltering. It's an extremely small sample and it had a lot to do with how that team in front of him played. But it's fair to question. I'm not convinced he's a "big moments" goaltender either. But i think there's value in a guy who can at least get you to the dance. And Joseph Holl was supposed to be my ace in the hole. I think i'm a lot higher on him than others though. The thinking being...he can step in like Akira Schmid if necessary. But i like him more than Schmid. That's just a personal preference thing though i guess.