The next great young goaltender! Are there any?
- Thread starter JayRice66
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I was actually looking for goaltenders that will be eligible for the draft in the next few years. I'm a hugh lehtonen fan as well.
OrrNumber4
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Tomas Greiss is a longshot to become a dominate NHL goalie, mostly because he is in San Jose's system. Other than Terry Friesen, I do believe Greiss is the goalie taken the highest by the Sharks. Looking at what they did what Nabakov (ninth round), Hedberg (seventh round), Kipprusoff(fifth round), and Toskala(fourth round), the Sharks could very well work wonders with Greiss.
Fleury isn't in the same world as Lehtonen at this point. Lehtonen dominated in the AHL, Fleury couldn't manage to keep the starter spot. Lehtonen is the world's next great goalie, Fleury has fallen into a group with Lundqvist, Toivonen, and the like. In fact, I'd take Toivonen over Fleury at this point any day, but just my opinion I guess.
OrrNumber4
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Hatter
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Lehtonen's good, but I also like Fleury. The Penguins have a history of drafting well under the direction of Craig Patrick and Greg Malone (head scout), and they wouldn't have traded with Florida from #3 overall to #1 overall if they didn't see something really special in him.
Rask, Schwarz, Tuoivonen, Lehtonen and Fleury i think are the best out there in terms of potential.
EroCaps said:
Fair enough that it's your opinion, but I really don't see how you can say that. A guy that has dominated the AHL for two seasons and did the same in the NHL for a short stint versus a guy that struggled in the NHL and barely kept his spot in the AHL. Seems pretty clear to me. But that could easily change.
ILuvLA
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Luigi Habs
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Lethoten, Tuoivonen, Lundqvist, Fleury are the top 4(in no order). Lundqvist, Lethoten and Fleury will be seeing at least 30 games next season im pretty sure so we will see if there great #'s(well average #'s for Fleury) in the AHL and SEL will translate to the NHL. Im not all that up to date thoguh on Tuoivonen if he will be with Boston next season or not since they have Raycroft.(do they have a backup?..if not I would expect Tuovionen to play a good amount of games)
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Hatter said:
LaBarbera????????????????????????????????
Backup goalie at best in the NHL. Garon is like 28 or something and Nittimaki isn't considered a prospect anymore either.
tom_servo
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This season will be critical for Fleury. He's got a goaltending coach, and a new mentor in Thibault. He's got to stay consistent.
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DJ Spinoza
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tom_servo said:
I agree.
It's also a big stretch to claim that Fleury struggled in his short stint in the NHL. Most everyone that watched all of his games will tell you that he was very good in all of them except one or two.
The overall defense on the team was so bad that Fleury was having to stop odd man rush after odd man rush. It got to a point where it was ridiculous, and he would give up 4 or 5 goals but with how badly the defense was dominated, it's a wonder the other team didn't score 8 or 9.
But he did have his various struggles at times in the AHL. I blame a lot of Fleury's sketchy parts of development so far on the Penguins management of him. He never should have been playing on such a bad NHL team, and the way Therrien handles goalies in the AHL should almost be enough to get him fired in my opinion. If he didn't have such a good track record with young players I would be calling for him to be fired already.
I followed Wilkes Barre early on, and it never seemed like Therrien had any intent of having a starter from the beginning. He went with whoever was hot at the time, so nobody got a chance to settle in and had to look over their shoulder all the time.
Servo said it right. This is almost like a fresh clean start for Fleury. He's got the full time goalie coach and the veteran advisor now. I am of the opinion that he will/should play for the Pens this year, if anything just to save him from Therrien's revolving goalie circus setup, but also because he will be able to be spot started in Pittsburgh and still play a decent amount of time, and also learn a whole lot from being an observer and understudy. He's still very young for a goalie or any prospect, so a full year in the AHL won't hinder him. But considering the situation, I think I'd prefer it if he were in Pittsburgh to start the season (if he won the backup job of course).
I think the point of this thread is to identify undrafted teenage prospects that might be drafted very high in the future.
That's a very difficult thing to do as goalies almost always drastically change their rankings during their draft year. Seventeen year old goalies that have great seasons always get drafted really highly, see Dipietro, Fleury, Montoya, etc. The best you can do with a 16 and under goalie is predict that they 'might' have an NHL future, and then during their draft year they either shoot up the rank lists or fall off the face of the earth.
Right now, the goalies out west I see with NHL futures are Leland Irving (Everett Silvertips, WHL) and James Reimer (Red Deer Rebels, AAA in Manitoba last season). I wish I knew more from across the country but like I said - it's much harder at this point than talking about skaters.
That's a very difficult thing to do as goalies almost always drastically change their rankings during their draft year. Seventeen year old goalies that have great seasons always get drafted really highly, see Dipietro, Fleury, Montoya, etc. The best you can do with a 16 and under goalie is predict that they 'might' have an NHL future, and then during their draft year they either shoot up the rank lists or fall off the face of the earth.
Right now, the goalies out west I see with NHL futures are Leland Irving (Everett Silvertips, WHL) and James Reimer (Red Deer Rebels, AAA in Manitoba last season). I wish I knew more from across the country but like I said - it's much harder at this point than talking about skaters.
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