kehatch Posted October 14, 2012 Report Share Posted October 14, 2012 In Abbotsford The top Flames prospects are doing what we hoped they would. Baertschi has a goal and an assist in each of the first two games. Brodie has been one of the best D and managed 3 assists last game. Horak has been great while putting up a goal each game. Reinhart looked good in his first game. Aliu and Breen have been beasts. Dark horses like Street and Sylvester are looking very solid. The only real downers are injuries to Byron and Nemisz keeping them out of the line-up, Wahl and Howse failing to make the team, and Ferland sitting the bench due to a lack of conditioning. That and Irving failing to get a start so far. I don't know if it is a lack of merit or a love affair with Taylor (who wasn't the best goalie in camp, Brust was) but I am hoping that changes soon. It is tough to argue with the success over the first two games. But Irving is our top goaltending prospect and could be unrestricted at the end of the year. The lack of faith Ward has in him (right or wrong) may hurt us down the road. In Europe Backlund and Cervenka may not meet the definition of prospects but both are lighting it up. Backlund with 4-points in 2-games and Cervenka putting up 11 in 8. Hopefully this si the confidence boost Backlund needed. Ramo was statistically the best goalie in the KHL until getting lit up a game or so ago. He is still doing well. Ortio has really picked up his game recently getting back to back shutouts. Babchuk and Hudler haven't done much on the score sheet, but they aren't prospects anyway (and Hudler is injured now). Granlund has been luke wasn't been fantastic either. But he hasn't been bad. In College Gaudreau was apparently the best player for BC last night putting up an assist on their only goal. Jankowski netted two in his first game. Gillis has been very solid for Providence so far. Not hearing much (good or bad) on the other players, but we are just one or two games in so far. In Junior The performances of Gordon and Culkin have been pleasant surprises. Both are near the top of the scoring charts in their divisions. And neither appears to be slowing down. I am not expecting much from Elson, but he was named captain of the Rebels which is good news. Sieloff continues to be a wrecking machine. Wotherspoon has turned it on as of late. The only disappointment has been Brossoit who has failed to really find his game yet this season. But there is still lots of time and he has 4-wins in 7-games despite his poor statistics. All and all a very good start for our prospects across all divisions. It is still early, but hopefully they can keep it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTech780 Posted October 15, 2012 Report Share Posted October 15, 2012 I find the fact that Irving hasn't even dressed for a game a little troublesome. To be fair both Brust and Taylor have proven themselves to be very good AHL goalies, but if Irving wants to be an NHL goalie he has to be able to out play two career minor leaguers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coolie Posted October 15, 2012 Report Share Posted October 15, 2012 It's been a promising start for the most part though, for sure. Good to see! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kehatch Posted October 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 15, 2012 I find the fact that Irving hasn't even dressed for a game a little troublesome. To be fair both Brust and Taylor have proven themselves to be very good AHL goalies, but if Irving wants to be an NHL goalie he has to be able to out play two career minor leaguers. If he doesn't start he won't dress. He has a 50-game limit and they probably don't want to waste those on him sitting the bench. I agree that he should be able to outplay the other two goalies. And if he can't then he doesn't deserve to play. But I am afraid it might be the case that Ward trusts Taylor and it is Taylor's job to lose. From what I heard Brust was the best goalie at camp. If it was being done totally on merit ..... It is only two games so far so nothing to worry about yet. For all we know each goalie will get a couple of games early to give the coaching staff a chance to evaluate them. I just hope this doesn't turn into a scenario where Taylor has to poop the bed for Irving to get a chance and then Irving is kept on an ultra short leash. If the Flames won't give him a reasonable chance at the starting job in the AHL then they might as well cut bait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C_worthy Posted October 16, 2012 Report Share Posted October 16, 2012 The only disappointment has been Brossoit who has failed to really find his game yet this season. But there is still lots of time and he has 4-wins in 7-games despite his poor statistics. I think Brossoit played too much over the summer. Sure, he wanted to keep things rolling for the WJ team tryouts and Russia games, but I think he just got worn down. So far he hasn't recovered yet, but that's ok - he'll get it back. The only concern is that, if he wants to make the WJC team he needs to get it going soon. As for Irving, I think you are right that, if he isn't starting, he isn't dressing. And Ward just wants to see what he has with the other two goalies because, at some point, he won't have Irving any more. Also, Irving missed a good chunk of camp, so he probably isn't in the same form as the the other two. I don't thnk there's anything to worry about with him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjgallow Posted October 16, 2012 Report Share Posted October 16, 2012 You can really feel something building... The drafting has drastically improved in the last two years. The Heat have been properly invested in to create winning attitudes and skills. Troy Ward is a big part of that. I think out most under-rated position is goal. I'd start with Danny Taylor. Is he an AHL lifer? I'm not so sure. He has a 1.5 goals against right now, and has shown consistent, steady improvement for the last three years. He's only 2 years older than Irving. He's the same age Kipper was when he broke out. Which brings me to Irving...maybe Irving isn't so bad either. Maybe Irving IS doing okay, and Danny Taylor is simply doing better. Maybe this has more to do with Danny Taylor's good play, than Irving's bad play. Which brings me to Ramo...who (it kills me to say this) is doing awesome. Which brings me to Ortio, who has 2.5 shutouts already. That's a lot of good goaltending news. And don't get me started on Karlsson... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kehatch Posted October 16, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2012 You can really feel something building... The drafting has drastically improved in the last two years. The Heat have been properly invested in to create winning attitudes and skills. Troy Ward is a big part of that. I think out most under-rated position is goal. I'd start with Danny Taylor. Is he an AHL lifer? I'm not so sure. He has a 1.5 goals against right now, and has shown consistent, steady improvement for the last three years. He's only 2 years older than Irving. He's the same age Kipper was when he broke out. Which brings me to Irving...maybe Irving isn't so bad either. Maybe Irving IS doing okay, and Danny Taylor is simply doing better. Maybe this has more to do with Danny Taylor's good play, than Irving's bad play. Which brings me to Ramo...who (it kills me to say this) is doing awesome. Which brings me to Ortio, who has 2.5 shutouts already. That's a lot of good goaltending news. And don't get me started on Karlsson... It is so so tough to project goalies. Have the time we can't predict how a NHL proven goalie is going to turn out. Or even how a top goalie will do from team to team or season to season. That said, I think you may be a bit high on our goalie prospects. Not that that is a bad thing. But Taylor was barely an AHL goalie until last season. Kipper sorta came out of nowhere. But he was knocking it out of the park in the AHL and was proven overseas. He was also a routine call up to the NHL. There is a reason Taylor didn't get an NHL offer from anyone. Including the Flames (who chose to re-sign Irving). Ortio is tough to read. The Flames don't have him bouncing all over the world with limited starts because they want it that way. This is the first time he has had any success at a pro level. I need to see a LOT more from him before I get excited. Irving is our top goalie prospect. And I liked what I saw out of him last season in his call up. But this is a guy that lost his job to Shantz. He lost his job to Taylor (twice). And he has never put up strong numbers at the AHL level. He hasn't even posted a 920. Last season he was a 902 while Taylor (in a similar number of starts) was a 927. Those are flags. Ramo is the one guy I am excited about. But there is no way to predict how he is going to do in the NHL. Goalie development is a blind throw at the dart board at the best of times. And we have more unknowns then most. But at least we have some darts to throw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjgallow Posted October 18, 2012 Report Share Posted October 18, 2012 ... That said, I think you may be a bit high on our goalie prospects. Not that that is a bad thing. But Taylor was barely an AHL goalie until last season. Kipper sorta came out of nowhere. But he was knocking it out of the park in the AHL and was proven overseas. He was also a routine call up to the NHL. There is a reason Taylor didn't get an NHL offer from anyone. Including the Flames (who chose to re-sign Irving). I think you are correct that I come off overly high on out goaltending prospects. However, the world needs balance and I think that it would be fair to say that the Flames organization, and its fans, have been unnecessarily critical of basically every goaltender we have ever had in the system, with the exception of Kipper. I can't think of a single goaltender that was given a fair chance other than Mikka. And I need to stress that we should learn from that. Do you remember Kipper's third game as a Flame? He let in 6 goals. And he completely blew it in overtime. I do. Against Colorado. Everyone was screaming for his head. The fans, the media alike: http://www.hockey-reference.com/boxscores/200311270CGY.html It was the first and last time anyone would scream for his head. Darryl Sutter insisted that he had faith in him, and continued to give him playing time. The rest is history. We've completely abandoned other young goalies for much less. I'm not saying that Danny Taylor is the next Kipprusoff. I am saying that in the last 5 years, we've missed many opportunities to develop our future starter. Here is a quick comparison of Kipper to Danny Taylor in the AHL: Age: ____ Kipper GAA Taylor GAA 24 ______ 2.48 ______ 2.35 25 ______2.24 ______ 2.36 (2.21 with the Heat) 26 ______1.73 ______ 1.50 (this year for Danny) Again, not sayin he's Kipper. But not saying he's an AHL lifer either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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