Dustin Wolf- Goalie Development Done right!

[Zegs2sendhelp]

often noticed Dustin wolf(as he was kinda in the same developmental timeline as dostal in Anaheim, cept dostal came from European leagues instead of jrs).

Glad to see both guys doing so well

 

[Figgy44]

Fair point. The best thing they did was leave him in the AHL full time and not bring him up in a platoon role. Maybe he’s just talented and wouldn’t have mattered who drafted him but my point was if you could draw up a development path from draft night to being full time nhl starter, it’s hard to argue a better way to do it. ( obviously there’s outliers and guys who were generationally that started younger like Roy) I’m talking about from Goalie prospect to NHL starter. I’m sure he had his fair share of hiccups in the AHL and he will probably have some more in the NHL. That being said, he’s played many games and has stayed healthy( knock on wood) so he’s what I would call ripened. 23-26 are really important ages for a goalie historically and he’s right there.

Some Flames fans have argued he should have been brought up earlier citing other young and smaller goalies like Saros' beginning as a back up in the NHL as examples of why Wolf should be playing full time earlier. I've argued that his path seems to be reasonable and in fact, perfect for Wolf's situation. Intentionally or unintentionally, IMO the Flames have done a good job balancing his development and giving him a taste of NHL calibre in appropriate doses without burying him or rushing him. I won't argue against the idea that he could have been relatively fine starting to playing full time starting from last years TDL though (Markstrom TDL trade rumors vs off season trade). NHL regular this season has been good and not problematic too.

Looking at a lot of goalies drafted in the year just before Wolf and after, he's honestly on par if not ahead of many of them even against some of their pedigree. I've honestly been kinda holding my breath on him because even though his performance has been good. The Flames have been ultra lousy in drafting and developing goalies for the last 20-30 years and my fingers were crossed they wouldn't wreck him. I'm starting to breathe again and getting excited for Wolf. He's won accolades wherever he goes and IIRC he's been putting his name as a top echelon player in every league he's playing in.

Everyone points at Wolf's size as his biggest hurdle. I say nay. It's his second or possibly third biggest hurdle. The first was pandemic. Second and third was growing up in California/size.

IMO Wolf's biggest developmental hurdle was the pandemic which IMO may have affected all developing players in that period by 0.5-1.5 seasons. I've mentioned in our threads that if Wolf is matching performance at an age matching someone who got most of that D+1 to D+4 development prior to the pandemic, Wolf is actually ahead of them. I've argued that Saros at age 23 had an extra year or more of development than what Wolf has now due to the pandemic shutting things down and limiting opportunities to train effectively. Players still figured it out, but in comparison to Saros, the road was certainly arguable to be rockier. Especially since Saros grew up in region that is somewhat a goalie factory (Finland) and California hasn't historically produced a lot of goalies.

There have been 5 California goalies to play in the NHL. 4 are currently active and only 2 have more than 50 GP. Demko is 1, Delia 2, Wolf is 4th and Cooley 5th. Wolf is the youngest by 4-7 years to the current active goalies. There have been substantially more than five <6'0 goalies playing in the NHL which is why I consider this one of the bigger hurdles. Depending on how things go, Wolf could end up as the 2nd or 3rd all time games play by a California goalie by season end.

NHL Goalies Born in California ‑ All-Time Stats Leaders

All time regular season stats for NHL goalies born in California. Complete list of NHL goalies who were born in California.

www.quanthockey.com

15th all time in wins in the WHL and likely would easily have been 10th all time (2 wins away) had part of the season not been cancelled due to the pandemic. Had a chance to have been 1st if the played an extra season/remaining season of 54 games (17 wins away from 1st all time in WHL wins). Ranked 9th all time in shut outs in a season at 9. That's 4 away from tying the all time record at 13 shut outs... and he got that in a 54 game shortened season.

WHL Goalies ‑ All-Time Wins Leaders

WHL goalies who hold the all-time record for the most wins in WHL. All-time win leaders for WHL goalies.

www.quanthockey.com

WHL Goalies - Most Shutouts in a Single Season

Western Hockey League cancels remainder of 2019-20 regular season due to coronavirus | Globalnews.ca

The Western Hockey League's regular season has come to an end due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

globalnews.ca

Wanna know what's crazy? It's going to be really crazy for him if Wolf becomes our starter and plays his 399th game as a Flame. Milestone after milestone is just right there for him to grab from a Flames franchise POV.

94 more GP and he will replace Ramo as 13th all time for most goalie GP for the Flames. 113 more GP and he replaces Rittich as 10th all time GP for goalies. Markstrom is 5th all time for us at 213. There's a reason a few of us have been waiting with bated breath on Wolf and fighting hard against the hype train.

EDIT: DOH! Used Wiki GP and that doesn't count this years 10 GP for a total of 28 GP so far. Adjust above calcs by 10.

CGY Records

I'll throw it out there. I'm not trying to hype or pressure Wolf. But if he plays the vast majority of his career here, his 214th GP will make him a top 5 GP goalie in Calgary. He would be one of two successful drafted and developed goalies in Calgary <6'0 (He's closer to 5'11 or 5'10 than 6'0) alongside Mike Veron who is 5'9. At minimum, I really hope Wolf stays with us until at least the 214th game, making 5th all time GP for goalie for the Flames over Markstrom.

 

[shello]

Not to bring up HF lore but wasn't Dustin Wolf the name of some made up legendary prospect around here?

 

[Figgy44]

My point is that after Wolf's first season in the AHL, after playing 60 games (47 reg and 13 playoff) plus 3 the previous season and finishing with a .924 sv% (reg)/ .929 sv% (po) and a 2.35 GAA (reg)/ 2.23 GAA (po) and winning the AHL's best goaltender award (Elite Prospects - Award - AHL Best Goaltender (Baz Bastien Memorial Award), I don't think he had much more to prove or learn by playing in the minors. I think his development would have been better served facing NHL shooters, speed and talent, and being the understudy to and learning from one of the top 10 goalies in the NHL (Markstrom).

Wolf played his first NHL game in 2022-2023. It was his first taste of NHL speed. He posted a .958.

Last year he played 17 games between him, Markstrom and Vladar. It was a bigger dose of NHL speed. He posed a .893. 17 games in a 3 goalie rotation is a decent amount, but also a 17 game dose kinda shows the averaging out of the sv%.

I don't think him being unable to go full time last season is a bad thing. He gets the dose at the NHL level, then goes down to work on it before his confidence gets obliterated by NHL calibre talent.

I really want to see him eased him into the NHL workload vs rushing him into it. I do not want to rush him, see him do really well, only to run into a Demko like injury situation. Let's ease him in and enjoy many, many seasons of high calibre play.

The sole possible difference is if Markstrom is moved at the TDL last season, Wolf gets a chunk of the remaining season for another dozen games or so... but even then I think how things have transpired have been exactly what he needed to continue he trajectory.

As a keeper fantasy owner for Wolf, I thought he was NHL-ready last season. This year, he's splitting way too many starts with Vladar, but hopefully Vladar is relegated to more of a true backup role after this streak of Wolf's.

IMO, for mental development I liked the trajectory what has happened instead. Going from 1 NHL game to maybe 30 isn't necessarily good. If he pushes too hard and gets injured, things could spiral (or not) due to the mental side, or the loss in development time.

Some Flames fans wanted to ship Vladar out to have Wolf full time. That's a lot of pressure, especially since after Wolf, our goalie depth would have been Oscar Dansk.

I disagree with the Vladar backup role idea. I think the best development for Wolf now is platoon for this season. Next season maybe we see if it's platoon one more before giving him the starter role, or it's time to be full time starter.

 

[Gliff]

Yup. Basically the same road that the Ducks took with Dostal.

Fulltime AHLer in D+3 and D+4.
Split time between AHL and NHL in D+5.
Fulltime NHLer in D+6.

I don't think it's a coincidence that both of these guys are having similar success, especially when you compare to guys like Levi and Knight that didnt get even one year as a fulltime AHLer and have not had success at the NHL.

 

[WhatTheDuck]

Yup. Basically the same road that the Ducks took with Dostal.

Fulltime AHLer in D+3 and D+4.
Split time between AHL and NHL in D+5.
Fulltime NHLer in D+6.

I don't think it's a coincidence that both of these guys are having similar success, especially when you compare to guys like Levi and Knight that didnt get even one year as a fulltime AHLer and have not had success at the NHL.

Even heading into last year, when most thought he had shown enough to be handed the backup job after a fairly strong showing in his 23 career NHL games in the two seasons prior - the Ducks still went out and created (at least the appearance of) a competition by signing a proven veteran in Stalock who was coming off a decent year with the Hawks. At no point has Dostal been handed or rushed into anything for which he wasn't ready or hadn't earned. Won his full time spot by beating out a goalie who had just spent (at least parts of) the last dozen seasons in the NHL.

 

[Stive Morgan]

Not to bring up HF lore but wasn't Dustin Wolf the name of some made up legendary prospect around here?

Dustin Rose lol

 

[izzy]

It was clear he was going to be a stud

his numbers across each whl and ahl season show that

just an unbelievably dominant and consistent career so far

 

[chris kontos]

So we finally solved the goalie development problem? Nice. Looking forward to consistently good goalies league wide. I'd also like to point out that he was a Junior King. So by all means send the young kids to LA.

Looks like quick. Plays like quick. Insanely athletic and potentially generational like quick. Idolized quick.
f*** NO WE CANT SIGN HIM. We're the cost control LA KINGS baby and our focus is denying young players bonuses and designing weird new jerseys.
Storm surfs up! Its breaking big at ventura overhead. Look for our mgmt team there

 

[SI90]

Yup. Basically the same road that the Ducks took with Dostal.

Fulltime AHLer in D+3 and D+4.
Split time between AHL and NHL in D+5.
Fulltime NHLer in D+6.

I don't think it's a coincidence that both of these guys are having similar success, especially when you compare to guys like Levi and Knight that didnt get even one year as a fulltime AHLer and have not had success at the NHL.

As an isles fan I’ll always hate we picked Skarek over Dostal. For transparency I liked both goalies for that pick but I was leaning more Skarek. Dostal is leaps and bounds ahead of him.

It was clear he was going to be a stud

his numbers across each whl and ahl season show that

just an unbelievably dominant and consistent career so far

There’s no clear or sure things but Wolf has always been good since junior. Consistent for sure.

 

[kingsholygrail]

Looks like quick. Plays like quick. Insanely athletic and potentially generational like quick. Idolized quick.
f*** NO WE CANT SIGN HIM. We're the cost control LA KINGS baby and our focus is denying young players bonuses and designing weird new jerseys.
Storm surfs up! Its breaking big at ventura overhead. Look for our mgmt team there

I think DL would have drafted him.

 

[Figgy44]

As an isles fan I’ll always hate we picked Skarek over Dostal. For transparency I liked both goalies for that pick but I was leaning more Skarek. Dostal is leaps and bounds ahead of him.


There’s no clear or sure things but Wolf has always been good since junior. Consistent for sure.

You guys had Korn for 6 years which helped yield Sorokin. Sorokin + Dostal at the same time is being greedy. Lol.

Ducks have Sudsy and he's a gem. Ducks haven't had an embarrassment of wealth in multiple goalies for a while though. But they've also never technically been without.

Flames aren't even close to that stratosphere for goalie dev/support. That's why having someone of Wolf's potential and situation to potentially realize that potential is so much more exciting for us.

 

[Jumptheshark]

goalies are like starting pitchers--lets see how is numbers come Feb are. Teams will scout him more and review how he plays and adapt their styles

 

[Master P]

Steve Mason taught me to never get hyped for a goalie until he's played at least 2 full seasons and showed he can be consistent.

 

[BB79]

Maybe he's the next Andrew Raycroft

 

[TheHudlinator]

Very arguable he should have been in the nhl all of last year instead of yoyoing especially given how below average our tenders were last year.

 

[SI90]

You guys had Korn for 6 years which helped yield Sorokin. Sorokin + Dostal at the same time is being greedy. Lol.

Ducks have Sudsy and he's a gem. Ducks haven't had an embarrassment of wealth in multiple goalies for a while though. But they've also never technically been without.

Flames aren't even close to that stratosphere for goalie dev/support. That's why having someone of Wolf's potential and situation to potentially realize that potential is so much more exciting for us.

Asset management! Plus you can never have too many goalies. Sudsy has actually worked with the isles in the past.

 

[Figgy44]

Asset management! Plus you can never have too many goalies. Sudsy has actually worked with the isles in the past.

Asset management... Pfft. More like wishing you put $10K in BOTH bitcoin and NVIDIA stock 5 years ago.

 

[SI90]

Asset management... Pfft. More like wishing you put $10K in BOTH bitcoin and NVIDIA stock 5 years ago.

You don’t know how true that really is lol

 

[GrumpyKoala]

As an oilers fan this is utterly annoying.

 

[Fantomas]

What's funny to me is that the year Wolf was drafted 214th overall (2019), he went 41-15-2 with a 1.69 GAA and .936 SV% with the Everett Silvertips.

And NHL GMs were like "nah, no good."

 

[SI90]

What's funny to me is that the year Wolf was drafted 214th overall (2019), he went 41-15-2 with a 1.69 GAA and .936 SV% with the Everett Silvertips.

And NHL GMs were like "nah, no good."

They get caught up with size too much. Thank god my wife doesn’t.

 

[Iggys Dome]

If he splits starts with Vladar this season (~40ish), and have him as a platoon for another 1-2 years after this, we’ll be in good shape going forward.

Carter Hart started really his NHL career strong as well IIRC, then cratered his sophomore season and was just starting to get back in form last season before..well, you know.

I’m more than okay with the way the Flames have handled Wolf, the velvet glove approach is perfect. Especially for a goalie who seems to rely more on the mental side (anticipation, positioning, focus) of goaltending than his physical attributes.

No reason to push him more than you need to at the moment. This team isn’t doing shit for a few years at the minimum.

 

[Fantomas]

If he splits starts with Vladar this season (~40ish), and have him as a platoon for another 1-2 years after this, we’ll be in good shape going forward.

At this rate, the platoon will ending soon.

 

[HighLifeManIsHigh]

goalies are like starting pitchers--lets see how is numbers come Feb are. Teams will scout him more and review how he plays and adapt their styles

Yep, teams definitely don’t have a book on him from the dub or the A.

Hell I’ll tell you his weakness. He’s small. Shoot high glove side. There you go.

Laterally, he’s great. Quick feet. Shoot for the ears.

And I’m not a professional scout. Teams already know what he is.