Player Discussion Dustin Wolf

[Yepthatsme]

I had him as 3rd or 4th round pick easily in his draft year. My mock draft I took him for the Flames earlier than they actually did. I don’t know why NHL scouts didn’t like him. Because everyone I knew in scouting and player agents really liked him before the draft.

He was 5’11 heading into his draft year which really is on the verge of being an NHL goalie height, while playing for the silvertips who are famous for making goalies look good. There were plenty of reasons to doubt him until he just kept proving all of his talents were elite enough to make those doubts foolish.

It’s not like Calgary saw something other teams didn’t, he was still the 4th last player taken in the draft. It was a legitimate concern, his backup actually had a better GAA (1.62) and a better save percentage (.942) in 13 games. Scouts had a good reason to be suspect of how transferable Wolf’s game was, him winning 4 GOTY awards his next 4 seasons just showed that to be foolhardy.

 

[joescores]

Hey now Flaky Dan might come through before then

Oh FFS, just play Cooley already. Get rid of the Flake.

 

[Figgy44]

He was 5’11 heading into his draft year which really is on the verge of being an NHL goalie height, while playing for the silvertips who are famous for making goalies look good. There were plenty of reasons to doubt him until he just kept proving all of his talents were elite enough to make those doubts foolish.

It’s not like Calgary saw something other teams didn’t, he was still the 4th last player taken in the draft. It was a legitimate concern, his backup actually had a better GAA (1.62) and a better save percentage (.942) in 13 games. Scouts had a good reason to be suspect of how transferable Wolf’s game was, him winning 4 GOTY awards his next 4 seasons just showed that to be foolhardy.

I thought I read somewhere that our goaltending group wanted him earlier, but because we already picked up a goalie or had other players that were higher up on the list, we didn't get around to it. In fact, I seem to recall there was an interview where they we were surprised he was still there in the 7th round (thought he might go in the 4th-6th rounds) and even more surprised to realize he was in the stands.

Super glad we got him. The Kanzig trade was an excellent trade.

 

[crackdown44]

 

[Some Other Flame]

If the Flames are smart and aware of what century it is, they'll sign Wolf to an Oettinger/Swayman contract sometime in the next 6 to 18 months.

If the Flames act like the Flames, they'll sign him to a 5 or 6 year deal then either watch him walk in free agency for nothing a la Gaudreau or sign him to the cap percentage adjusted equivalent of Shesterkin's extension.

 

[Lunatik]

If the Flames are smart and aware of what century it is, they'll sign Wolf to an Oettinger/Swayman contract sometime in the next 6 to 18 months.

If the Flames act like the Flames, they'll sign him to a 5 or 6 year deal then either watch him walk in free agency for nothing a la Gaudreau or sign him to the cap percentage adjusted equivalent of Shesterkin's extension.

I'm hoping the Flames give me a couple dope ass birthday presents (bday is July 1), with signing Wolf and Andersson to 8 year extensions.

 

[Lunatik]

View attachment 960171

I understand load management when it comes to Wolf, especially after hearing that Hellebyuck rarely practices with the Jets because of how much he plays and at this stage in his career, I don't think that would be a great idea for Wolf. But I do think it is time to play Wolf a little more.

Thus far he's played 22/41 games, I think playing him in 28-30 of the remaining games is fair while still managing his workload. For instance, when March rolls around if we sit him for the games on March 8 and 25, he'll get breaks of 5 and 4 days.

 

[crackdown44]

I understand load management when it comes to Wolf, especially after hearing that Hellebyuck rarely practices with the Jets because of how much he plays and at this stage in his career, I don't think that would be a great idea for Wolf. But I do think it is time to play Wolf a little more.

Thus far he's played 22/41 games, I think playing him in 28-30 of the remaining games is fair while still managing his workload. For instance, when March rolls around if we sit him for the games on March 8 and 25, he'll get breaks of 5 and 4 days.

Kipper would have played 39 of them

But yeah I would like to see them give him a starter’s workload the rest of the way if they’re going to try and extend him long term this summer

 

[Bounces R Way]

I think that might have been his best NHL game so far. Flames weren't even close to good defensively this game.

 

[ps241]

Jets fan dropping by.

Wolf is one of the guys that had allot of hype by the typical Canadian HFBoards prospect pumping hoping for a miracle to save the franchise fan base. All seven Canadian fan bases suffer from this faith based delusion.

From arms length one thing I noticed though was Wolf always had a phenomenal save percentage to back up the hype. That caught my eye since it was the same thing we saw with Hellebuyck pre NHL. Different paths to the NHL but eerily similar eye popping Save %.

Last night I took my son to the game and was really looking forward to watching Wolf live for the first time. As luck would have it Zary’s Uncle and friends were sitting beside me. His buddy was a Jets fan but they were fun people to chat with.

Needless to say I was REALLY impressed by Wolf. We have all been witness to when our teams get goalied so it’s not like this was a one off. After the first period I posted on our GDT that I thought we were getting goalied tonight. However this was a bit different. Getting goalied usually feels like there is luck involved but last night there was less of that feel and more of a player in the zone. I loved how Wolf looked in the net, He is technically sound, has great positioning, also has those cat like reflexes and movement undersized goalies need, but the key is he wasn’t over reliant on them. Also the dude is a master at getting out of his net fast to stop the puck on dump ins. He was also good at handling it. Flames D core were really struggling with clean zone exits and were very forecheckable, looked like they were handling a grenade too often. They did a better than average job managing net front traffic and site lines though. The ice was tilted for most of the night so Wolf was fighting an uphill battle.

OK micro sample size alert but this kid has that “It factor”. I didn’t feel this was a lucky one off type game I felt I was watching a young emerging top end talent that will be a cornerstone for your franchise. Kid feels like he’s going to be a star.

Congrats. I will be pumping his tires on those ever so important Calder threads which are usually calm and rational

 

[Unlimited Chequing]

We should trade him for picks!!

Am I doing this right?

 

[Yepthatsme]

Jets fan dropping by.

Wolf is one of the guys that had allot of hype by the typical Canadian HFBoards prospect pumping hoping for a miracle to save the franchise fan base. All seven Canadian fan bases suffer from this faith based delusion.

From arms length one thing I noticed though was Wolf always had a phenomenal save percentage to back up the hype. That always caught my eye since it was the same thing we saw with Hellebuyck pre NHL. Different paths to the NHL but eerily similar eye popping Save %.

Last night I took my son to the game and was really looking forward to watching Wolf live for the first time. As luck would have it Zary’s Uncle and friends were sitting beside me. His buddy was a Jets fan but they were fun people to chat with.

Needless to say I was REALLY impressed by Wolf. We have all been witness to when our teams get goalied so it’s not like this was a one off. After the first period I posted on our GTD that I thought we were getting goalied tonight. However this was a bit different. Getting goalied there usually feels like there is luck involved but last night there was less of that feel and more of a player in the zone. I loved how Wolf looked in the net, He is technically sound, has great positioning, also has those cat like reflexes and movement undersized goalies needs but they key is he wasn’t over reliant on them. Also the dude is a master and getting out of his net fast to stop the pucks on dump ins. He was also good at handling it. Flames D core were really struggling with clean zone exits and were very forecheckable, looked like they were handling a grenade too often. They did a better than average job managing net front traffic and site lines though. The ice was tilted for most of the night so Wolf was fighting and uphill battle.

OK micro sample size alert but this kid has that “It factor”. I didn’t feel this was a lucky one off type game I felt I was watching a young emerging top end talent that will be a cornerstone for your franchise. Kid feels like he’s going to be a star.

Congrats. I will be pumping his tires on those ever so important Calder threads which are usually calm and rational

To be honest Calgary prospects usually get under hyped typically. Being one of the smaller Canadian markets we don’t have much dedicated media types discussing them, and our smaller fan base is on the quiet side for drumming up interest. So usually the players who get hyped up in our organization are doing insane things to necessitate getting talked about, like Wolf winning 4 consecutive goalie of the year awards across the WHL and AHL.

For example, Parekh’s prospect page on the main boards is 22 pages long. It has progressed barely one page since this season has commenced and that was mostly just WJC discussion and talking about an early season incident. He just had a 3 goal, 5 point night to become Saginaw’s all time leading scorer amongst defenseman, and his prospect page never even got bumped and I can’t even find a major media outlet or personality that’s mentioned it outside the hockey news. Yet I can tell you about Cowan’s point streak or Hutson’s plus/minus from his last game.

Other examples are Calgary currently has one of the best goal scorers in the NCAA in Suniev (tied for 5th), Mews who is second in scoring amongst all CHL defenseman, and Stromgren who has 28 points in his last 30 AHL games, a better pace than anyone from the 2021 draft not in the NHL yet. I’d pray for these boards if any of them were drafted by Montreal.

 

[ps241]

To be honest Calgary prospects usually get under hyped typically. Being one of the smaller Canadian markets we don’t have much dedicated media types discussing them, and our smaller fan base is on the quiet side for drumming up interest. So usually the players who get hyped up in our organization are doing insane things to necessitate getting talked about, like Wolf winning 4 consecutive goalie of the year awards across the WHL and AHL.

For example, Parekh’s prospect page on the main boards is 22 pages long. It has progressed barely one page since this season has commenced and that was mostly just WJC discussion and talking about an early season incident. He just had a 3 goal, 5 point night to become Saginaw’s all time leading scorer amongst defenseman, and his prospect page never even got bumped and I can’t even find a major media outlet or personality that’s mentioned it outside the hockey news. Yet I can tell you about Cowan’s point streak or Hutson’s plus/minus from his last game.

Other examples are Calgary currently has one of the best goal scorers in the NCAA in Suniev (tied for 5th), Mews who is second in scoring amongst all CHL defenseman, and Stromgren who has 28 points in his last 30 AHL games, a better pace than anyone from the 2021 draft not in the NHL yet. I’d pray for these boards if any of them were drafted by Montreal.

Montreal is on a different level although Hutson is almost living up to their insane hype. Parekh looks like a hell of a prospect for you guys.

 

[crackdown44]

I don’t really know how to evaluate a goalie outside of their ability to stop pucks and Wolf has just done that better than most at every single level so far and I hope he keeps doing it tbh

 

[JPeeper]

Like mentioned, Wolf has the "it" factor. Flames are 1/3 on franchise cornerstone pieces with Wolf, now we need that #1 center and #1 defender (could be Parekh which would push us to 2/3 which this early in a re-tool is pretty solid).

It's his rookie season and he's already a top 5 goalie in the league playing behind mostly 5-7 defenders as well. That Winnipeg game should 100% be a loss with the amount of turnovers in our own zone and he kept Winnipeg to 1 goal on 40 shots.

He rarely ever gets beaten clean and when he does it's news worthy (like Parayko), whereas some goalies it's every or every other game they let a bad one in.

Can't believe I witnessed the Flames drafting a legit starter in my life. Don't care if it's super early, the Wolf could go down as the best Flames goalie in history. I love this player.

 

[Yepthatsme]

Like mentioned, Wolf has the "it" factor. Flames are 1/3 on franchise cornerstone pieces with Wolf, now we need that #1 center and #1 defender (could be Parekh which would push us to 2/3 which this early in a re-tool is pretty solid).

It's his rookie season and he's already a top 5 goalie in the league playing behind mostly 5-7 defenders as well. That Winnipeg game should 100% be a loss with the amount of turnovers in our own zone and he kept Winnipeg to 1 goal on 40 shots.

He rarely ever gets beaten clean and when he does it's news worthy (like Parayko), whereas some goalies it's every or every other game they let a bad one in.

Can't believe I witnessed the Flames drafting a legit starter in my life. Don't care if it's super early, the Wolf could go down as the best Flames goalie in history. I love this player.

Wolf is already insanely good and puts his team on his back, but this narrative that he’s doing it despite our defense isn’t true. Defensively our team has actually been middle of the pack on the year outside our PK.

At all strengths, we are 15th in CA/60, 20th in SA/60, 13th in xGA/60, 24th in SCA/60, 20th in HDCA/60. Weegar and Andersson are both high great top pair defense. Bahl is a good top 4 defensive defenseman, and Pachal has been a fantastic bottom pair guy. We are really only missing a solid second pair guy as far as miscast players go. Hanley has actually done pretty good with Weegar despite obviously being a position that should be improved. Lots of people keep saying “mostly 5-7 guys” when we have one of those playing above their heads.

 

[Anglesmith]

Yes, he's having a good run here, but he was probably absolutely horrendous at dodgeball in gym class.

 

[Iggys Dome]

anyone else see it or is it just me

 

[Bounces R Way]

Think we got ourselves a goaler

 

[Turning Mangiapanese]

Think we got ourselves a goaler

His insane lateral movement actually just makes these highlight reel saves look less impressive. He barely has to reach with his glove because he's already there.

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

His insane lateral movement actually just makes these highlight reel saves look less impressive. He barely has to reach with his glove because he's already there.

That save he made against LA was one of the greatest of all time IMO. Most saves of the year are on a cross ice pass where the goalie loses their feet and have to reach back and catch the puck. They have like a 5% chance of making the save.

Wolf makes a toe save on a deflection, maintains his balance and pushes across with his whole body and takes away 75% of the net on the rebound. I’ve been saying for years he makes special saves look somewhat routine, and it’s why he’s such a special talent.

 

[flames23]

This heater he's on is sure enjoyable. I know there will be down times, but it feels incredible to believe in a young prospect and have him shine before your very eyes.

Some were Wolf truthers like myself for many years and others not so much.

Now it really doesn't matter which side you WERE on. We're all just blessed to get to watch him on our team for hopefully a decade.

I was a Kylington truther too. That didn't go as I expected. Win some and lose some.

The feeling of entering games like "ah we might get goalie'd, but it's likelier they'll get goalie'd by us" is so foreign. Marky was a good #1 with some greatness sprinkled in, but there was too much of that "First two shots will be dicey, and we'll see how it goes from there".

We're a bottom 7-8 team with top 5
goaltending right now. Often higher.

My expectations are still low. I thought Zary's injury would really hurt our creativity and playmaking. While we haven't been great, the results are still okay.
Beat up on teams like Sabres and Hawks, and try to steal one from teams like the Kings and Jets.

The b2b losses to the Blues was tough, but it's almost like not getting the split there was washed away with the robbery in Peg.

Anyway, I'm rambling but was also laughing a bit at The Athletic still having us at only a 16% playoff chance w Vancouver over 60%.

Van is still the favourite I suppose as they're awful (but not far back) so can only get better. We'll see what they do w Miller.
Wolf continuing around .920 down the stretch doesn't seem outrageous like it might have in Oct.

 

[Anglesmith]

I don't know if our team is even that bad relative to the league given how trash the East is.

 

[Zirakzigil]

I don't know if our team is even that bad relative to the league given how trash the East is.

Difference between this year and last year is the team is close and bought into what the coaches are saying. Last year there was so much noise, starting with Zad being an idiot. Zero noise with this group. When a reporter tries to create it, players snap at them and tell them to shut up.

 

[Kahvi]

Just watched the replays. Last 6 goals he's allowed: 3 deflections, 2 from the grease. Maybe the first Minnesota goal was a bit easy, but I'm not sure if it deflected from Flames D.