Franchise with best and worst luck in net

[Voight]

Going back to the 70s the Rangers have had an almost interrupted run of elite goalies. There was a gap between Giacomin and Beezer, but then they went from him to Richter, another gap then Hank and now Shesterkin.

& the gap between Richter and Hank was Dan Blackburn, who very well could've been elite if he hadn't been injury prone.

Is it luck though, or lack of prioritizing. As a Habs fan we once had a team deep with Cs , with Vinnie Damphousse, Pierre Turgeon and Saku Koivu. Then mismanagement came and the best we could do is Koivu and Pleakanec. We somehow couldn't lay our hands on a legit top 6C for almost 30 years before we got Suzuki.

But we didn't
make drafting Cs a priority, and only one GM, Gainey , tried trading for one (and he failed. ), the others just happily going with what we had. So for Montreal it wasnt bad luck, it was bad management. Until Bergevin finally was willing to trade a high value asset for a top C prospect. I mean it's you draft, trade or sign as a FA.

Goalies are harder to project, but other than Hart, did the Flyers invest in drafting a bunch of good quality prospects, or trade for them over the decades ? I didn't follow other than thinking these guys are as good at turning up good goalies as we are with centres.

I mean, they had Bob and traded him cause they didn't think he was capable of being a #1.

 

[Rebels57]

Worst is the Flyers and it's not close.

Bernie Parent's career was cut short in his prime due to an eye injury in 1979. Prior to that, they likely win the 1976 Cup and 3-peat with a healthy Parent, who was the Conn Smythe and Vezina winner in 1974 and 1975, but he was sidelined due to a pinched nerve in his neck.

Pelle Lindbergh died in a car accident in his prime (age 26) right after winning a Vezina, just 5 months after leading the Flyers to the Finals against Edmonton.

Hextall got off to a great start in his career, winning the Vezina as a rookie in 1987 and leading the Flyers to the Cup once again against Edmonton. Then the injuries started to pile up, specifically the groin and hamstring which plagued in the early 90's and diminished his career.

In 2004, the Flyers signed Jeff Hackett. He develops positional vertigo out of nowhere after just 27 games and is unable to play again.

Ray Emery gets injuried early in the 09-10 season and misses the rest of the season. The Flyers nearly win the Cup with one of the worst goaltending performances of all-time by Leighton/Injured Boucher. Much better chance at winning had Emery not been injured.

They sign Bobrovksy as an Undrafted Free Agent and then he completely craters in the 2011 Playoffs, prompting Ed Snider to force Paul Holmgren to find a solution in net. The solution? Ilya Bryzgalov, who completely forget how to play goalie and seemingly went insane leading to his eventual compliance buy-out. This is a combination of bad luck and incompetence.

Bobrovsky was traded for Steve Mason, who turned his career around in Philly, before concussion issues started in 2014 thanks to a cheapshot by Jayson Megna in the Playoffs. He was never able to fully recovery to his previous level of play.

Michael Neuvirth, who replaced Mason, had so many injuries that no one even knew what they were half the time. He even collapsed on the ice in the middle of nowhere, suffering a concussion and neck injury. His career was derailed by injuries.

CARTER HART.....the finally draft and develop a young goalie prospect into an excellent #1 and he would have been that for the foreseeable future...you know the rest of this story.

I'm probably missing some too.

 

[Panteras]

Worst is the Flyers and it's not close.

Bernie Parent's career was cut short in his prime due to an eye injury in 1979. Prior to that, they likely win the 1976 Cup and 3-peat with a healthy Parent, who was the Conn Smythe and Vezina winner in 1974 and 1975, but he was sidelined due to a pinched nerve in his neck.

Pelle Lindbergh died in a car accident in his prime (age 26) right after winning a Vezina, just 5 months after leading the Flyers to the Finals against Edmonton.

Hextall got off to a great start in his career, winning the Vezina as a rookie in 1987 and leading the Flyers to the Cup once again against Edmonton. Then the injuries started to pile up, specifically the groin and hamstring which plagued in the early 90's and diminished his career.

In 2004, the Flyers signed Jeff Hackett. He develops positional vertigo out of nowhere after just 27 games and is unable to play again.

Ray Emery gets injuried early in the 09-10 season and misses the rest of the season. The Flyers nearly win the Cup with one of the worst goaltending performances of all-time by Leighton/Injured Boucher. Much better chance at winning had Emery not been injured.

They sign Bobrovksy as an Undrafted Free Agent and then he completely craters in the 2011 Playoffs, prompting Ed Snider to force Paul Holmgren to find a solution in net. The solution? Ilya Bryzgalov, who completely forget how to play goalie and seemingly went insane leading to his eventual compliance buy-out. This is a combination of bad luck and incompetence.

Bobrovsky was traded for Steve Mason, who turned his career around in Philly, before concussion issues started in 2014 thanks to a cheapshot by Jayson Megna in the Playoffs. He was never able to fully recovery to his previous level of play.

Michael Neuvirth, who replaced Mason, had so many injuries that no one even knew what they were half the time. He even collapsed on the ice in the middle of nowhere, suffering a concussion and neck injury. His career was derailed by injuries.

CARTER HART.....the finally draft and develop a young goalie prospect into an excellent #1 and he would have been that for the foreseeable future...you know the rest of this story.

I'm probably missing some too.

Didn’t you guys also give up on Cechmanek? I mean he didn’t turn out to be Bobrovsky afterwards, but I think he was pretty decent for you guys. Probably more than many that came before and after.

 

[PB37]

Boston goalies have won 4 of the past 16 Vezina trophies, which is twice as much as the next team ( several tied with 2 ).

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

Since ‘81 when the award changed Buffalo has won the vezina 9 times with three different goalies.

The real answer is the East. The award has stayed with the prince of wales conference 75% of the time.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Goaltending isn't luck.

Drafting them sure is

 

[Profet]

Good luck: Rangers (Beezer, Richter, Lundqvist, Shesterkin)

Counterpoint:

Dan Blackburn

 

[Stive Morgan]

Gotta be Montréal, even a waiver pickup in Montembault has been solid enough (far from a HHOFer, but as a stop gap before the next guy comes along I mean)

 

[Tawnos]

Counterpoint:

Dan Blackburn

Pretty well mitigated by Lundqvist. In some ways, that makes the Rangers even more lucky that they lost a young goalie to injury when he looked like he was going to be great, only to end up with a Hall of Famer just a couple of years later.

It’s a what if I think about. What if Blackburn doesn’t get hurt and Lundqvist comes over and is Lundqvist? Do they trade one for some offensive firepower they desperately needed during the late 00s/early 10s? Who do they draft 6OA in 2004?

 

[JabbaJabba]

I feel like CBJ has had some of the worst luck.
Steve Mason looks real promising and then well you know
Bob walks
Merzļikins has promise but yeah not really anymore

Also Kivlenieks was killed in a horrible accident.

 

[JabbaJabba]

Anaheim has definitely had some good luck with their goalies. Going from Hebert to Giguere (with Bryzgalov as a backup) followed by Hiller, Andersen and Gibson. Now they are expecting Dostal to take over. The only periods of bad goaltending have been when Hiller started suffering from vertigo and he couldn't play well, and they had to play Emery and Ellis in the net. Also the last couple of years have been bad goaltendingwise, though the defense hasn't helped much.

 

[alko]

Maple Leafs fans dont read this topic?

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Also Kivlenieks was killed in a horrible accident.

yeah someone brought that up too. such bad luck and did get about that

 

[LokiDog]

Even the spaces between Giacomin, Beezer, Richter, Lundqvist and Shesterkin have some pretty decent stop gaps filling them. Dunham, Weekes, Valliquette. Georgiev is a starter on a top team now. We had Blackburn as well who was career was cut short. Rangers definitely are up there.

 

[Bizz]

The only starting goalie with any lasting impact for San Jose has been Nabokov. Rest have either been 1-3 year mercenaries (Irbe, Vernon, Hrudey, potentially Blackwood), never wanted to be here (Belfour), were never good (Niemi, Hackett, Kahkonen, Terreri), or were good for one season then sucked or traded away (Jones, Toskala).

Hopefully Askarov gives us what we've desperately needed.