G Damian Clara - Brynäs IF, HockeyAllsvenskan (2023, 60th, ANA)

[Antiillafire]

Safe to say, I’m happy for him.

Great call on his rise up the boards

 

[Hockeyfrilla]

Safe to say, I’m happy for him.

2nd round was abit early for him?

 

[S E P H]

2nd round was abit early for him?

I really like the goaler class for this year, but when you get only 4-5 excellent prospects with a large gap between the rest of the pool, they tend to go quite high to teams loaded with top 70-90 picks. Clara might have been drafted higher than expected, but it's more of a strategy and that was due to the shallow pool.

 

[GermanSpitfire]

2nd round was abit early for him?

Not at all - I personally had him at 45, and if you asked differnent teams I almost guarantee some would have him as the 2nd or 3rd best goalie from this class.

 

[Kcoyote3]

Seems like a team will grab him in the 2nd when the goalie rush starts to go

Yup

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Not selected in the CHL Import Draft. It will be interesting to see how much he plays for Brynas in a tandem with veteran Anders Lindback. Brynas playing in Alsvenskan for the first time in club history is also interesting.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

I really like the goaler class for this year, but when you get only 4-5 excellent prospects with a large gap between the rest of the pool, they tend to go quite high to teams loaded with top 70-90 picks. Clara might have been drafted higher than expected, but it's more of a strategy and that was due to the shallow pool.

Flyers took two in a row. I'd imagine that was the separation point between the first and second tiers.

Will never know, but curious how many clubs had Clara in their top tier.

 

[Buck Naked]

Excellent performance yesterday when shutting out Östersund in a 2-0 victory.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Basically has taken over as a Brynas' starting goalie. Which isn't that surprising since Lindback always seemed like someone whose reputation is a step ahead of his goaltending skills (riding your own coattails is a really interesting concept) but establishing yourself as a starting goalie in a solid pro league before you even turn 19 is great in any case.

 

[Kalv]

Could he be the best Italian prospect in years? Would be good for him to succeed

 

[SoundAndFury]

Could he be the best Italian prospect in years? Would be good for him to succeed

Sbisa was Italian-born but if you don't count him it's not much of a competition.

 

[barriers]

 

[MikeyS]

Impressive record, but save percentage is suspect. Any reason why?

 

[tomd]

Impressive record, but save percentage is suspect. Any reason why?

.912 save % puts him sixth in the league and his percentage has been moving up for the past month or so.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Is there a reason he didn't play for Italy's U20 team?

 

[ItWasJustified]

Is there a reason he didn't play for Italy's U20 team?

It was not an easy decision. But we still jointly decided that it was better for me to be here in Brynäs, not least for my development to stay at home and train and play, than to go there. Playing junior hockey is also lower level, says Clara to Gefle Dagblad.

Damian Clara nobbade landslagsspel med Italien: "Inte ett helt lätt beslut"

Valde att stanna i Sverige.

hockeysverige.se

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Damian Clara nobbade landslagsspel med Italien: "Inte ett helt lätt beslut"

Valde att stanna i Sverige.

hockeysverige.se

Thanks

 

[Hockeyville USA]

Anyone have thoughts on the Italian Stallion?

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Looking through Alsvenskan now and it seems like gap between "have and have not" teams in that league may be even bigger than the one in the SHL.

How much of his numbers is a reflection of his development and how much is due to Brynas dominating teams?

 

[tomd]

Looking through Alsvenskan now and it seems like gap between "have and have not" teams in that league may be even bigger than the one in the SHL.

How much of his numbers is a reflection of his development and how much is due to Brynas dominating teams?

Always a fair question as goalie stats are generally a reflection of the team in front of him. In looking at Brynas, Clara's stats were head & shoulders above any other goalie they used this year. Not determinative but a pretty good indicator of how good Clara is. He did supplant a veteran goalie in Lindback early in the year.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Always a fair question as goalie stats are generally a reflection of the team in front of him. In looking at Brynas, Clara's stats were head & shoulders above any other goalie they used this year. Not determinative but a pretty good indicator of how good Clara is. He did supplant a veteran goalie in Lindback early in the year.

Fair point. Do you see Brynas returning to SHL?

 

[MMC]

 

[Buck Naked]

As a life-long die hard Brynäs fan, I've very much enjoyed watching this guy develop over the season. Would be amazing to get to keep him for another year.

Plz duckie.

 

[Vipers31]

As a life-long die hard Brynäs fan, I've very much enjoyed watching this guy develop over the season. Would be amazing to get to keep him for another year.

Plz duckie.

Should be a decent chance for that, with Clang expected back in San Diego and hopefully Suchanek signed.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Fair point. Do you see Brynas returning to SHL?

I mean Brynas are runaway favorites, even this year they have salary budget higher than some of the SHL teams. Them not coming back would be a major shock.

Also, regarding the Sv% questions earlier, since NA and Swedish hockey is rather different we also have a bit of a different dynamic in terms of the team's impact on Sv%. It has an opposite effect here, while Brynas is a dominant team their dominance means they don't allow a lot of 5v5 shots and a much bigger percentage of the shots their goalies face is on PP or after the counterattack (breakaways, odd-man rushes, etc). So subsequently they don't see a lot of low-danger shots come in but a comparatively high percentage of high-danger ones. Their PK, for example, also only operated at 75,4% which is in the bottom half of the league and overall, not very good.

Therefore Clara's .913 is absolutely fine and explains how his veteran partners were both below .900.