G Dustin Wolf (2019, 214th, CGY)

[madmike77]

When your best prospect is a goaltender and your going to suck for the foreseeable future why not trade him to get a strong asset that aligns with that?

Think there would be teams willing to pay top dollar for an NHL ready top prospect.

Alternatively I guess you can keep him and let him grow into the goalie of the future/ goalie of that suck period. Seems kinda pointless though

Goalie prospects generally don’t generate great returns because they’re too hard to project. The Flames are better off rolling the dice to see what they have in him.

He’ll play next year - likely starting as the backup, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he unseats Markstrom as the starter next season.

 

[DJJones]

If he's not as good as Sarros I will be disappointed.

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

First NHL start tonight.

 

[Rob Brown]

Excited to see how he does!

 

[person5000]

1 goal on 103 shots tonight

 

[karlstegger]

1 goal on 103 shots tonight

Dude's got a pretty low shooting percent

 

[CaptainShark]

I hope that wolf howl isn’t going to be a permanent thing, it’s annoying the crap out of me…

And that’s despite me enjoying every Wolf-save as i want the best lottery odds for the Sharks.

 

[William H Bonney]

It's too bad you're not around anymore. I miss this kind of excellent analysis.

I think you hit the nail on the head and didn't even know you did it. After watching Wolf a lot this year and last, and especially in the playoffs, I believe a lot of what we're seeing is more Dennis Williams' skill as a coach rather than Wolf's dominance in net. It's a Hitchcock like factor. Palaga's play and stats back up that theory.

I mentioned this in the Sogaard thread, but despite the hype, I'm not really big on any of the WHL's draft eligible goalies this year. And the more I look back at film, the less I like them.

Wolf isn't an elite goalie. Even when you throw size out the window. He's lacking in a number of areas that were constantly camouflaged in the Everett system. He went from the 4th round for me early in October to do not draft for me by the playoffs of this year as it became apparent he was a product of Dennis Williams.

Is he worth the gamble of a 7th round pick? It's debatable. I'm not mad at it, it's a 7th rounder, if Calgary likes him, great, but I think there were better goalies, even from the WHL that went undrafted. Look what happened this year the 2nd highest goalie taken was a re-entry (but that was more about not getting enough looks whereas I think Wolf got plenty, especially in March and April), I feel like there are better ways to spend late picks than on goalies-- then again you do get guys like Rinne popping out from the late rounds.

I wish him the best.

Saros is a small boy. The other 3 are bigger.


This is the Doug Flutie debate all over again. I think there are small goalies who could get it done, but I think especially on the PP when teams can set up big bodies in front of the net, it's a disadvantage, and teams will continue to devalue and not want the smaller goalies.

Here's the thing though, Wolf has more deficiencies than just his height. He is far from a good goalie. There's a reason why someone like Saros was taken in the 4th, whereas Wolf was taken in the 7th.

I'm not going through neulion and screenshotting/clipping individual moments to show specific examples, but I'll give you some snippets of my notes that have spans 30+ direct viewings (with checklists) and a number of tertiary viewings, and a 19 page word doc since 2017.

"QRS"

"Very quick, quickest lateral goalie I've seen this year--proved through onioning.3"

"Solid reflexes, when he gets caught out of position, he's able to recover and set during bouts of little traffic."

"Good alignment. Squares himself to the shooter well."

"One bad habit he has is he overuses his quick glove, will move across the body to catch puck, but has found success doing this."

"Feigns left side weakness, luring shooters to test him. Interesting."

"Great push going post to post, lots of explosiveness in his legs, gives him decent lateral coverage on the lower half of the net despite size."



All great right?



"BC particularly up high on the blocker side is weak. Let in 2 straight soft goals due to time and space on the powerplay."

"Beat high."

"Met dad today, good family, nice man. Not tall, 5'9? Glasses/will bring up nonchalantly next time"

"Noticed he cheats when he drops down. Will try and give glove side."

"Poor hold in scrums. Short rebound on easy save resulted in goal. Was basically pushed in with a stick."

"Beat on wraparound. Just out muscled."

"RC wasn't as good as I've seen from him. Particularly on his right side. Made absolutely grade a save, that quickly resulted in goal."

"Gave up over 10 juicy rebounds. So many were directed right back to the shooter. Poor RC tonight"

"Below average RC but makes up for it with his quickness."



TLDR: Great plus quickness, average to below average rebound control, poor scrum coverage, poor net coverage.

A lot of things can be worked on, but you can say that about 100 goalies. Every day players can get better. It's about who can get to the top of that mountain. The biggest issues for me are net coverage, particularly BCUC, rebounds, his blocker, and core strength. I'm also slightly concerned with tracking later on in his career. I think it was enough to not spend a pick on, especially with the calibre of goaltending that never got drafted. You're better off waiting to see if these issues can be corrected than wasting the pick. Truthfully, I'd rather have Basran or Maier or Gauthier than Wolf to just give an example.

Terrible rebound control in today's game, and he was a lot slower than I've seen him.

100% disagree especially with side to tracking, side movement and rebound control. I don't know how you can say he's technically sound either. What you're seeing is called system effect. When you watch the system get overrun like it's apt to do with more high powered offensive teams (not the 2nd and 3rd worst offenses like where his 2 shutouts came from), he looks terrible. It's why a 19 year old rookie with huge athleticism issues can come in as his backup and look decent. Is Joel Hofer the next big WHL goalie because he's looked great. Wolf to me looks like a great WHL goalie. That's as far as the puck goes there. It's why in higher level play like even at the showcase this summer he was shelled.

Uhh what? First of all, I'm not an Oilers fan. Nor have I ever said I was. But I think that's the issue here, YOU SEE THINGS THAT AREN'T ACTUALLY HAPPENING. More on that later.

Second, I've been very adamant that Wolf is not an NHL calibre prospect for a long time, BEFORE he was ever drafted.

Third... and perhaps this is the reason you're making up facts that you think I'm an oilers fan, because you know you live in a dream world, because... as someone who attended the entire Showcase this summer in Michigan, Wolf was unequivocally nowhere close to being the USA's best player much less even the best goalie. It's actually gotta be embarrassing for you to even write what you wrote, because it shows everyone you're FAKE NEWS.

Wolf had one good game during split squad play where he faced zero traffic against a weak Swedish forward corps, who's literal best player was a freshly turned 17 year old Raymond coming off food poisoning LOL. Look down that roster. It was SPARSE for Sweden, but thats an entirely different topic. When Wolf faced Canada? He was PUMPED and looked terrible. When Wolf faced Finland as a backup? He got lit up.

When Wolf plays in a system (like with Everett) that can contain shots and keep things out of the interior, he's fine. When his system gets overloaded, as you see more high pressure activity below the dots he is a mess. That and a number of stylistic, physical, and play flaws had Wolf on a number of teams and scouts DND list.

And seriously, if you don't think Knight was infinitely better that tourny than Wolf, you are absolutely biased. Best player? You've lost all credibility.

Yep, you are, and it's funny you're trying to use sarcasm to defer your foolishness. You admit you never saw the tournament, you talk about the tweets from media people from the tourney saying he was the best player at the showcase, and yet when you do a simple search for Wolf on twitter at the tournament, the only positive reviews came from early in the tourny during split squad games at the START OF THE TOURNAMENT, when again, as I said, he played good against arguably the worst offensive team in the tournament who had 0 first round talent up front, and who's best player was a fresh faced newly turned 17 year old who's 2020 draft eligible who was leaking brown sauce into his hockey pants because of food poisoning. It's not like Wolf had 2 bad outings after that or anything and looked terrible. THAT WAS SARCASM; YOUR NATIVE TONGUE.

Seriously, redeem your reputation. Show me one tweet from a "media personnel" that says Wolf was the best USA player at the showcase. It should be easy since as you said, "virtually every media personnel said Wolf was the USAs best player in that tourney..."

At this point I'm embarrassed for you. I'd have at least respected your difference of opinion if you watched the showcase. But you've literally got an opinion on something you've never witnessed. It's comical.

Context matters. Maybe instead of reading some twitter stats and lol'ing like you're smart, you could put down your pocket protector, and watch a game, and realize his >>>19 year old rookie backup's<<< only started 2 games. His 4 appearances, were the first in his WHL career, and he's looked respectable after a shaky start. I mean, I didn't go to Devry/Yale like you my good sir, but is it possible there could be a lack of data considering his backup who was plucked from the USHL garbage pile has only played 140 something minutes all year?

The Tips took a kid who was getting lit up in the USHL last year, COULDN'T EVEN HOLD A JOB IN THE USHL, AND HAS NEVER HAD A SAVE PERCENTAGE ABOVE .900 IN HIS CAREER, HIS CAREER, and after 2 starts and 140 something minutes have him hovering around the top 10-15 goalies in the league in most goalie cats on any given week. You want a true barometer? Watch the tips when Wolf goes to USA's selection camp. I guarantee you Karki won't skip a beat the same way Palaga didn't. Who by the way went from having a STELLAR line last year (better than Wolf's line) as the backup, to looking like garbage in the BCHL.

They're taking the old adage that anyone could play in net on this team and in this system and turning it into reality.

I'm watching this game live in the SS, my third live viewing of Wolf this season. He's made some good stops, but I'll say this, and I have continued to say this. When he's got a lot of pressure below the dots, he's not as good and struggles.

He's also been cheating a lot on point shots. I never noticed him doing this last session I saw, so maybe it's a new revelation, but if there's traffic, he'll just guess where the puck is coming from. There was a shot today where he was WAY OFF. The puck went wide though, but he easily got burned by that read/guess. Look, it's working, he's playing well and he's been tough to beat, but it's interesting to know if this is a tracking issue, or a strategy based on his size. But he's dropping a fraction of a second if not more before he should be. We'll see how this works out in periods 2 and 3.

 

[InfinityIggy]

1 goal on 103 shots tonight

Are you a wizard?

 

[Yepthatsme]

Wolf with a nice and casual .958 save percentage in his NHL debut and a win. You can’t even make this up, Wolf’s NHL debut was the 8th highest save percentage Calgary has received in a single game this year.

 

[HighLifeManIsHigh]

Wolf with a nice and casual .958 save percentage in his NHL debut and a win. You can’t even make this up, Wolf’s NHL debut was the 8th highest save percentage Calgary has received in a single game this year.

He played well, wasn’t challenged much though

 

[Yepthatsme]

His call up gave the Wranglers an interesting decision to end the season. Wolf is one game back of tying the AHL record for wins in a season. The Wranglers also played tonight (and lost another game Wolf didn’t play, now giving them just as many wins as losses when Wolf doesn’t start despite him being 41-9-2). The Wranglers now play just 2 more games before the playoffs, but it’s a back to back. If Wolf wins the first game, do you let him chase the record hoping they get a by in the first round, and cement Wolf’s status of having one of if not the best season in AHL history? Or do you save your team (and possibly league) MVP for the playoffs in case Coachella passes them in the standings and they don’t get a by for the first round?

On a side note, if Wolf becomes the first goalie in AHL history to win back to back goalie of the year awards in the same season he sets the single season win record in the AHL, he could have an argument for both best WHL and AHL career ever.

 

[Chainshot]

About time they put him in. Congratulations to him on his first of what should be many NHL wins.

 

[PanniniClaus]

It's too bad you're not around anymore. I miss this kind of excellent analysis.

Who in the flying f*** is this guy? Not a f***ing clue ... not one.

 

[super6646]

Played better than markstrom or vladar in 90% of their starts this year…

Disgraceful he wasn’t called up in January.

 

[William H Bonney]

Who in the flying f*** is this guy? Not a f***ing clue ... not one.

How dare you, he's an expert at evaluating goalies!

 

[Bounces R Way]

Happy Dustin can add a NHL W to his already incredibly impressive resume. Please do not let Jordan Sigalet anywhere near him.

The most bizarre thing for me is that NHL teams really thought there were 213 more valuable draftees in 2019.

 

[Bubbles]

The most bizarre thing for me is that NHL teams really thought there were 213 more valuable draftees in 2019.

There are still inherent bias that NHL teams subscribe to. The 6 feet and under trope. It's like one of those scout meetings where they look at his height and immediately eliminate them from the lists (and not looking at their stats or actual performance)

And still NHL teams miss. It's hard to believe no one took a chance on Thomas Milic last year when he had a fantastic year and absolutely sparkling in the playoffs. It only took a WJC run for scouts to notice. So does that mean no NHL scouts watched the WHL last year??

 

[Son of Petter]

He looked good tonight, steady and solid but man is he small. It looked like a child or ebug in net for the flames. Went he went butterfly there was so much room above him in net. Kid’s young and I think he can do it but it’ll be an uphill battle given his size.

 

[Yepthatsme]

He looked good tonight, steady and solid but man is he small. It looked like a child or ebug in net for the flames. Went he went butterfly there was so much room above him in net. Kid’s young and I think he can do it but it’ll be an uphill battle given his size.

Man, if only some teams had your scouting prowess, they could’ve told their players to aim high on Wolf. Maybe then he wouldn’t have had a .935 career save percentage in the WHL, a .928 career save percentage in the AHL, and a .958 debut in the NHL. Can you imagine his results if teams would’ve told their players Wolf wasn’t tall? He’d probably be limited to having a Jusse Saros kind of career.

 

[Hinterland]

He looked good tonight, steady and solid but man is he small. It looked like a child or ebug in net for the flames. Went he went butterfly there was so much room above him in net. Kid’s young and I think he can do it but it’ll be an uphill battle given his size.

I was about to warn you that you should delete this post if you don't wanna get buried with numbers by hfboards resident Flames homer but I was too late. Sorry.

 

[Rob Brown]

Nice to see him get a win! I only watched the first, how did he look in the second and third?

 

[Bond]

Nice to see him get a win! I only watched the first, how did he look in the second and third?

Didn’t make mistakes but that’s about it. Sharks weren’t doing much

 

[joestevens29]

Nice to see him get a win! I only watched the first, how did he look in the second and third?

I honestly think I'd take more out of a pre-season game than that game yesterday. Sharks are literally trying to lose

I mean nice moment for the kid to get the monkey off his back and all, but there are a bunch of games as of late and today that really you can't take much of any from.

 

[abo9]

I checked parts of the 2nd and 3rd yesterday. Not a dangerous game by any mean, but a tricky one since Calgary couldn't find a way to score until late. Giving up a second goal when shots are like 45 - 25 would have been pretty deflating

But, Wolf did a really good job, he looked confident in the crease, swallowed pucks, everything looked super easy - which actually might also be indicative of his skills (less rebound = less shots, making things look easy = boosting team's confidence).

I wonder what happens with Wolf going forward. They obviously tried him now because they were eliminated, but Markstrom is signed for a few more years - perhaps they go 1A/1B like Florida is doing with Bob and Knight?