Golden oldie - Kelly Hrudey

[amoboko]

Hi team,

By going through my old hockey cards I stumbled upon my first collection.
As a kid growing up in a niche hockey country, recording the broadcasts on NBC, I was so thrilled to start this collection ( Score 95-96). The highlight where the goalies as I loved collecting them for their masks.
One of the eye catchers for me was Hrudey.

As I, at that time, was limited in following his career before he moved on, I was wondering how you guys rated him as a goalie. And how he did later on with the Sharks.
Although his mask was minimalistic ( the Hollywood one) I really liked his laidback surfers look and style.

Cheers

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[Rorschach]

B - legit #1 starter. Maybe the 15th best starter in the league but never a Vezina finalist. Probably the fourth or fifth best goalie in Kings history.

 

[Dawdler]

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

What's funny about Hrudey is that he seemed to play his best towards the end of his stay with the Kings, around the time the team was at its worst.

In 94-95, the Kings were tied with the Senators as the third worst team in allowing goals. The Kings also allowed the most shots per game at 34.8. However, Hrudey finished in the top 10 in Save Percentage that season with an astonishing .910%.

Of course, it was also that season where the dumbass organization decided to trade a young Alexei Zhitnik for a washed up and out of shape Grant Fuhr.

Hrudey followed up next season with a .907%, which is good for 14th among goalies that year. What's funny about that is that the goalie the Kings wound up trading for the following offseason, Stephane Fiset, had a save percentage of .898% that very same season. And that was on a stacked Colorado Avalanche team that won the Stanley Cup with Patrick Roy.

I feel like there were times that Hrudey let the team down, especially in the playoffs when the team just couldn't get over the hump in getting past Edmonton in '91 and '92, but he made up for it with his performance in '93.

His technique and style was not very polished, he got beat quite easily on wraparounds and would let in goals that would leave me flabbergasted, but he was also hopeless with an absolutely atrocious defense in front of him.

 

[Reclamation Project]

Has a nice NWO vibe to it...

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

 

[amoboko]

According to the Hockeynews he is a top 3 goalie in the Kings history.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

It's Quick, Rogie and Hrudey. Then you probably can round out the top 5 with Lessard and Potvin.

It's rather sad that you can't compose a top 10 list of Kings goalies due to the fact that a good majority of them have been crap throughout the team's history.

 

[amoboko]

It's also a "young" team.

 

[SlimCharles]

 

[johnjm22]

It's Quick, Rogie and Hrudey. Then you probably can round out the top 5 with Lessard and Potvin.

I guess Storr and Fiset would be sixth and seventh considering they have next most wins in franchise history after Lessard.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I guess Storr and Fiset would be sixth and seventh considering they have next most wins in franchise history after Lessard.

What's sad is that neither has a single playoff game won between them. Swept in '98 and '00.

 

[fivehole32]

What's sad is that neither has a single playoff game won between them. Swept in '98 and '00.

To think the kings had a tandem of Byron Dafoe and Stephane Fiset and they resigned Fiset and let Dafoe walk to Boston and he actually was pretty serviceable there. The teams were so bad I don't think it would have made much difference for the Kings. I remember the year after Dafoe left Fiset got his leg wrapped around the post and tore up his knee. Ah the memories!!

 

[KingsFan7824]

To think the kings had a tandem of Byron Dafoe and Stephane Fiset and they resigned Fiset and let Dafoe walk to Boston and he actually was pretty serviceable there. The teams were so bad I don't think it would have made much difference for the Kings. I remember the year after Dafoe left Fiset got his leg wrapped around the post and tore up his knee. Ah the memories!!

Traded Dafoe to Boston with Khristich. Also acquired Dafoe with Khristich.

 

[fivehole32]

Traded Dafoe to Boston with Khristich. Also acquired Dafoe with Khristich.

That's right forgot they moved him.

 

[johnjm22]

I recall Dafoe having some strong games for us. He wasn't the only King's goaltender of that era to have some success after getting out of LA. Huet and Legacy did as well.

Some of those King's defenses would have made any goaltender look like a sieve.

 

[KingsFan7824]

Pads were smaller, teams weren't as tight defensively, the position is a little different, but Hrudey makes Quick look like a fundamental goalie.