Jukurit
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- May 16, 2022
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His team just sucks. Biggest budget in Liiga, fewest goals scored. lol
Prospect Info: Marlies/Prospects Thread - 2023-23 Season Edition
- Thread starter BertCorbeau
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At the NHL level, yes. We relieved Steve Briere of his duties and hired Curtis Sanford. This should have happened a long time ago IMO. I was never impressed with Briere's willingness to defend the obvious flaws in his goaltenders. It's one thing to support your guys, but it's an entirely different thing to advocate or even provide them an excuse for poor play/preparation. I think this was so clear in that Amazon series. I had wanted him gone ever since I watched the series TBH. Yes, It's unfair of me to watch a 5 part docu-series and cast such a strong opinion on a person, but that scene where he was in the coaches meeting and was digging his heels into the ground defending Freddy really rubbed me the wrong way.
This recent success in the goaltending department should not come as a huge surprise TBH. This has been a systemic drafting and development change that has been in the works for Kyle's entire tenure as GM. When he stepped in, there were 2 very promising young goaltenders in our pipeline (Woll, Scott). Both of which were relatively high picks from goaltender's perspectives and they both presented a very strong upside. Their developments have both been marred with injury, and as time went on both of these men presented less and less of a likely option for us. Ian was ultimately left with the unfortunate and heartbreaking decision to walk away from hockey altogether as a result. What looked promising during 2016-2019, soon looked like a disaster around the 2020 season. Freddy began to regress, and we didn't have anyone close to ripe in the farm. Ya, Sparks gave us a couple starts here and there, but he was never going to be the answer.
From 2020 onward we selected 3 goalies in those following 3 drafts, as well as signed highly regarded Petruzelli, McKay and Kallgren to our organization. Applying the law of averages, we can confidently assume that at least one of: Artur Akhtyamov, Vyacheslav Peksa, Dennis Hildeby, Erik Kallgren, Keith Petruzelli, Dryden McKay, and even Joseph Woll would emerge into NHL legitimacy. There may not be a future star in that bunch, but there is more then likely going to be an NHL regular amongst that group at some point in their careers. Maybe even 2-3.
I don't think you need to spend overly high draft capital on tendy's if you are always in the constant state of acquisition. Sooner or later you will hit on one or multiple. Again, it's just the law of averages.
That all said, as promising as it may look at this current moment, I think we all know that goaltending is complete voodoo and easily the hardest thing to predict. Success in other leagues means absolutely nothing until they can do it in the show. Afterall, Garrett Sparks was an AHL stud at one point. I wanna say he won goaltender of the year in the AHL if I am not mistaken. Either way, it was to the point where Kyle felt OK letting Curtis McElhinney go. Which ultimately proved to be a mistake.
All n All, I am very happy with how our goalies are progressing. Between Murray, Sammy and the 7 men listed above, that is as deep as it gets. I didn't even include Luke Cavallin either, who is doing well in his start to pro hockey.
SeaOfBlue
The Passion That Unites Us All
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I don't think you need to spend high picks or a lot of picks. It is about getting the right goalies, and teams have such varying opinions about them that you can often find good ones all over the draft.
I would be more than fine going multiple drafts without taking a goalie if I felt like the right one was not available, or position players were better. Rather that than taking on a random goalie prospect that will almost certainly bust.
I mean Hildebeast was selected in the 4th round, and was the 6th goaltender off the board in the 2022 draft I believe. Lots of teams had him higher on their goalie rankings if I remember correctly, but he fell due to his age. Once again a vintage Dubas selection. Finding value in a player later in a draft due to teams overlooking 1 aspect of their profile. Had Hildeby entered the draft as an 2003/2004 birth year, there is almost no chance he falls to pick 122. His athletic profile and statistics were about as impressive as any goaltender selected in the draft.
I think we are at the point where we can maybe pump the brakes a bit on using draft capital on goaltenders. But I don't think we should ever stop trying to acquire talent. Like I've said many a time in here before. Our organization is easily one of the best, if not the best places to slug out minor league career. Our AHL and ECHL affiliates are top tier. We treat them like NHL'ers. So if you're not going straight from Europe/College to the show, we really do present a good option. Even when you consider the log jam.
Kallgren, Petru, McKay and maybe even Cavallin are all living proof of what can be if a goalie decides our development path. We give them all ice time, although that is soon going to be harder and harder to accomplish now that we are at full health from a goaltending perspective from NHL to ECHL.
If we do select another goaltender, I feel like it will have to be a situation where the value is too hard to pass up. Or throw another dart at a Russian tendy where their rights never expire, and they can over marinate in the Russian system until we need them.
stickty111
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barriers
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BertCorbeau
F*ck cancer - RIP Fugu and Buffaloed
A good showing for Hollowell. He’s proven he can be a depth option if needed, and also has boosted his trade stock
Apex Predator
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- Jun 21, 2019
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I don’t think he has a future with the leafs but yeah he’s boosted his trade value a bit. Not sure we would get much anyway but maybe another team sees something in him that they didn’t a month ago.
PROUD PAPA
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- Sep 20, 2021
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I have tickets for the Dec. 27th and Jan. 6 Blazers games in Kelowna. Looking forward to seeing Minten live but hoping Ernst starts both games as well. He's been lights out this year.
The Iceman
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- Sep 22, 2007
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Anyone seen enough of Noel Hoefenmayer to form an opinion?
Just from following the game logs he seems to be trending +++
Just from following the game logs he seems to be trending +++
LeafChief
Matthew Knies Enthusiast
A few posters have mentioned he seems like a AAAA guy. Kind of like TJ Brennan.
The Iceman
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Just doing some reading.
26G and 56A in 58 games +52. Last season of junior jumps off the page.
19 points in 21 Marlie games with 44 pims with the best +/- on the team got my attention.
Maybe Joseph Duszak-ish??
stickty111
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Key difference is Hoefenmayer is quite a bit bigger than Duszak, which has to help his chances.
SeaOfBlue
The Passion That Unites Us All
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Hoefenmayer is 6'0".
Duszak is 5lbs lighter and 2 inches shorter.
It doesn't help Hoefenmayer's chances all that much, especially since Duszak is a much better skater.
ManosArriba
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- Oct 24, 2017
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Duszak is 5'10? On skates maybe, that guy was a munchkin out there, not a bad player though.
Stephen
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Bit of a silly question, but why does Fabrice Herzog still show up on some Leafs prospects lists in 2022? Do we still have his rights? And if so, why?
According to the hockey db site, which I assume has accurate data, the difference is 3" and 16 lbs, so not unsubstantial
The khl though has him at 84 kg which is 185. DELETED. I don't know why I went on a rant about physicality...
EDIT: Does anyone know when ushl free weekend is? I want to watch one more moldenhauer game. I just realized the last one didn't leave me as impressed as I was with the other prospects.
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SeaOfBlue
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He slowed down a lot after a hot start.
Still doing fine. Certainly a solid prospect, but as I said at the draft, he is the kind of guy the Leafs have been able to develop out of UDFA's and late round picks. For example, a healthy Kressler projects a lot like Moldenhauer to me. It would be similar with a guy like Dumais after we were able to get Voit in the 5th, Lisowsky in the 7th (he never should have went that low), etc.
For teams that are worse at drafting, he was picked in a great spot but the Leafs probably could have swung for a higher upside player there. Brennan, George, maybe a Forsmark or Koromyslov... And I say that as all 4 prospects are probably less impressive than Moldenhauer right now.
I will definitely need to see more games of Moldenhauer. Or maybe the USHL is a weird league. It may not come until next year. I won't say it's a bad pick cuz like you said, he was picked about where he was projected, which is fine with me.
Jukurit
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Niemelä will play his first men's national team game today against Czechia.
The official AHL site lists exactly the same data I referenced. But I guess it's garbage too?
uncleben
Global Moderator
The National League and Swiss Hockey did not have a transfer agreement in place with the NHL when Herzog was drafted.Bit of a silly question, but why does Fabrice Herzog still show up on some Leafs prospects lists in 2022? Do we still have his rights? And if so, why?
There is a transfer agreement now, I believe, but I don't know if that's just for SPCs or if they've written in details for reserve rights for drafted players from Switzerland into that agreement - either way, a player drafted from a non-MNA (MNA is a Member National Association, a team registered with the IIHF to their Transfer Agreement) has their rights held indefinitely, regardless of age.
It appears, whether the new agreement with Swiss Hockey has addressed that or not, Herzog is carried over because of his status when he was drafted.
The KHL and all Russian Hockey falls under the same rules. There are a few others, too, but Russia and Switzerland are really the only two that actually get drafted from, so the only two it effects. But all of our Russian draft picks will be the same. If they don't sign, we hold their rights in perpetuity, unless we denounce them, OR until they sign an SPC.
About half the League has at least one of these guys on their Reserve List. Now, I don't know where CapFriendly is actually pulling their Reserve Lists from - whether they are just assuming the team is choosing to retain the rights until they learn otherwise, or if they actually have access to the NHL's official lists.
I would've guessed it was a de facto "keep the player on the list until x years after their last pro game", but they have New Jersey retaining 37 y/o Ivan Khomutov, who hasn't played since 2014...
St. Louis is an interesting one, carrying FIVE players, ages 36-39, all Russian. Washington has one 37 y/o from Switzerland and three others from Russia. Columbus is holding on to the rights of a 41 year old LW. Just hoping he'll finally have that breakthrough season and they can bring him over, I guess! haha
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