NHL Draft - Profiles

[Draft]

I stumbled upon scouting reports for this years NHL draft at hockeyfutures.com:

(1) Raymond Sawada Scouting Report:

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/prospect.php?pid=4001

(2) Raymond Sawada Scouting Report:

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/prospect.php?pid=3944

[Draft]

I stumbled upon scouting reports for this years NHL draft at hockeyfutures.com:

(1) Raymond Sawada Scouting Report:

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/prospect.php?pid=4001

(2) Mitch Carefoot Scouting Report:

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/prospect.php?pid=3944

[mjr45]

[Q] All that success paid off as Sawada this year announced his intentions to play with Cornell Big Red of the NCAA in 2004 on a hockey scholarship.[/Q]

We give those?

[Greg]

Longstanding misunderstanding by our neighbors to the north.  They hear NCAA and think "athletic scholarship."  Harmless.

[KeithK]

Longstanding enough that it's been mentioned and discussed many times.  Not to be confused with the claims that Ivies do provide what amounts to scholarships in the form of preferential aid.  Which has also been discussed a number of times. :-)

[ugarte]

[Q]mjr45 Wrote:

 [Q2] All that success paid off as Sawada this year announced his intentions to play with Cornell Big Red of the NCAA in 2004 on a hockey scholarship.[/Q]
We give those?[/q]23 hours was a full 22 hours longer than I thought it would take someone to comment on this.

[Robb]

Yeah - and it wasn't even Al Deflorio.... :-)

[Greg]

Still no mention of Dryden leading the 1970 team, but...

[Greg]

The over/under on the "needs based" joke opens at 72.

[Chris \'03]

Phoenix passed on Al Montoya, letting him fall to the much delighted Rangers.

[dss28]

Will Montoya get much playing time, though?  I mean, if we are to assume that he most likely will go to the AHL to begin his career... and I haven't heard any rumors about LaBarbera (League MVP in the AHL this past season) moving up to the Rangers... unless he goes to the ECHL, I honestly wonder how much he'll play...

[Chris \'03]

I'm betting he plays about 40 games for Michigan.

[dss28]

Did you make the same bet for Lenny?

[CowbellGuy]

Rangers are in a bit of a pickle in goal. Dunham very sporadically showed the ability to steal a game, but usually showed the tendency to be overwhelmingly mediocre. I'm not exactly pointing fingers, since the defense left him out to dry more often than not, but I don't see the Rangers pursuing him as a starter. Blackburn's coming back from an entire missed season due to shoulder injury, but if he's anywhere near what he was before the injury, he'll at worst be someone's backup with significant play time. But if he needs more time, that puts the Rangers even worse off. Bottom line is they need goalies and they need them now. Most likely they'll try to sign Montoya and either platoon him with LaBarbera in HFD or have him back up someone in the big club. I don't see LaBarbera having a future with the Rangers at this point. He was unimpressive when he came up to play for the NY Wolfpa--err, Rangers at the end of the year and seems to have peaked at "good AHL goalie".

Pittsburgh threw Fleury to the wolves this year and he turned out pretty decent. The last time they tried that with Lalime, it broke him for a few years after that unreal start, but he still got back to his feet in Ottawa. The Rangers basically did that with Blackburn, so there's a recent history of it in NY. If the Rangers can't sign a big name free agent to backstop them, and Blackburn makes decent progress, I wouldn't be all that surprised to see them platoon him and Montoya. Or at least I think that's what's running through Glen's head. We'll see if Red can keep him planted in Michigan for another year, though.

[Josh '99]

To be fair to LaBarbera, I think that if you were to say that he has peaked, then you would have to say he peaked at "very good AHL goalie".  :-P

As for Montoya, I'd have to figure that, especially with goalies, teams will be hesitant to pull guys out of a guaranteed-playing-time situation until they're sure how many spots they have on their depth chart.