Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
When I say "cycle them through", this is merely a practical recognition that most of the Flames' goaltending prospects—like ALL goaltending prospects—will never establish themselves at the NHL level. I am suggesting that the Flames seem to be doing their best to play the odds by ensuring that they are regularly stocked with several goaltenders at various stages in their development. This is actually a very good plan.
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I think that is a terrible plan, especially for a team with little success at drafting and developing goalies. You want to draft the best prospect available. It would be foolish to draft a goaltender because the team needed a goaltender in an earlier stage of development. And presumably, the team's scouting is good enough to recognize early on which goaltending prospects will never establish themselves at the NHL level so that the team doesn't waste time and resources developing him. It's like letting go of Joey Leach. Obviously our management and scouts weren't high on him so the team let him go. You can't go thinking "well we don't have Erixon... Brodie will be up in the NHL, Ramage is still in college, we need a guy in the AHL his age so let's sign him."
Furthermore, goaltenders often take years to develop and they need to play. It's not uncommon for even the top goalie prospects to spend at least two years in the AHL. You really don't need more than one guy to groom in the AHL for 2-3 years because you want your top goalie prospect getting the majority of the games (2 is not a problem, 3 is a crowd). Some goalies also get burried in a team's system and don't respond well when they are constantly looking over their shoulders.