Quote:
Originally Posted by Caged Great
When you have a goalie like Kipper back when he was in Vezina form, it doesn't make a ton of sense to use a high draft pick on a goalie especially when your prospect pool was as dreadful as it was back then.
It probably hurt Irving's development as well, because try as he might, Kipper would still block him.
I hope he is able to snag a job somewhere.
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It doesn't make a lot of sense to use a high pick on a goalie at any time. However, I think that proper planning argues that the Flames were right on the ball on when to start stockpiling goalies who could succeed Kipper. And no, Irving's development wasn't hurt by the fact that Kiprusoff was "blocking" him. Goalies take longer to develop, and he made the NHL in his fourth pro year. Nothing unusual with that - Ramo and Hiller were in their fourth and fifth pro seasons respectively when they first came over to the NHL. Irving simply couldn't hack it at this level, at that time.
I am cheering for him to make it the second time around though.