Quote:
Originally Posted by Timbo
At what time do you bring your goalie prospects up?
Do they need to be dominant in the AHL before a call up? Do you "over ripen" them or do you show some faith and confidence in them and allow them to become NHL goalies by experiencing the NHL on a more regular basis?
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Over ripen in the AHL for sure. People are talking about Gillies backing up Smith with like 40 some odd AHL starts, that won't happen.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Table 5
Be careful about dealing in absolutes...
Gillies and Rittich aren't 19 year olds...I think at some point you need to take a bit of a sink or swim approach with these guys to see what we have. Personally I wouldn't mind seeing the two rotate between the AHL starter spot and the NHL backup spot. Sure it would be nice if the #1 goalie was a bit more of a sure thing, but at some point you gotta test out your young goalies. We're not completely in win-now mode, so i think there's still a bit of flexibility there.
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Sorry for the absolutes, I know it's annoying when posters do that, but Treliving acquiring an NHL back up is about as absolute as you can get this off season.
Not necessarily because none of them could handle it and not because we're definitely in a win-now mode but because Brad himself (Not the organization as a whole) is in "goalie win now" mode. He's struck out a couple times and simply won't put himself one Mike Smith injury away from tossing away another season to goaltending.
The NHL is a different beast from the AHL, and while you can say that Rittich or others should be able to perform in the NHL, I would be beyond surprised if this organization was willing to lay a critical goaltending season on
probably.