Quote:
Originally Posted by Crown Royal
I think Gillies gets criticized too easily. Let's look at his "5" years.
Year 1. 7 games, looked fantastic, then suffered a season ending injury.
Year 2. Returning from injury and the death of his best friend, had an okay season. Putting up a better SV% tha other AHL rookies in Demko and Blackwood.[/QUOTE
Year 3. He was knocking on the door of being top 10 in SV%
Year 4. Struggled on and off the ice with the loss of both of his grandparents that he was extremely close with.
Year 5. Rebounded, had a solid season behind a bad defense.
He hasn't been dominant, but it's easy to understand why he hasn't. I don't think he will return as a Group VI UFA, but I think there is still a chance he ends up in the NHL.
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Sure. I get it. There are legitimate reasons why Gillies's career has slipped, and valid excuses for his extremely pedestrian AHL numbers. That's not his fault, but it also does not bode even remotely well for his future. Whether or not it is fair I think it is abundantly realistic to conclude that ANY 26-year-old, five-year AHL goalie will have met his potential by this point. Simply put:
bona-fide NHL starting goalies will have furnished a dominant AHL campaign at some point in his first three or four years. Gillies has essentially run out of runway: At his age and with his experience and results he is not going to get the sorts of opportunities that a goalie needs to develop into an NHL starter. I think he could cobble together a career topping out as a dependable backup on a NHL team, but there does not seem to be any good reason to expect after five years that Gillies will ever play +30 games in a NHL season.