I am 100% fine the Flames taking Wallstedt. Sure sounds like a heck of a prospect. Looking around at the NHL and seeing some of these young goalies just dominating right now is cool, and Wallstedt sounds like he is in the same conversations as some of the higher-end ones were at his age. Wouldn't complain at all, even with Wolf and Parsons (who I am one of the few it seems that still really believes this kid can make it).
If you have a chance to grab an elite player, you do it.
People bring up MacDonald as some proof that the Flames suck at drafting, or drafting goalies - but MacDonald was right there too with Demko. He was the consensus #2, but IIRC, some lists had him ahead of Demko. Yeah, hindsight proved that to not be the case, but if you go back and read scouting reports and watch some of the available video, MacDonald looked like a legitimate shot at a future starter, on par or very close to Demko, and ahead of everyone else.
The bigger question for me is "Why didn't it work out?"
Was it scouting? Are the Flames not strong enough at scouting goalies and being able to translate them properly enough for the NHL game?
Was it development? Are the Flames not a strong enough organization at goalie development? What are they doing/not doing that other teams are, or doing better? I was never high on Gillies (watching him at the NCAA level always left me wanting for more). However, there is a long line of goalies in the organization that haven't made it, or were given-up on early who then went on to make it - so what did the Flames not see at the time? Why are some teams a 'goalie factory'? Why can't the Flames be one of those teams?
What's with the injuries? I doubt that there is much here, but maybe the Flames should take deeper look at how they are managing goalies' workloads, and doing enough to be proactive in preventing injuries from happening, and making sure a goalie is 100% before returning and working him back in properly? I have no idea, but maybe there is something here.
|