Quote:
Originally Posted by shutout
I wonder how many goals a year the average NHL starting goaltender would end up saving if they were 2" taller?
Wolf at 5'11"-6'0" is considered to short, but if he was 6'2" he would have been a top 3 round pick at worst. How much does that extra 2" help?
Couple of extra inches on wingspan.
Height of shoulders to the crossbar. (two pucks of space)
Couple of extra inches covering the bottom of the net.
Impossible to quantify.
But curious as to how much of a difference it actually makes.
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Good question. Not sure how to know.
What I do know is that there is no shortage of goalies less than 6 feet tall that have done pretty well
Arturs Irbe was 5’8”. His career stats are skewed imo from the brutal SJ team, but he was very good in Carolina
Tim Thomas did ok for himself at 5’11”. Saros is also 5’11”
Kiprusoff and Hasek were both 6’1” and they were not too shabby
I’m sure the height helps blocking style goalies with a shot here and there, but maybe for some it may take a split second longer to seal up the 5 hole.
Either way, if a goalie is good, he is good. How they read and anticipate the play, reflexes, hand eye, rebound control - even the compete when they abandon technique and make desperation saves, lots of things make a goalie effective other than height
I know they are really impressed with how he thinks the game and reads the play. Hopefully he ends up having similar success at the NHL level as in the AHL