Quote:
Originally Posted by Fan in Exile
How do you know Wolf's success is due to his reduced workload? He's been carrying a starter's load playing 50+ games including playoffs for years.
There was a better reason to have Roman Turek share the net with Kipper in 2004. But then the Flames would have missed the playoffs. I just hope this platoon plan doesn't cost them the playoffs this year. The numbers don't lie.
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I'm not saying Wolf couldn't do it in the NHL as a rookie.
The Flames seem to feel that putting Wolf in a position to have individual success is more important for his growth than just starting as many games as possible. Whether Wolf could start more games, who knows. I have no doubt that he has benefited so far from the deployment strategy they are using though.
Vladar has started all 4 of the Flames back-to-back games this season. Eleven of Vladar's 18 starts have been against teams in the playoffs as opposed to Wolf's 7. Wolf has started 12 games at home as opposed to Vladar's 8.
Wolf is a fantastic young goalie, but I don't think he'd be having the same success rate without Vladar still taking the tougher assignments. I wouldn't be surprised if Wolf takes more games from him as the season progresses, but right now they both deserve to play.