Quote:
Originally Posted by ricardodw
The highest point of excitement and expectation for Irving and Krahn was the time between when they were drafted in the 1st round and when they started playing again. By the time they were 22 (Gillies age) they were already very long shots of making to the NHL never mind being stars.
Ortio was a complete bust until he turned 22 and had his redemption season,
Gillies has gotten better every year. He has a lot more in common in his development at age 22 with Matt Murray and Connor Hellebuyck and Johnathon Quick than the Flames pretenders that you mention.
Other than the hopefully fixable injury Gillies has been on the stud NHL goalie track.
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Perhaps, but there's still reason to be skeptical about a 22 year old goalie with seven games of AHL experience. That just isn't much of a resume. He put up above average numbers behind a detail-oriented team in college, yes, but they weren't the kind of dominant numbers that Hellebuyck, Demko, and Ryan Miller put up. Forget NHL, there is no guarantee he even throws up a .926+ next season in the AHL, which is what Ortio did in his age 22 season and yet flamed out in the eyes of most.
I choose to err on the side of caution with a goalie whose professional resume is seven games long. Markstrom was a similarily hyped prospect with more of a resume at roughly the same point in his career, a few years later passing through waivers. Being an NHL goalie is a cutthroat business and I personally won't put my eggs into a seven games pro basket. Skaters sre easier to project in my eyes.