Athletic team goaltending rankings: Calgary #5

[rogermexico]

The Athletic has been doing a ranking of each team's overall goaltending situation. They give each team three rankings: current, future, and cap.

They average the three scores they give for an overall ranking. Our ranking based on that average was 5th best for the league. It's a bit of a complex thing but it's the Athletic and they're into complex ranking schemes.

Here's what they say about us:

5. Calgary Flames
Current: 20

Granger: Dustin Wolf is one of the best young goalies in the world at the moment. His edgework is on another level, allowing him to glide around the crease like few can. He hasn’t shown particularly well in limited action in the NHL but should get much more opportunity with Markstrom moving on.

Future: 3

Wheeler: Wolf is one of my favorite prospects in the sport at any position and I believe he’s going to take the Flames net and run with it toward an excellent NHL career starting next season. Penn State transfer Arseni Sergeyev is a B-grade prospect as well, and recent Russian draft picks Yegor Yegorov and Kirill Zarubin are both long-term dice rolls.

Cap: 5

McIndoe: The duo of Wolf and Dan Vladar will be cheap, and the books are clean for the future. They lose a few points for having to eat almost $2 million on Markstrom for each of the next two seasons, but even that shouldn’t hurt much given what looks a lot like a rebuild.

Bottom line: You never know with young goalies, but Scott and Jesse both think the Flames really have something with Wolf.

Here's the link to the full article.
(Subscription required.)

[Major Major]

Rebuild over then?

[Goriders]

Surprised they ranked them that high. Wolf is still unproven at the NHL level and Vladar is hit and miss.

[Bingo Jr.]

Cool to see how high they are on Wolf, but 5 still seems a bit aggressive.

Top 3 with Markstrom then?

[activeStick]

Where do the other Canadian teams rank? My guess would be Canucks and Jets above the Flames and then Oilers, Leafs, Sens, Habs below, in that order.

[Fire]

20th seems generous for the current ranking. Who is below them?

[KootenayFlamesFan]

That's surprising. I'm not sold on Wolf yet, Vladar is 'meh' and the prospects are all dice rolls.

I'd have them way lower, I guess the most positive area is cap hit, by far.

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by Fire

20th seems generous for the current ranking. Who is below them?

The title seems even more generous…

Edit: I guess I didn’t understand the combo rank… seems extremely generous now.

[rogermexico]

Originally Posted by Fire

20th seems generous for the current ranking. Who is below them?

Yeah I was pretty surprised to see us that high.
For the "Current" score, here's who they have ranked behind us:
32 - Detroit
31 - LA
30 - Columbus
29 - Minnesota
28 - Philly
27 - Pittsburgh
26 - Chicago
25 - Washington
24 - Colorado
23 - San Jose
22 - Utah
21 - Toronto

They have Edmonton ranked 16th overall: Current 18, Future 21, Cap 8.

[Toonage]

So, the Flames are 20th overall and the 5th team covered on this list or 5th overall....

[442scotty]

Definitely not sold on Wolf like some people are. It’s all well and good that’s he’s been great in the AHL but NHL snipers are going to eat him for breakfast.

[rogermexico]

Originally Posted by Toonage

So, the Flames are 20th overall and the 5th team covered on this list or 5th overall....

The Flames are 5th overall. The overall ranking is an average of the three scores (current, future, cap.)

[bluejays]

Yeah. Not sure either on Wolf. He’s tiny and will have to use his nimbleness to find a way to look around larger nhl players in front of him. The Flames have to build a good supporting defence because they’ll need to be able to clear out guys so he can see. It’s going to be easier said than done. As for Vladar, he has to be in the lower tier of goaltenders. Hope he’s a great mentor though.

[Yamer]

Wolf has excelled at every level and is just starting to get reps in the most difficult league in the world. I think it's ok not to be sold on him just yet, but I hope Flames fans still have a lot of excitement about this player.

Everything considered, Wolf is arguably the most accomplished goaltending prospect this franchise has ever had.

[Erick Estrada]

Clearly they have a high opinion on Wolf and considering he's universally regarded as top 10 NHL goaltending prospect we shouldn't be overly surprised. That said this feels a little like an "all eggs in one basket" thing as Vladar has shown to be barely adequate in a backup role and it's too early to tell on the other goaltender prospects.

[BigThief]

What lol
Wolf is a prospect and Vladar is a back up at best

[Ba'alzamon]

I love Wolf, and I'm even a little optimistic about Vladar if he's finally healthy, but I have to agree. Ranking the Flames 20th for current--given the track records of the goalies in the organization--seems more than a little optimistic.

Choosing a team ranked below them at random--say Pittsburgh--it's not difficult to argue that they're in a better position between the pipes for next season than the Flames are. Jarry and Nedeljkovic both posted sv% in the .900 range last season.

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by BigThief

What lol
Wolf is a prospect and Vladar is a back up at best

It is because he thinks Wolf will be a good starter this upcoming season. If he is right then the list is not super crazy. If Wolf isn't a starter then they'd be about dead last.

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by BigThief

What lol
Wolf is a prospect and Vladar is a back up at best

... hence why they score somewhat poorly in the "current" tier but high in the "future" and "cap" tier.

Frankly I think putting them at 20 for current is very generous. Wolf is still finding his feet at the NHL level and Vladar is Vladar. I think our netminding will probably really stink for the first half of next season. I believe in Dustin Wolf thou... he's not only excelled but dominated at every level of hockey he's played. He'll get there eventually.

[DeluxeMoustache]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Clearly they have a high opinion on Wolf and considering he's universally regarded as top 10 NHL goaltending prospect we shouldn't be overly surprised. That said this feels a little like an "all eggs in one basket" thing as Vladar has shown to be barely adequate in a backup role and it's too early to tell on the other goaltender prospects.

Barely adequate? He was 13-6-2 and 14-6-5 when the team was trying to compete, and was very much not sheltered. He faced mainly playoff opponents while Marky got the bottom dwellers included in his mix

Note that in 2022-23, when he was 14-6-5, Markstrom was 23-21-12

Last year he was 8-9-2 when the team blew it up, he had a hip injury, and meanwhile the #1 goalie Markstrom was 23-23-2. No real dropoff from starter to backup

Not really sure what more you want from a backup goalie