Please explain this cup winning goalie anomaly

[GS Skier]

2-3-4 years of cup winning Goalies that were drafted and developed by their own teams is most likely just a a co-incidence.

10 straight years now from 6 teams and every single Cup winning Goalie is a team drafted and developed player. None of them ever played for any other system.

2010 Boston Thomas played for 3 other teams.

LA Quick 3rd round
Chicago Crawford 2nd round
LA Quick
Chicago Crawford
Pittsburgh Murray 3rd round ( and Fluery )
Pittsburgh Murray
Washington Holtby 4th round
St Louis Binnington 3rd round
Tampa Bay Vasilevsky 1st round
Tampa Bay Vasilevsky

10 straight years where the Cup Champs goalie is home drafted and home developed.

Is it a co-incidence?

More weird Goalie VooDoo?

Should Calgary be looking at Wolf to lead the way in a year or two?

One things for sure the trend simply cannot be ignored...or can it?

[K1LLswitch]

Interesting. Not sure what it means, but I’m glad we have Wolf in the system!

[powderjunkie]

It goes this way the entire cap era:

Tim Thomas and Niemi were essentially 'homegrown', too
Osgood was a homegrown Wing who left and came back

Giguere is probably closest to an exception...drafted by Hartford, developed in Calgary system, actualized in Anaheim.


I think the answer is simple - if you have a good goalie, you don't let them go. Though the age that goalies tend to establish themselves may also have something to do with it...seems like they rarely hit open UFA market before age ~30

[Hack&Lube]

Good goalies that hit UFA are usually because of a calculated move on the part of the team that drafted and developer that talent they are going into their twilight years and they have better and cheaper prospects who can take over.

Vancouver favored Demko as younger and cheaper so they let Markstrom go. Markstrom is still a good signing but for UFAs, the risk is who knows how they will be in 6 years. They aren't all going to play to 40 and pull rabbits (and turds) out of their hat like Mike Smith.

For successful teams, many are leaning on the drafted high caliber goalies who are still producing top end results.

[JohnnyB]

Might just continue for as long as Vasilevkyi is with the bolts. His playoffs stats are insane. I think he's something like a .995 save percentage in elimination games.

[getbak]

It's mostly coincidence and a small sample size.

It's 10 years, but it's only 6 different goalies and in 6 of those years (if my count is correct), the goalie at the other end of the ice in the Final wasn't drafted by his team.

Depending on how tonight's game goes, Vasilevsky could be the only one left in the final 4 this season.

[Coach]

It will almost always be better to have homegrown talent vs imported talent. The cost control for one thing. Players on ELCs playing like top players helps. The extra contract year helps you hold onto them. And then, I think most importantly, the players and coaches grow together. They know and love each other and make it much more likely they build good long-term chemistry with each other.

Hockey’s a team game and having your friends on the team does make a difference.

[memphusk]

So what you're saying is Tampa or New York will win the cup. Excellent.

[getbak]

Here's another weird anomaly... In 1997-98, the Rangers started wearing a jersey with a lace-up collar, something no NHL team had done in 20 years (since the 1977-78 Sabres).

Since then, many teams have followed suit and started wearing jerseys with lace-up collars, but the 2011 Bruins are the only team to win the Stanley Cup wearing a lace-up collar on their primary jersey.

Also of note, the 2004 Flames were the first modern team to play in the Final with a lace-up collar.

[Geeoff]

I feel like this is as simple as teams that draft well are successful. Tampa drafted most of their core.

[Enoch Root]

Small sample size coincidence. the Cup doesn't care whether or not the goalies are home-grown (no cause and effect)

[BACKCHECK!!!]

I think the simplest explanation is that goalies peak earlier than people think.

The average age of those guys was 26. Crawford was the only one over 30.

It’s easy to get bamboozled by players like Brodeur and Thomas, but most goalies are playing their best hockey in their mid 20s, just like everybody else.

So most elite goalies are at their peak while they’re still with the team that drafted them.

[Jiri Hrdina]

I think scouting and drafting of goalies has taken a step too

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by BACKCHECK!!!

I think the simplest explanation is that goalies peak earlier than people think.

The average age of those guys was 26. Crawford was the only one over 30.

It’s easy to get bamboozled by players like Brodeur and Thomas, but most goalies are playing their best hockey in their mid 20s, just like everybody else.

So most elite goalies are at their peak while they’re still with the team that drafted them.

I don't think goalies peak earlier than skaters, I think on average, they peak later than skaters.

However, your point is a possible explanation: THESE goalies happened to peak early, and thus were still with their draft teams.

[Scroopy Noopers]

You can’t force it. For every young superstar goalie there was a hyped and overplayed young goalie who fell out of the league in short order.

I like to see depth competition and let prospects claw their way in and take a spot if they can. But they should play where their current abilities have them performing above average. Finally we have some depth in goalie prospects, I think the future is bright in the Flames net.

[Blaster86]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Vancouver favored Demko as younger and cheaper so they let Markstrom go.

Not entirely true. While they had high hopes for Demko, the team was making a hard push to sign Marky. They apparently offered similar dollars to what the Flames offered (with one less year). But the real issue was that Markstrom wanted a NMC so he could be sheltered from the expansion draft. The Canucks, wisely, said no that which ever goalie was the better of the two would be the one protected. It would also mean that down the line, if Demko was still with the team and continued on the trajectory he has been on, we wouldn't be in another Luongo situation and could look at dealing him.

In the end it worked out for everyone involved (the teams and players).

[skeena1]

Interesting stat: Of all the goalies the Canucks have drafted in their history, the leader in wins as a Canuck is....

..Thatcher Demko (67).

[GS Skier]

Originally Posted by memphusk

So what you're saying is Tampa or New York will win the cup. Excellent.

And Vasilesky and Shestirken are 1-2 in save ptg of the goalies still playing. Tampa could just pull off a three peat if the trend continues! Smiths close but we all know he's not in those guys league.

[BACKCHECK!!!]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

I don't think goalies peak earlier than skaters, I think on average, they peak later than skaters.

However, your point is a possible explanation: THESE goalies happened to peak early, and thus were still with their draft teams.

I just looked at a couple of decades worth of Vezina winners. Most of the winners in the last decade had their best sv% around 25 years old.

Even most of the “late bloomers” like Lundqvist, Miller, Kipper, etc, posted their best numbers before 30.

You have to go all the way back to the 80’s to gather even a handful of guys who hit their best sv% over the age 30. And most of those are just guys who played the tail end of their career in the dead puck era (ie Grant Fuhr’s career best numbers in St Louis, or Ed Belfour’s “peak” with the 2002 Maple Leafs).

For every Tim Thomas or Marc Andre Fleury, there’s a dozen guys who peak at 24-29.

[GS Skier]

Originally Posted by Coach

It will almost always be better to have homegrown talent vs imported talent. The cost control for one thing. Players on ELCs playing like top players helps. The extra contract year helps you hold onto them. And then, I think most importantly, the players and coaches grow together. They know and love each other and make it much more likely they build good long-term chemistry with each other.

Hockey’s a team game and having your friends on the team does make a difference.

Lots of great and likely perfectly good ideas and explanations however I think this one has more to do with it than we think.

When you start and play with the team that drafted you it is special. Once your traded I do think the bloom comes off the rose and your much more of a mercenary. No two people are the same but I think Coach is on to at least part of the explanation.