[News] With the 214th OA pick, the Flames select G Dustin Wolf

[ben voyonsdonc]

Originally Posted by activeStick

I hope he continues to improve and learn, as he's been struggling and is among the worst goalies in the NHL.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1737468269060071922

He has had six games as an NHL goalie. Sample size matters. The team that he was playing behind matters. Give me (and him) a break.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by mjk123

Only a good draft pick if we use him in our NHL team. Being an awesome AHL player and then ending up elsewhere NHL will be a bust pick imo.

Well, then. It's a good thing that he is guaranteed a roster spot out of camp next year, and cannot just go and sign wherever he wants.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by activeStick

I hope he continues to improve and learn, as he's been struggling and is among the worst goalies in the NHL.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1737468269060071922

This shouldn't surprise anyone. Dustin Wolf was never just going to slot right in to a NHL starter's role. I think he has been fine in his NHL games so far—not great, not bad, as expected.

[stemit14]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

This shouldn't surprise anyone. Dustin Wolf was never just going to slot right in to a NHL starter's role. I think he has been fine in his NHL games so far—not great, not bad, as expected.

I didn’t see him letting in many bad goals and he seemed like a calming influence overall. Which is a valuable quality in a goalie. The flames played poorly during that stretch that he was up but I still think he’s on track to be a starter in this league.

It’s why there is value in keeping one of Markstrom or Vladar to be a tandem with Wolf in his first full year in the league. Protect his starts as a developing goalie on a team that, likely, will struggle next season with all the players they will lose this year.

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by stemit14

The flames played poorly during that stretch that he was up but I still think he’s on track to be a starter in this league.

I think pretty much everyone here agrees but there were people last year claiming had they called him up he would have led them to the playoffs and that he should take over the starters role right away this season.

He's been fine the games he has played in and looks like he belongs but he hasn't looked like a savior either. The goaltending last year wasn't good enough but there wasn't really anything with the Flames that was good enough.

[ben voyonsdonc]

Wolf’s starts were behind a team without Tanev. He looked like an NHL calibre goalie - he didn’t steal any games but he acquitted himself pretty well IMO.

[Kipper_3434]

Yeah the flames scored some pretty slick deflection goals on Dustin, he looked solid in his starts and the numbers are skewed due to sample size.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by mjk123

Only a good draft pick if we use him in our NHL team. Being an awesome AHL player and then ending up elsewhere NHL will be a bust pick imo.

Wolf was drafted 214th overall. Is there any such thing as a bust at that position?

Any NHL games at all from a 214th pick, and he's beating the odds.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

Wolf was drafted 214th overall. Is there any such thing as a bust at that position?

Any NHL games at all from a 214th pick, and he's beating the odds.

Yeah, agreed. There's no busts in that range. only finds.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Wolf's first game then later games both coincided with Flames slumps when they weren't playing inspiring hockey, but especially sloppy hockey as well.

Pretty unfortunate. And even in that situation, the body of work was respectable. He wasn't perfect, but certainly wasn't outclassed.

Edmonton's goalies all have looked worse than Wolf did.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

I’m old.

Yer not old, sonny.

I remember when me and the Patrick brothers got drunk and said, ‘You know what? All that white ice is boring. Let's steal some blue paint and paint lines on it, just for shots and giggles.’ And where, I ask, were you then? You were not even a glint in Cyclone Taylor's eye.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

Wolf was drafted 214th overall. Is there any such thing as a bust at that position?

Any NHL games at all from a 214th pick, and he's beating the odds.

You made me look, former flames great Troy Brouwer and 3 others were drafted 214th overall and played some NHL games.

[Jay Random]

Now you made me look closer. There are actually a few more than I thought (or you saw).

I see Igor Larionov and Uwe Krupp were both drafted 214th.

Mind you, Larionov was drafted in 1985, when it looked like no Russian player would ever be allowed out of the U.S.S.R. to play in the NHL. I don't know why Krupp fell so far; probably because nobody was scouting Germany in those days.

Among goalies, Cristobal Huet and Tommy Soderstrom were both drafted 214th. If Wolf has a career as good as Huet's, he's well ahead of the game (even if we hope for more).

Of course, a very solid majority of 214th-overall draft picks never played in the NHL.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by mjk123

Only a good draft pick if we use him in our NHL team. Being an awesome AHL player and then ending up elsewhere NHL will be a bust pick imo.

Nope.

That would be poor development and poor prospect management. It wouldn't affect the pick at all.

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by ben voyonsdonc

He has had six games as an NHL goalie. Sample size matters. The team that he was playing behind matters. Give me (and him) a break.

lol the best part of that list is who is sitting comfortably at #1

[dobbles]

I would love if Wolf was putting up amazing numbers and I could come in here and gloat but this is about what's expected. What I really think needs to be the discussion is why Vladar continues to get so many more starts and puts up the same mediocre numbers? With Wolf the whole point is that you can take some lumps hoping that he pans out to be the true number 1 goalie that his development arc has him tracking towards. If Wolf had most or all of those starts you guys would be so much further along in knowing if he truly is the future. I get you guys gave up a moderately valuable pick to get him, but at what point can we accept he doesn't appear to be a goalie that can keep his save percentage above .900???

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Ouf.. Fickle fans.

6 games and people have seen enough.

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by dobbles

What I really think needs to be the discussion is why Vladar continues to get so many more starts and puts up the same mediocre numbers?

Wolf was never going to get the majority of the starts while Markstrom was out.

He got 3 starts and Vladar got 4. That's basically 50/50 when you factor in he played most of the Wild game Vladar got pulled in.

The Flames need to play Vladar sometimes if they plan on moving him. If he gets on a hot streak which he has the last two games maybe that peaks a team's interest and they give Conroy an offer he's happy with.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by TrentCrimmIndependent

Ouf.. Fickle fans.

6 games and people have seen enough.

Is that what you see, here? I sure don't. I think fans need to be realistic in their expectations for Wolf—he is a tremendous talent and I think most people are convinced that he is going to be a NHL starting goalie, if not a star. However, there are also at least a few posters who seem to think he is already a dominant NHL player who is somehow being looked over by the dumb Flames.

Pointing out that Wolf has so far not been great at the NHL level is not "fickleness." It is simply noting that he has some ways to go before he becomes who we all think he can be.

[GioforPM]

I don’t think anyone is calling Wolf a bust or even being fickle. It’s just pointing out that some posters anointed him as a starter without playing anything but the season ender.