It’s one of the oldest saying in sports, that defense wins championships and in hockey it is no different with one extended piece – great goaltending.
Jonathan Quick’s emergence as one of the game’s top goalies was largely due to his playoff performances, helping the Los Angeles Kings win the Stanley Cup in two of the last three seasons.
Developing that star goaltender takes a virtue that doesn’t always fly in the sporting world, patience. As opposed to forwards and defenders, goalies take much longer to develop into their full potential. While we see more and more 18-year old skaters playing right after their draft year, we are seeing less and less goalies taken early on in the draft.
This is nothing new, as article after article has come out backing the fact that it is just good hockey business to draft goaltenders later in draft and give them as long as they need to develop.
Looking at the goaltender leaders early on the season, there are a few players who are emerging after taking the long, patient road towards the NHL, the most notable Jake Allen of the St. Louis Blues.
Allen, a second round pick all the way back in 2008, has patiently paid his dues leading to this moment and has taken the opportunity given to him and ran with it. Through six starts this season, the 24 year old has the second best goals against average and is fifth in save percentage. He shut out the New Jersey Devils and Anaheim Ducks in consecutive starts.
After playing out his junior eligibility in the QMJHL, Allen would go on to spend the next the majority of the next three years playing for the Blues’ AHL affiliate before finally making a 15 game NHL debut.
He wouldn’t see the NHL last season with the Blues using a combination of Brian Elliot, Jaroslav Halak and later Ryan Miller via trade (with Halak exiting), and used that time to further his development and be named the AHL’s top goaltender.
Now with Miller with the Vancouver Canucks, Allen has formed the top goalie tandem in the league with Elliot – allowing a league low 33-goals against so far.
A rough three game stretch (.854 SV% in a recent span) for Darcy Kuemper has dropped him all the way down to 26th among qualified goalies in save percentage, the 24-year old Saskatoon native still remains in the top-10 in GAA and is one of the main reasons behind the Minnesota Wild’s early season success(7-1 at home).
Kuemper showed he had promise in a brief sample last season, as well in the playoffs posting the first ever shutout in the history of the Wild franchise. Getting the majority of the starts this year for a Minnesota team that has allowed the sixth fewest goals on the season, Kuemper was a sixth round pick in 2009 by the Wild.
While not with the same amount of NHL exposure as Kuemper and Allen, Michael Hutchinson of the Winnipeg Jets is making the most of his opportunities so far this year. Like Allen, Hutchinson is a member of the 2008 NHL draft class going one round later in the third and has currently served as the team’s ‘backup’ this year behind Ondrej Pavelic.
In Sunday night’s contest against Kuemper’s Wild, Hutchinson came in relief of Pavelic and kept the Jets in the game, allowing them to tie the game before eventually losing in overtime (Kuemper entered the game late, made three saves and got the win).
Two goals in his past four appearances have shot Hutchinson all the way to the top of the GAA and SV % leaderboards. One of those performances was a 33 save shutout on the road against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Hutchinson has taken a little bit of a wider turn than Kuemper and Allen, playing in over 100 major junior and AHL games, as well as 48 in the ECHL but with Pavelic’s noted struggles at times, he could find himself playing more games than expected.
Ben Bishop broke out last season finally, after taking an even longer route than Kuemper, Allen or Hutchinson as he was 26 years old when he finally became a full time NHL starter. At 24 years old Allen isn’t quite a starter but he has certainly he showed that has the skill set to be one.
It’s still early in the season, struggles will certainly be expected from the trio but they have showed that the patience showed by their clubs is paying off.
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