Drafted 24th overall by the Boston Bruins.
Our top ranked goalie prospect for this June’s NHL draft clocks in at #19 overall in our rankings. Malcolm Subban of the OHL’s Belleville Bulls is the brother of Montreal Canadiens’ defenceman P.K. Subban. Malcolm has been the Belleville’s go to guy between the pipes, and has also been an important part of Team Canada playing in the 2011 and 2010 World U18 Tournaments and winnng a gold medal at the Ivan Hlinka Tournament. Subban is also the second Belleville Bull in our rankings following Brendan Gaunce.
Born Dec 21 1993 — Rexdale, ONT
Height 6.01 — Weight 190 — Shoots L — Catches L
| Season | Team | GP | Min | GA | SO | GAA | W | L | T | Pct |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010-11 | Belleville | 32 | 1785 | 94 | 0 | 3.16 | 10 | 17 | 2 | 0.900 |
| 2011-12 | Belleville | 39 | 2258 | 94 | 3 | 2.50 | 25 | 14 | 0 | 0.923 |
Subban burst on to the scene with a flourish late in 2011, stealing the Belleville Bulls starting goaltender job for the playoffs and has never looked back. While his Bulls were overmatched and unable to pull off an upset over the eventual Eastern Conference Champion Mississauga/St.Mike’s Majors, Subban was greatly praised for keeping the games closer than they should have been.
Subban is a tremendously athletic goalie. He has fabulous reflexes, and is extremely agile. He is particularly quick sliding post to post and is able to make some very nice saves on one timers as a result. He is also extremely quick with his pads, and effectively uses his quick feet to put up a wall in the bottom half of the net. Subban’s great skating ability allows him to come out of the net and challenge shooters, as he’s able to back up very quickly should they attempt to come in for a deke. Subban is also very quick with his glove hand and blocker and effectively covers the top of the net as well.
Subban shows excellent technique in the net. Subban is almost always square to the shooter and in position to make the first save. His movements in the crease are controlled and smart. This allows Subban to recover quickly and to get himself in position to make a second save. It also ensures that he covers the maximum amount of net possible.
Unfortunately Subban has been hit by a number of nagging injuries this season including a high ankle sprain, and a pulled groin. This hurt the Bulls as Subban has the ability to steal games and we’ve seen that his teammates are more confident with him between the pipes. Subban excudes a calm demeanor that makes him a natural leader, and he rarely gets flustered, bouncing back quickly from goals against.
Like many young goalies, Subban does need to work on his rebound control, as he can sometimes have trouble with low shots. However we don’t think this is a major issue. Its definitely something that should improve with maturity, and we’ve heard that Malcolm possesses the same Subban family work ethic that helped PK transform himself from a draft prospect with defensive question marks, to a top pairing defensive defenceman in the NHL We also think Subban could work on his handling the puck when he leaves the crease.
Subban projects as a future starting goalie in the NHL, however the team drafting him will need to be patient as it often takes goaltenders time to develop into effective pros. We think that he will make some NHL team very pleased on draft day. We know Habs fans would love to see him re-united with his brother in Montreal, however we don’t see him lasting until Montreal’s 2nd round pick (currently 33rd overall). We believe Subban will be taken in the first round and will be the first goalie off the board.
… and thats the Last Word.
