The Hockey PDOcast - The Goalies We’re Excited To Watch This Season

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Kevin Woodley to go through the goalies they're most interested in watching this season. The list includes Dustin Wolf, Yaroslav Askarov, Spencer Knight, Jet Greaves, John Gibson, Anthony Stolarz, and Adin Hill.  If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

since 2015. It's the Hockey PDOCast with your host, Dmitri Filipovich. Welcome to the Hockey PDOCast. My name is Dimitri Filipovich. And joining me is my good buddy, Kevin Woodley. Kevin, what's going on, man? It's just excited to be watching Hockey That Matters again. It's that time of year, right? We get to see whether what we think was going to happen is going to happen. And even then, small samples. Like, it's, yeah, let's get into it, man. It's that time of year. It's going to be a fun one. usually we're in studio here together. We're recording this remotely today because you're already playing through injury,

even though we're in week one of the season, but we're going to have some fun anyways, and I've got a really fun exercise ahead for us, because I wanted to have you on opening week here, even though we've had a couple games so far, and we will talk about a couple goalies that have already made their season debuts. I wanted to run through my list of goalies.

I'm particularly intrigued by this season to watch them, of course, to track their progression and their performance, to just see how they do. And the criteria could be anything. Like there's guys who I think are poised for a breakout, some who could bounce back potentially, and I want to see if they do,

others in new spots, some that have a chance to build off of last year and really cement their status as a top goalie in this league, some who are just downright fun to watch, and I enjoy tuning into their games. And so we're going to see how many of them, we can get through but I thought I'd pitch you on all of them and go through them in order and then I'll clear out I'll give you some ISO ball time let you cook and see where you can tell us from the

from the technical side of things and sort of what you're expecting from them was there any goalie this year because last year you wowed us with the with the insider stories about Vasilevsky's off-season training and everything that came with that do you have any anyone that comes to mind that fits that oak this season that you can talk about well that's a good question actually um you know not so much. I don't know of any sort of huge radical changes guys are making. I know a guy who's in the focus and spotlight right now. Obviously in Evanton with Stuart Skinner, you know,

you got a new goalie coach there, got some new philosophies that I think Stewart's brought into. I don't think we're talking about sweeping changes, but just simple things that should simplify his decision-making process a little bit. And I think that might be important. I mean, we saw him sort of stuff. his toe with a bad decision last night. And so we talked also last year about times off the rush where you'd have plays where,

you know, the commentary is, oh, he didn't have a chance on that. And I'd look at his initial depth. And I'm like, ah, you didn't give himself a chance on that. He's way too far out for a guy who skates like he does. And so I think they're going to simplify his rush management. I think that having a second year for him with the training change that he made two years ago, going to Adam Francily and Colonna, you know, doing that after your, first cup final. It's tough. It's tough to make big changes like that. When you have such a

short summer, when you're trying to figure out, you know, how to manage your rest versus rust and all those things, I think having as much as he went back to the cup final, I think having a second summer of that should help. And, you know, I know a lot of people are all over him right now after their season opening loss to Calgary and that little sort of puck handling gap for miscommunication between him and Bouchard already. But I actually kind of liked someone that things I saw in his game during, during that opener. So that's one that, you know, I keep an eye on, not making any promises, but for all the focus on him and all the negative attention, the reality is two seasons ago, his adjusted

state percentage, especially after a knoblock took over, you know, was flirting with, with the, you know, top half of the league. And I think that's all they really need out of him. Yeah, it was a series of unfortunate events for him in the opener, right? Not to make any excuses, but the first two goals, first. the brutal bounce of his own defender's skate and past him. And then the puck that's kind of just floating in the air on the power player that Zeri bats in and gets reviewed and deemed a good goal.

And then certainly a much more in self-inflicted one, but the third one you were referencing there where there's that sort of indecision or miscommunication on what he's going to do with it. He winds up just staring at the puck as Blake Holman skates in and puts it past him. But it is a monster year for him not only with the expectations the Oilers have, but the fact that you just look at their goalie situation. And both him and Calvin Pickard are entering expiring deals. Essentially, they're both UFAs. This coming summer.

They make that goalie coach switch finally. And they make the offseason move as well, bringing in Connor Ingraham who's going to start in the H.O. But a potential path down the road there as well. So there's a lot of moving parts there. And it's certainly going to be an interesting thing to track. Yeah. And, you know, we haven't, there's a lot there just right there that probably

we could dig into a little, like the contracts and the way contracts are going in the National Hockey League for goalies and the fact that, yeah, okay, the Oilers have a decision to make, but do they have options? Right? Like, there's going to be nobody on the unrestricted free agent market. And, you know, we could, we could peel that back and say, okay, so if everybody's sticking with their team, and by the way, like some of the contracts that we saw handed out later in the summer or in the preseason, like, give me Philip Gustafson at 6.8, thank you very much. And Anthony Stoller's at 3.75, absolutely. You know, None of these guys are getting to market outside of potentially Jacob Markham next summer.

What are your options if you're Edmonton? And so as we see these guys double down with their teams, like it just reinforces to me the importance of having a department built out that will allow you to make sure you're not missing on draft picks. You have to build up your own internal options so that you have a constant flow of guys kind of moving into maybe being ready. and you better do a good job of finding the next ones in the American League as other teams hit decision points and have to pass on guys or put them on waivers. I like the Ellis claim from Buffalo. I happen to think there's a lot of upside there. I actually like the Edmonton claim of Connor Ingerman.

We can get into that a little bit. There's a guy that in his first two years in Arizona after being claimed off waivers from the national predators. After some settle in time, first half a season up until, you know, through December, not playing as much as he was used to, admitted to me that there was an adjustment period there from sort of Jan 1 on of 22, 23 to the end of 2324. That's a year and a half sample. You know, his adjusted say percentage was ninth in the National Hockey League. So there's upside there.

If you can get him in a place where everything is comfortable in his world off the ice and he's comfortable coming to the rink and he feels good about all those elements and I won't pretend to understand them or know about them. I just hope that, you know, he's in a good place personally because he's a great guy. But you get him in that place. The upside's there. Like, absolutely. He checks a lot of boxes.

His best over a year and a half is slightly better than that best we saw at a Skinner two years ago for, you know, two thirds of his season. And, you know, based on statistics and adjusted numbers, is significantly upgraded on what we've seen out of Calvin Pickard at the NHL level, even though the way they play for him complicates the situation and how popular he is in that room. So a lot of moving parts, a lot to keep an eye on. It's early. But as we talk about departments and investing,

and I like the decision they made on Connor Ingram. Don't love him starting in Bakersfield in terms of, I understand the necessity of it. But is that the best place for him as he has to sort of move through all the other stuff? I don't have that answer, but they better do the best to make him comfortable. down there. If you're running, if you're one of these NHL teams and you're running a goalie department, you certainly have to have someone whose main assignment is just listening to every

Kevin Woodley appearance in the PDO cast because over the years, the hit rate, whether it was with Anthony Stolars or Charlie Lingren or Kevin Lankan, I could go on and on, has been off the charts in terms of the risk reward and what those teams initially invested to acquire that goalie and then what it paid off for them. So that is a little plug for you. Well, I'm going to pass that plug along because the reality is I find those guys using ClearSight Analytics. Like these are the numbers that tell me, same with, you know, Ingram and Nashville to Arizona when somebody reached out from Arizona and said, you know, they didn't have a backup that year. And they were clearly going to go find one on the waiver wire. And I was asked who it should be.

And there were some underlying numbers that said Connor Ingram was was ready for a bigger role and would pop in it. And he did. So, you know, it is, frankly, Dimitri, absurd to me how many teams don't have access to those numbers when you consider the value they would provide in that search, but also just in not making mistakes on doubling down on the wrong guys, as we've seen some teams do in years past. And it was easy to predict those things or going into the unrestricted market and picking guys that aren't going to have success behind the way you play as a team.

And again, they're easy predictions to make. because these numbers sort of point down that path. Yeah, we're going to have a lot of time, I imagine. You're a regular reoccurring guest here on the BDocast throughout the year. We do try to get you back on every couple weeks and cover all these goalie topics. I imagine as the year progresses, we're going to have a lot more time and opportunity to get in Doyler's goaltending. I actually wanted to start off my list with the guy at the other end of the ice last night in the Battle of Alberta. Dustin Wolf, a goalie, we've also spoken a lot about, but I just, the intrigue for me here,

with him is following up on that rookie campaign in which he starts 53 games of the flames. The flames in those games performed at 102 point pace with him in net, despite being 29 in goals scored for the year. Only Anaheim, Nashville, and San Jose, all who were at the bottom of the standings, were the only teams worse than them. Sport logic had him down at a 9-14 save percentage in plus 25. Goals save above expected.

In those 53 appearances, he finished second in Calderboating behind Lane Hudson. and got a fourth place MVP vote. I honestly thought based on what he meant to the flames in dragging them essentially to the finish line being viable in that Western Conference wildcard picture until the final day of the season, he deserved more love for that. The flames clearly agreed because they rewarded him

with a $7.5 million extension per year for seven seasons, which kicks in next year. And he enters this campaign with the fourth best Vesna odds behind the usual suspects, Hella Bucks Chesterkin and Vassel. He goes into Edmonton on opening night, stops 32 of 35 shots, 16 of those 35 came off the sticks of Dre Seidel, McDavid and Bouchard. He gets beaten by two essentially unstoppable set plays on the power play that were functionally tap-ins.

The third is just a rip of a shot by André Manchipani coming down the wing. He stops seven of eight shootout attempts afterwards, gets the help from the post on one of them, make sure to kiss his crossbar, Mark Andre Fleury style. I just thought that watching him play was everything he showed on tape last year, but it was just a remarkable reminder of what a freak this guy is in terms of stuff, all this technical stuff I imagine you just geek out in seeing when you watch his tape, the agility, the movement, the contorting of the body, Gumby style, just getting across in such quick time to,

eliminate any possible threat. There was that play at the end of the overtime in that game where I think Bouchard was probably going to miss wide anyways, but he just moves laterally to his right and gets his pat across there doing the splits. In the shootout, the one stop that really stuck out to me was the one against Matthew Savoy where Savoy does this nice little move

where he fakes going backhand. You can see Wolf react to that in real time. And then as he brings it across to his forehand and tries to jam it in to the right, Wolf just kind of comes across and is there immediately to snuff it out stares him down afterwards. I just thought it was an unbelievable performance and

listen this Flames team enters the year people are expecting them to regress and not be as competitive as they were last year I think they're sixth in Pacific division odds, 86.5 point total and they're going to have a ton of offensive issues but coming back down from 3-0 on the road

in that opener, such a gritty performance much like they did all of last year and if this guy is going to play I don't know, 60, 65 games and play at this level. He gives him a chance every single night he's in net. And so I love watching him play. And he's probably my most intriguing goalie this year just to see what he can do with what he's working with. Yeah, there's, I mean, there's a lot there, right?

I love the extension. You know, as much as at the risk of somebody knocking on the door and taking away my goal of union card, I've always said, you know, if there's one thing I have worried as a GM when it comes to goaltending, contracts, it's term, just because the game can change, right? Like literally what works as a goalie now and what a guy's attributes are can be totally different in three, four years time. But if I'm going to make that investment, it's going to be in a guy like Dustin Wolfe because it's not just how well he plays and all the things he does, which by the way, aren't just good for a small goalie, but are like top of class in the national hockey league.

I remember having this conversation with UC Soros last year where he came into town after playing Wolf the night before in Calgary. And I, you know, it's almost stereotypical of me for a call. I'm going to talk about sort of that, that quote unquote, small goalies and the sort of union within the union and how much they pay attention to each other. And UC said, like, no, like there are things that Dustin does that nobody else in the NHL does, things that we should all be admiring and emulating his goaltenders, that he does, that he looks at this young kid and says, like, yeah, like, I need to be better at that.

and one of them is holding edges and having access to edges and being able to move in the way that you describe. Now, I was blessed to be able to sit down for a little over an hour just ahead of the preseason with Dustin to do some video for shameless plug here, Ingoal magazine's Pro Reads, where we sit down with NHL goalies and go through their plays and watch their video with them. and they explain the decision-making process, how they sort of read the game and how that affects their depth decisions, you know, their save selection decisions. And after spending an hour with him,

the thing that jumped out to me the most was just how much he believes in his foundation. And he's almost the polar opposite of a Connor Hellebuck. Not that Hellebuck doesn't believe in his foundation, but Hellebuck reads the game, and we've said this before, you know, almost at like a hashik-like level, his ability to anticipate and be ahead of things. Wolf is still picking up those pieces and he's changing how he plays based on whether the guy's got a one-time option or if he's got to catch a, you know, if he's the other hand and he's got to catch a pass across his body

and knowing that he has more time to get there. All those details are still part of Dustin Wolf's approach. But he doesn't vary the approach much. Like his foundation is that ability to move and hold edge. that you saw and that you talked about. And we see it to the nth degree in the shootout. Because where most guys have to stay narrow and upright in their stance, which leaves them vulnerable to quick shots and low shots

in order to maintain that edge control, Wolf gets so low and wide without giving up his edges. It's like an ankle mobility, flexibility thing, range of motion. It's, you know, frankly almost disturbing. And I'm extremely jealous. Even last night in the shootout, like go watch the dry sidal goal. That was a sick man. move. Like just sick.

A couple of fakes in there. Wolf still grabbed his left edge and was pushing off to the right. He almost got that. So that's the foundation of his game. All the other things sort of play a little bit of a role, but that's what he always goes back to. And it's a foundation that is so well suited for today's game. It's a foundation that other goalies are paying attention to.

And that combined with the fact that he doesn't rest on his laurels. that he won an American League or goalie of the year as a rookie and then changed his game in his second year and won HL MVP. So he knows his foundation, he believes deeply in it, but he's not closed off to other ideas and different ways of playing. And so it's a kid that, you know, no stone unturned is a phrase I use a lot. I love goalies that have that approach. But sometimes you can go searching for change for the sake of change.

And he's just got this great balance where he's never going to say no to trying something different. He'll actively seek out ways to get better. But his, how deeply rooted his belief is in a foundation that seems so perfectly suited for today's game, a foundation that frankly nobody else has to the degree he does when we talk about those edges and that skating and not committing to his knees to the point where, like I said, a guy like UC Soros is, is looking at him and trying to emulate that. It's a hell of a package. Was surprised he wasn't on USA's roster for the World Championships last year, which ultimately led to him not being a part of

their pre-camp this year. When you look at the decor invite, that's tied to him being at the World Championships. On a skill level basis, he should be in this conversation, I believe, right? You know, with other guys that have been left behind, like Demko, if he's healthy. But absolutely, like, he's at the elite level.

And all that does is add pressure because he's not on a team that's going to rely on him so much. So last question is, and maybe this is we're not getting in the playoffs helps because that's where your game gets broken down to the end degree. Are there elements that other teams might go to school on? Like he's conservative depth for a not very big goalie. Could teams start looking for more of the shots? Like the Mangiopani one, you're right.

It was a rip, but he's a little off, like he loses his net just to touch. Like he's a little off angle. Are those things that teams try and target because they realize they're frankly just not going to beat him down low, no matter how good the play is. Let's keep him moving. I can spend all episodes talking about Dustin Wolf, but I've got like nine other guys here that I really want to get through with you today

and sticking with the theme of you 25 goalies. Now obviously this one has accomplished less than Dustin Wolf so far at this level, but I'm still equally intrigued to watch him, and that's Yarsab Ascroft, because last year we saw the sharks use Georgiev, Vanichek, Georgi Romanov, for 53 games, and that was by design

because they wanted to be bad and they wanted to nudge their draft position into the direction they ultimately did, and they wound up getting Michael Mesa for their efforts. They gave Ascarov just 12 starts in the NHL in the process. I know he was banged up for a little bit, and that was partly why. But over the past three years, this guy's played 137 games at the HL level. I think he's already accomplished everything he needs to from a production perspective there. At least he's 23 years old now, and I'm very curious to see how far they're willing to scale up his usage.

I guess in his first real full year at the NHL level, especially with the defensive environment, we expect in front of them with the list of young forwards they have and that kind of growing pains that we see typically associated with that age. The defense itself, you know, they go out and they bring in Orlov, they bring in Klingberg and Letty. And I like the idea because they just had the cap space to get to the floor. And it's like, all right, well, these guys can at least play fun theoretical hockey

and get the puck to the forwards and give them a, position to succeed and score and put up points, but they're going to give back a lot on the other end, and that's going to make life more difficult for any other goalie. And then there's the idea that we spoke about last year as it related to McKenzie Blackwood and his adjustment of going from San Jose to Colorado, which was this was a team that just was always in their own zone, never really had the puck. And so what we saw from opponents was, I think they were more willing by design to test their goalies from further out and from bad angles and low percentage shots that we typically think of because they felt very confident in their abilities to retrieve

those rebounds and pucks and keep it in the zone and not risk losing possession. And so they're like, oh, why not? Let's see what happens from this. We'll just get it back. And then maybe eventually later on in this sequence, we can try to get it into the slot or go for a high danger attempt instead. And so you're going to get a high volume of shots, a lot of them from bad areas. And I'm very curious to see how he holds up in that because clearly the physical tools

and the athleticism and the jaw-dropping saves are. going to be there. But in terms of the bottom line for him, I imagine how he how he handles himself in those spots is probably going to be all the very telling in terms of his end of season, say, percentage in numbers, and they might not, they might need to be adjusted for the context of that environment. But I really want to see how he plays if he does wind up getting 40, 50 potentially games in the NHL for the first time. Yeah. And I'll tell you one thing. And obviously, they dictate how much they want him to play, but if it's performance-based, Alex Nadelcovich will not go away easily. Like, he was quietly the best goalie in Pittsburgh. I'm not sure many people could tell because his

expected say percentage was 8.79, but he was the only guy there that posted numbers that were above expected. He also has the ability, as Zezas Gerov to handle the puck behind the net and change the way teams attack you. So you can't be content to dump it in against San Jose, because he'll help them transition out. You're going to have to carry over. And as you said, entering the zone carrying and with possession might not be as difficult against the young San Jose defense. So there's that part to it.

There's also like the learning curve for him. You mentioned the athleticism. It's all there. Is more about managing traffic, which is one of the hardest things to do in the National Hockey League level. I talk to guys about this all the time. Ask them what the hardest thing is right now in the game. And it's just the intensity of the traffic.

It's relentless. Finding pucks through it is really hard. And that's, you know, that's an area where, you know, he saw 25, such a small sample, but 25 screenshots last year and six went in, right? Clear sighted shots. Like as good as he can be down low and, like his pads and his movement on his knees is fantastic. But kind of comparing it to Wolf, like what separates him is holding edges. Because once you're on your knees, as good as a scareoff moves from his knees and it's almost just

Jerkin like, you're still less mobile from your knees than you are going to be from your skates. And so, you know, committing to that early, some of the clear-sighted numbers, like more pucks going in on open looks that frankly shouldn't, low-danger goals. Like, that's where the growth is. We know what he can do athletically. It's the reads, the processing, the rebounds, the screens, some of those things, like rebounds, another one where 18 chances off rebounds, six go in. How much of that is the sharks?

how much of that is a goalie who's still learning to frankly activate his stick and steer more of those. You can't give up weak side rebounds in today's NHL. You have to be able to control that initial shot. And so capable of all of it, for sure, curious to see how much of a chance he gets, whether they go based on performance if Ned has success early, or they just make sure they stay balanced in it to defeat him those minutes. But it's going to be a process. And I'm curious as anyone to see, you know,

of how they find those lines and how he does behind it. Because there were some things in that small sample last year, as much as we remember the athletic moments, it was the ones that can't go in, frankly, that raised eyebrows and will need to change if he's going to have long-term success in the NHL. I imagine he's going to acquire, to your point, a lot of discipline as well, right?

Because he's clearly just such an energetic character and wants to do cool stuff. whether it's the saves or when he's handling the puck. And with the amount of time, I imagine he's going to have to spend in his stance anticipating a shot as the other team is just kind of cycling the puck around the outside, looking for spots to attack the shark's defense. It's going to take its mental toll, especially if you start increasing that sample size of games played, right? It's the last year, only the 12, as I noted. I'd expect that to at least triple this season, even if Nadekovich does play well. And so how that kind of holds up remains to be.

seen, but I think the upside is clearly undeniable. Well, and there's, and if indeed it's like last year where there is a lot of hold, hold, hold type offense against the sharks, where maybe the environment actually based on expected say percentage isn't as low as you would think it would be, but there's a ton of volume. That's an opportunity for growth in the key areas I talked about in terms of being patient and not committing early, not relying. we all know what he's capable of athletically, but it's how late in a sequence

once you get to that desperation and athleticism. And there'll be an opportunity there to make sure, hey, like, I can beat this play on my skates. And that gives me a chance to beat the next play on my skates, even if sliding on my knees is something that a lot of goalies fall in love with at a young age, and something he does exceptionally well, like gets that next edge and gets back the other way.

But again, I don't care how well you skate from your knees, whether you're Shashirkin or Ascarov, the reality is beating plays on your skate set square is such a key part of the game today as a goaltender with all this East-West play the teams are trying to generate. All right, let's take our break here. And then when we come back, we're going to jump right back into it and work through a bunch of other goalies that I'm excited to watch this season. You're listening to the Hockey P.D. Ocast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network. All right, we're back here on the Hockeypede Ocast, John by Kevin Woodley today. We're running through the goalies. We're excited to watch this year. We've only gotten through

two somehow so far even though we're halfway through the show so we're really going to have to speed around this because I want to get your take on on all the guys that have written down let's start with the next one it's a it's a neat transition from a scarrow before we went to break in terms of another u25 goalie in a difficult playing environment and that's spencer night and we saw his opening night performance in his return to florida he stops 34 of 37 shots i believe natural statrick had the panthers down for 14 high danger chances it certainly felt like more watching that game with the eye test. He's still just 24 years old,

and I think we noted this last year, what a unique circumstance it is where we typically don't see goalies at this age already be signed to the third NHL deal. Now that three-year extension he signed for just under $6 million will kick in the following season.

But he's just been around in our lives for so long that I think he's gotten already sort of nitpicked to a point where there's a lot of other goalies that have had the benefit of more seasoning either in the NCAA or the HL and everyone's excited about them because we haven't seen them fail yet at the NHL level and they get the benefit of waiting until their 23, 24, and that's already where Spencer Knight is at this point of his career age-wise.

We saw him play a career high 38 games last year. The environment in front of them, similar to what we said again about San Jose is going to be tough. They were a bottom five team in every defensive metric last year and they have such a young blue line. We saw some of those guys struggle against that Panthers 4th. check and lose some assignments in front of them leading to that fourth line goal for Florida. I was just blown away watching that game by that lateral movement that we'd like to talk about and just his base as well in some of these saves and sequences.

It felt like he was just stopping everything Carter Brahegey was throwing at him from in tight. There were a bunch of really just 10 bell saves. He's going to, I imagine, have to face a lot of those this year behind that team. And with that workload ramping up, I imagine this will be the first time. we see him play more than 40, 50 games potentially as well. How he holds up in that and what he looks like is going to be interesting because the talent and the tools are very visible to anyone watching. You don't need to be a goalie expert to see them.

And seeing those results the way they were in that opener, I want to keep watching to see more of that. Yeah, I mean, quite often when you cite public data and it's got a really high, you know, high danger chances, I look at the proprietary stuff and it's nowhere near because it doesn't factor in screens and lateral. passing and a lot of that stuff. But in this case, the Panthers had 15 high danger chances by clear side analytics and four and a half

expected goals. So it's going to be a case of, well, two things. One, even when he plays well, can you see it, at least in the raw numbers? And then two, how long can he keep this up? I think he's such a smart goalie, very intellectual, thinks is what we talk about reads, right? So much of reads for goaltenders is being able to trust your guys to do what they're supposed to do. I mentioned Ingole and pro reads and all the video sessions we do with these guys. And that was the one thing that really has surprised me over the years of doing that was how often they refer to not just the handedness, the position, you know, what the shooter is

showing them or what the pass options are and how that affects how they play. But the defensive structure and knowing that, hey, this guy's here so I can take a little more ice there. And when it disintegrates to the degree it has in Chicago for a goalie who is so intellectual and is so smart about that approach and has all the tools, as you mentioned, like, it's that much tougher to continue to trust it. And in this league, as soon as you stop trusting it and you start trying to take away both options, like cheat, man, the guy with the puck is going to make you look silly in a hurry. And so that's the challenge for him is sticking with a game that we know works in the

NHL and hoping he gets enough support in front of him that those reeds hold true more often than not because the talent, as you said, is obviously there. You got one more young goalie than I want to talk about a personal favorite of yours. Someone we've spoken about a lot in the past and he finally got some national attention at the end of last year. And that's our guy, Jack Reeves. So the month of April, the blue jackets are hanging around that wild card race. He starts their last five games. In that time, he wins all five of them, two shutouts, stops and

otherworldly 156 at 160 shots. He faces played so well that I think they're much more comfortable this summer dealing Daniel Tarasov, who was an RFA to Florida over a fifth round pick, using Greaves as the full-time backup essentially, if not more, to start the year behind Elvis Merz Likins. And he's another guy kind of similar but different in a way, though, what I just said about Spencer Knight, where he's got a very unique contractual situation as well, because, despite being only 24 years old and making like 812K or whatever. Yeah, this season, he becomes a group 6 UFA next summer.

And it's very rare that you see a player of this age with this little sample size hit the market like that. And the blue jackets might just not let that happen by extending him before he can hit the market. but I'm very curious to see how that plays out. Elvis has the two years left at 5.4. His final year next year he's making less in terms of actual salary. So maybe that could facilitate a move down the road. But yeah, I thought Greaves was phenomenal. It was really cool seeing him get that shine. And it's another situation where, you know, I give Dean Everson a lot of credit for what he did

with their young forwards and skaters last season and giving them more ice time, letting them play free or hockey, having more fun. And the offense followed, that's going to, leave the defense and the goalie in particular out to dry sometimes more often than the team who buttons the down up a little bit more. And so we saw them give up quite a bit last year as well. I'm curious to see what that environment looks like this year and what the workload for Greaves is as well because it was so good down the stretch that, you know, when the toothpaste is out of the tube a little bit, I don't know how you put it back. I'd be very tempted to give him as many starts as you

can right out of the gate and see how he performs in them. But I imagine it'll be a bit more of an even split and we'll see what it uh what it winds up leading to yeah he was like unbelievable down the stretch in those five games to the point where like i'm trying to quantify it like clareside had him at 14.6 goals saved above expected on just 322 chances like that's more than vasseliski who is a besna trophy finalist and saw 600 or close to 1600 chances like to his his adjusted say percentage led the league by like such a wide margin it's not even funny it's like four and a half percent anthony stolers led led the league after him but it was like literally more than double that and so with that comes a bit of grain of salt like if you play like that all year they hand

you venezna trophies if you play like that for a couple of years they put you in the hall of fame like the level at which he played may have created some crazy expectations and yet I remember having a conversation before they put him in the net down the stretch with somebody in Columbus asking me why they, why they hadn't. Like, what's the hold up here? And frankly, I didn't have an answer because we have seen him outperformers environment almost every time he's up. Like almost every game he's in, but certainly over the course of his limited appearances,

like what was his first game was against the Leafs, his hometown Leafs in his hometown like he's an Ontario, Toronto area boy. And it was like 45, 46 saves. Like it was nuts. They just got pounded. He gave up four goals. I don't think people realized just how good his performance was relative to that environment.

And he kind of kept it up every time he got an opportunity. And so the only question was why they didn't give him more of an opportunity sooner. And the answer probably would have been you're in the playoffs if you did. And so whatever doubts created that, and again, maybe they don't have access to the numbers either. Like hop on a clear side analytics subscription and you would have seen this kid has done it every time he's up. Is there something there? Whether it's size, and we've certainly seen that before, undrafted status that had them hesitant to do so and could it create any hesitancy to go long term with him? Because all the numbers I have suggests that he should have gotten that opportunity

earlier every time he's had it. He's done the most with it. And yet I still have to go grain of salt on the five straight wins because that was, like that was Hachick and his prime level performance. That was unbelievable. And so the expectations may be, you know, not just unrealistic for him, but unrealistic for any goalie to do what he did

at the end of last season. But everything he did before that tells me there's an NHL goalie and probably a starter there. There will be some ups and downs. There always are. Inevitably, teams get pre-scouts. Teams start to target different things. But again, without a playoffs and the spotlight

that comes with that, fully believe, you know, he was my sleeper pick to break out last year. He never got the opportunity until right at the end, so I guess I get to keep him as my breakout candidate again this year. I think what was just cool was to your notes, seeing him actually get to start regardless of how he performed five straight games

like that, because for years, it was like, he's going to get called up for spot duty because we had an injury or because of the schedule and he's just going to randomly start in an emergency, and he winds up facing 46 shots and he makes 43 saves in a losing effort, 42 saves,

but we're going to send them back down because we don't need them anymore. And so actually seeing them just get a consistent workload like that, even if it was only five games just in sequence, was really cool. And so hopefully it's the start of more. I think to your question of why not or why it took so long was exactly that, to sort of that bias or sort of reputation where you either pay someone else or you draft them more highly.

And so they're always going to be viewed in a certain light as opposed to a guy who's out to work his way up like, this and he's really essentially going to have to force your hand to take that spot for himself and it feels like that's exactly what he did down the stretch last year so hopefully that is the case well one quick thing i will say there was a hesitancy in terms of full time because tarasoff was just so highly regarded like they thought they would lose tarasov on waivers if they tried to send him down that was a part of it and to be honest the way he's regarded around the league by a lot of goalie coaches and the pedigree that tarasov came

with. He's now the backup behind Bob in Florida. I fully understand that. I think there was a chance, even if the results weren't there, and that was just an unfortunate situation where injuries early in his career didn't allow him to play enough, and by the time he got to needing waiver status, he didn't have the requisite

experience. So being more patient with the next guy up and making sure he's getting that experience in the AHL, I shouldn't be too hard on the Blue Jackus, it's because they did that with Jetgreaves. They avoided the potential of a tarus off, you know, part two there. Now it's time to, as the kids say, well, maybe this, maybe they don't even say it. Just let them cook. Let

them go. Do they say that, Demetri? Or am I like just totally? Yeah, of course. Of course they say that. No, you're, how do you do fellow kids? That was you. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. All right. John Gibson. We don't have to spend that much time on this because you and I have spoken so much about them, but just in terms of different environments and especially finally getting the merciful resolution to that year-end saga or like year-long saga of will-day, him getting traded at the draft to Detroit. You know, they relied so heavily on 38-year-old Camtow, but down the stretch last year.

And I think that just really ultimately took its toll where he was perfectly fine for them in the early going, wound up finishing with an 892 save percentage in the 17 games he played from February 1st on. It was the league worst penalty kill in Detroit for the Red Wings. I just did a show with Jack Kahn earlier this week where we spoke about Todd McClellan coming in, mid-season and now throughout having a full camp and really a proper sort of ability to integrate

what he wants to do with this team, realizing that he needs to change the way they play offensively because for years now, they've been pretty much the worst five-on-five team in the league and they've gotten by because they've been so good on the power play. But they need to take some more risks at even strength, create more movement, do more modern stuff than what they've been doing. That's probably going to stretch them a little bit. in terms of giving back more going the other way with odd man rush opportunities because you're going to have defensemen lower in the zone and all that sort of stuff that happens. It's a natural trade off of playing that way. But I'm curious to see what Gibson looks like now after this trade finally with some of those, you know, limitations for this team previously with the PK and now with maybe giving up more rush chances and his durability and his durability and 32 years old because of how banged up he's been over the past couple years.

and it was a very reasonable risk for them to take because the acquisition cost was low. They wind up sending out Marzic's contract in the deal, so the actual net cap difference is very manageable. And so I thought it was worth it for these next two years to see what you can get from Gibson, but how that plays out and how available he is and whether you can make a difference for them as they try to get back to the playoffs for the first time in a decade will remain to be seen. So I will certainly be watching because when he's on, as we've documented over the past couple of years, he's still at the top of the list of entertainment value.

Yeah, and, you know, let's not forget that Camp Talbot started last season, you know, I believe at one point early in the year they were talking about, you know, could he be on Canada's Olympic team, right? Like he had a really good start in Detroit, but at that, like, you've just got to find a better balance for how often and how you're using him. And so Gibson coming in, if they, like his numbers last year were back above expected, the environment of Hanaheim was a little friendlier. last year than it has been in years past.

I'm not sure how many people realize, like they tighten things up a fair bit. But his rush numbers were pretty good too and traditionally have been. So if you're going to change how you play and have a more, you know, a riskier profile defensively as a result in terms of odd man rush,

it's like not a bad thing to do it with a goaltender behind you who has as much as experience at reading plays and reading rush. and there are some things he does that, that, you know, maybe a little less sort of in the zone, you know, low high, some of the down, low stuff, off the post and things like that,

but put them in a free-flowing situation where you can allow sort of that movement and the skill that he does possess in high volumes to shine. And that might be, as much as we never want to talk about giving up lots of odd man rushes as a good thing for goaltenders, because it's not. The reality is they just go in a ton

compared to other chances. is you're at least playing to your goaltender strengths when it comes to John Gibson that's not a bad thing I've got Anthony Stolars Jeremy Swaven and Aden Hill left on my list which one do you want to start with which one do you find the most interesting because we got about seven minutes left

we tease Stollers as that like I think that might end up being he plays even 40 games half a season and that might be the best contract in the NHL from a goal tending perspective like his numbers have been off the charts good for three straight years he leads the league and adjusted say percentage. Yeah, he didn't play much. And in Florida, that was because there was some guy named

Bobroski. But the reality is when he was in there, he outperformed him on a per shot basis. And then last year, you know, again, there's two ways to look at it. Like, the injuries are a question, for sure. And where can the games play get to? And how do they manage that? Those are all fair questions. But at 3.75, even half a season for a guy who in that half a season gives you, like, top of the league level goal tending, sign me up. And as much as people look at last year and say, oh, he missed six weeks because of the knee injury and that's a concern, can he stay healthy?

He came back and played at the same high level after missing six weeks, which is not easy to do and just sort of reaffirms just how high that baseline is when he is right, when he is healthy. So I actually, it's both a check in the negative box and a check in the positive box the way the season went last year. He wasn't undone by a knee injury. He still came back and finished strong. And yet, you know, you can talk to anyone that's been around,

like, and around him and around the process. Like, that's a big body, putting a lot of pressure on the lower body, and whether it holds together for an entire season is a fair question. So he plays a 34 regular season games last year and then seven in the playoffs before he gets hurt after the collision or after Sam Bennett runs into him. That was the first time. Yeah, that was the first time. He's gone north of 30 games in a season in the NHL at age 31.

Now, in those 41 games, 28 of them, two goals against or less, 926 say percentage. Sport logic had him in 8771 slot shots, 8 percentage was behind only. Connor Hellebuck. And I think that's the big question because it's clear that when he's in net, you're going to get a very high end, at least above average, if not elite performance, managing the workload, especially with Joseph Wall away from the team to start the year. the Leafs has 16 games on their schedule in the next calendar month, including four sets of back-to-backs. And so I think playing the long game and being careful with it is going to be very important in preserving him because you really want to make sure that he's firing at full

capability and actually available down the stretch on when it matters most because when he's in that and when he's playing, he's going to give them a chance to win. So I really enjoy. watching him play. It was fun watching them play in that opener against the Habs as well. He stops 29 of 31. The Habs had a bit of success with those or shots kind of targeting that perfect window between the blocker and the pad. I'm not going to hold that against them because as we've spoken about, if you hit your mark as a shooter there, you deserve to score essentially and you're going to score more often than not against pretty much any other goalie in the league. So it is what it is, but it seemed like they were certainly trying to aggressively target that in game one. And so, yeah,

I love watching Stoller's play and he's been awesome. And he fully earned that deal and especially keeping it at four years as well, right? It's not like it's one of those where it's super long term. And so you're inheriting a lot of risk on the back half. Even though he's in his 30s already, I just thought it was a slam dunk extension for them. Yeah, and like I said, even, like if you go into that thing, oh, we got a 60 game starter, you're going to be disappointed. But he plays half a season at the level he's played the last three at those numbers.

And you get him to the finish line and available. for the playoffs and I know he didn't finish the playoffs last year but you know I'm not going to go injury prone when a guy gets hit in the head like that's you know we've talked already about how much I hated that play and how much how vulnerable goalies are to that type of stuff so um like I said like to me I remember when Lindgren signed the three times one in Washington and I said that had the potential to be the best value contract of that entire summer and um you know even if he's not the number one there it still was and I think this absolutely has a potential. Stoller's at his best, is just as good as the guys make an eight and a half. The only question is how often you get him in the net. Because when he's in, you get that guy way more often than anyone else in the league.

There's a consistency to his game as well. Let's end in with this, because we've got a lot of questions in the Pidiogas Discord about Aiden Hill and what's been going on with this play. You referenced earlier the market and free agency at the position. And last year,

we saw the Golden Knights add to that where they committed the six-year extension with him in March, I believe, that helped contribute to that sort of just dearth of talent or availability of guys who can actually play for you in net in Unrestricted Free Agency. His season-long numbers last year in the regular season

were fine by everything I've seen a 906 percentage around a plus five goals he above expected, but the bottom just fell off in the playoffs where he had an 887 and 33 goals against in those 11 appearances. He starts off this year with five goals against on 26 king shots, loses in the shootout at the conclusion of a wild game there. Do you have anything in terms of the technical breakdown?

I know he's spoken a lot about how when they were at their best, when they won the cup, it was a perfect kind of tandem of him doing certain things well, and then the team defensively really eliminating a lot of the stuff that could be potential areas of a concern. Is it a bit of a slip-up there on the team front defensively? Or do you think that teams, have had a chance to better break down his tape and some of the openings you can create in that

massive frame and then pick that apart more progressively. It probably requires honestly, Dimitri, you know, I don't like to, I always say, I don't like to blow smoke, I won't talk out of my butt, and I haven't done that level of deep dive. So we might have to put a pin in that one until the next time and I'll do the homework. It feels and looking at the numbers like it's a combination of those things. As you said, the numbers by ClearSight weren't bad. like still 18th and goals saved above expected.

But the reality is Akira Schmidt was, you know, 21st and basically a goal and a half behind Aden Hill in the tiniest of samples. So we know how good he was in the cup play out front. For all the attention that Vegas got for being dominant, he was really good. Like the numbers he posted when they won the cup, you do that for a year, you win the Vezna. But for whatever reason, he hasn't been able to do it for a year. And a lot of it's been health. I know he's made a lot of changes to his training to try and address that. But at the end of the day, and, you know, you lose a guy like Peter Angelo on the back end.

Like, you see how the game went last night. You wonder how much exposure there might be there, how much more exposure than when they were winning cups and the way that defense was playing. As good as they are offensively, are they going to open things up? I think the thing that, you know, caught my attention, more than anything else, was talking to other teams this offseason and hearing that Vegas was looking at the trade deadline and not just for support pieces,

but frankly for guys that would be replacement pieces before they'd signed Hill. Like they were looking and talking and who knows how seriously, but we're having conversations about guys that were under contract and would be number ones. and that would lead you to not bring back Aden Hill. So that kind of makes me scratch my head a little bit about, you know, as much as they signed under that contract, you know, just how committed were they at that point? Did they have some of these same questions?

At the end of the day, he's a big body who moves pretty well. And I think when you get all those pieces in terms of how they play in front of him lined up with how he's playing, again, last year wasn't bad. And he's not like he's making nine. He's not top of the league level. so maybe you're getting what you pay for there a little bit, but it's obviously going to have to be better than it was on opening night, and it's probably going to have to be better than it was in the playoffs.

Or are there teams that have identified, like, okay, once it gets down to crunch time, this is what we can go after. I'd have to go back and look at the playoffs, but certainly a possibility because, you know, this is the thing with Skinner and with Bob, which makes what Bob does so remarkable. When you have a long run, like there is no, quicker way to have your game dissected to the end degree than a long playoff run.

And so is it a coincidence that he hasn't been able to get to that point since? You know, maybe not. There's still a good goalie there. It's just, is it good enough for a Vegas team that I think is taking steps back defensively, even as they improve offensively? You know, with goalies at that size, there is going to be a bit of a tradeoff in terms of in certain instances they can look a little clunky with their movement. We're kind of clumsy for a lack of a better word.

and we spoke about this a bunch last postseason. And it relates to Hill. It was mostly about Darcy Kemper honestly at the time. The two goalies that the Oilers played early on where I thought that they had a ton of success, just throwing pucks at them and daring them to catch it and freeze it and hold it onto a whistle.

And they were just really struggling with doing so and corralling it properly. And then all the pressure that was ensuing from that off rebounds and extra opportunities was killing those teams. And it's funny because I felt at the time and I think I might have even noted it to you on a show, I felt like I was on an island and I was going crazy because I kept bringing it up

and no one else on the broadcast, they were never mentioning it. I wasn't really seeing any commentary about this just being a recurring theme. And this offseason, I was chatting with a, with a King's employee and I brought it up. And I'm like, am I crazy?

And they're like, no, we were talking about it all year, in fact. And in that series, it was a massive area of concern for us. And all of our worst nightmares happened as a result of it. And I was like,

oh, okay. Well, That's nice to know that at least I'm probably am crazy, but maybe not in this instance for this particular reason. So Hill was certainly one of those victims as well. And I thought you could see that. In that opener, there was a couple moments where especially on the lateral movement, I thought it's adequate for the size, but it's still exploitable potentially. Which brings us back to a couple of quick, I know we got to go, but a couple of quick points. I'll take you back to a scare off.

It's not just about the ability to make the saves. it's about your ability to control where the puck goes next or take a whistle. Like that's such a big part of this, which we touched on earlier. And then the other thing I'll touch on is we talked about grieves. We talked about Wolf. Talked about Soros, who quite frankly for the first third of the season was in the Vesna conversation. So if you're telling me that he was the problem, I think you got to look at what happened in front of him. Are we seeing a shift?

I mean, I hear it from goalie people all the time. If you can't move, you can't play. The game is so east-west. Think of all these teams that have passed up on six footers because they won't even look at them. I think there's opportunity in there to find some guys. We saw Ellis get claimed by Buffalo. Like, man, you've got to be able to move in today's game. And some of the guys that we're trumpeting here don't have that 6'4, 6.5 frame.

And we're starting to see some of the success and lack of success from some of the other guys. And if you got both great. But if I got to pick between a 6 footer that can move and a 6 foot 4 guy that can't, I'm telling you, I'm leaning towards a six-footer, and for the first time in a long time, I'm starting to hear people that make decisions ask the same questions at the national hockey league level, because forever it was the other way. And the six-foot-four guy always got the men in front of the doubt.

I think we may be at least seeing the start for some people of a shift in that decision-making process. Well, you love to hear it. This was an awesome debut episode for the new season, Kevin. I'm looking forward to getting back on our grind and having you on. as a regular again. The plugs. Check out Kevin is in goal

on Twitter, in goal magazine as well. We got to get out of here. We ran long. No surprise, the two of us talking goalies, got a little carried away. Give us five-star reviews

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And that is all for today. We'll be back tomorrow with Harmon Dial. to close the week out. Thank you for listening to the HockeyPedio cast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network.