Goalies and first round picks (poll)

[yave1964]

As a Wings fan I was listening to a podcast by two Wings fans this morning and they were essentially saying the Wings should do anything else except draft Jesper Walstedt who is considered an elite goalie prospect. They said with derision that selecting a goalie in the first round is burning the pick. I turned off the two idiots because I couldnt listen anymore after that. 

 

Consider the final four in this years NHL playoffs

 

VEGAS Goalie Fleury is a former first rounder

 

ISLANDERS Varlamov a former first round pick. 

 

CANADIENS Price a first rounder

 

LIGHTNING Vasilevskiy a first rounder

 

In short, EVERY ONE OF THE FINAL FOUR CLUBS HAS A FIRST ROUND PICK AS THE MAIN TENDER FOR THE TEAM.

 

My honest opinion is in most cases, all things being equal because of the nature of erratic goaltending in the league you can and probably should draft the skater but elite goaltending is becoming more and more essential as time goes by. Occasionaly you can catch lightning in a bottle with a Binnington or Murray and go al the way but in todays game you really do need elite tenders most of the time. In the Wings case I would say draft Wallstedt and be done. We have no  goalies in the pipeline who are ever going to be players, if he is still there at six we simply have to pull the trigger.

[OccamsRazor]

1 hour ago, yave1964 said:

Occasionaly you can catch lightning in a bottle

 

Well besides Vasilevskiy the last goalie to win a Stanley Cup was Rask back in 2011.

 

Then MAF in 2009 and Cam Ward back in 2006, 2003 Brodeur. So 4 goalies in the last 20 plus years.

 

And as of note only looked at winners nothing else.

 

So in my opinion the goalie doesn't have to come in the first round but i guess if that guy is sitting there and you project he can be that good maybe you have to take him. Goalies just sometimes take longer to develop.