NHL draft 2017: Smaller goalies can stop the puck, too

Note to all NHL teams: Bigger goalies don’t necessarily make better goalies!

We at Red Line Report are so tired of having this discussion with NHL scouts/teams that simply refuse to look at goalies who are “only” 6-feet.

This season, the best goaltender in the class is Michael DiPietro — by a mile! And yet, only because he’s 6-feet, he won’t be drafted in the first two rounds, and our prediction is that he will be selected behind at least five other (lesser) goalies.

Last season, Matthew Murray of Spruce Grove in the Alberta Junior Hockey League was one of the five best netminders in the 2016 crop, but he was barely scraping 6-feet. Guess what? He wasn’t even drafted. This year, Murray moved on to Fargo in the United States Hockey League and (predictably in our view) has become the best goalie in that league. But which USHL goaltenders are NHL scouts buzzing about? Keith Petruzzelli, Cayden Primeau, and Maksim Zhukov. What do they have in common? All are 6-foot-3 or taller.

Last May, Pittsburgh won the Stanley Cup behind the play of a rookie netminder who, coincidentally, also happened to be named Matt Murray. That Matt Murray was 6-foot-4. And you know what? That made him the first netminder over the height of 6-foot-2 in nearly a quarter of a century (since Tom Barrasso in 1992) to win the Stanley Cup.

Yes, you read that correctly. Despite seemingly every goalie drafted over the past decade being somewhere between 6-foot-4 and 6-foot-7, none of them had previously carried a team to the Stanley Cup.

At RLR, we did a little research, and here’s what we found. From 1993-2015 (23 seasons), six goalies who were 6-feet or shorter won a total of seven Stanley Cups (Dominik Hasek, Chris Osgood, Tim Thomas, Mike Richter, Ed Belfour, Mike Vernon). Six different goalies who measured in at 6-foot-1 won a total of 11 Cups (Martin Brodeur, Jonathan Quick, Cam Ward, J.S. Giguere, Corey Crawford, Nikolai Khabibulin). And another three goalies who were 6-foot-2 won a total of five Cups (Patrick Roy, Marc-Andre Fleury, Antti Niemi).

Has the thinking around the league become so narrow-minded that no one can allow for even thepossibility that a 6-foot netminder might actually be a better athlete, and better goalie, than a 6-foot-6 block of stone?

Unfortunately, we think we know the answer. We’re living in a world where Conn Smythe Trophy winners (Thomas, Vernon) and Hall of Famers (Belfour, Hasek) would never even be considered in the draft.

The NHL draft is June 23-24 in Chicago.

Rising:

MacKenzie Entwistle (Hamilton) — Never going to be a big scorer, but his combo of great size, skating abilty, and fundamentally sound game stamp him as a winner.

Keith Petruzzelli (Muskegon) — Huge netminder was terrific at the USHL top prospects game, and has been gaining steam the last two months.

Nate Schnarr (Guelph) — Big center provides strength down the middle and is the straw that stirs the drink in Guelph.

Owen Tippett (Mississauga) — We think he put on too much soft weight that is affecting his skating, and he’s a one-trick pony. But he’s got 41 goals! 41! In 53 games.

Conor Timmins (Sault Ste. Marie) — Stud offensive blueliner was an afterthought heading into the season, but has worked his way up into serious first round consideration.

Falling:

Marcus Davidsson (Djurgården) — We’ve always liked him, but his offensive production has been curiously down this season, and he’s got to score and create to be effective.

Artyom Minulin (Swift Current) — We rarely allow a glorified exhibition like the Canadian Hockey League Prospects Game to affect our rankings, but his outing there really called into question his ability to handle fast pace and quick decision making.

Off the Record — News-'n-Notes from  around the scouting community

No player in Minnesota is seeing their draft stock rise faster than Bloomington Jefferson defenseman Noah Ganske. The combination of having just moved from forward back to the blue line this past Fall, plus still growing into his almost 6-foot-6 frame means that Ganske is still quite raw. However, college, junior and pro scouts have started to take note of his sky-high upside. Playing on an under-the-radar Bloomington Jefferson team, a lot of scouts are considering him a diamond in the rough at this point, but that is likely to change.

As one might expect from a converted forward, Ganske is quite skilled and looks for opportunities to jump into the play.  He also possesses impressive mobility in all directions. He utilizes quick stop-and-starts to evade forecheckers in his own zone.  Ganske is also quite lethal from the point on the power play, and his big slap shot intimidates goalies across the state.

We’d like to say the kid is one of our Red Line sleeper specials, but the cat may already be out of the bag on this one.

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Kamloops goalie Dylan Ferguson stepped up and turned in a very impressive December and January with Connor Ingram off at the world juniors for Canada. Ferguson was named Western Hockey League goaltender of the month for December and posted an impressive 6-3-0-1 record with a 2.44 goals-against average and a sparkling .933 save percentage. He posted 40-plus saves in multiple games and even won himself starts into January with Ingram on the bench.

Ferguson is a sturdy 6-foot-2, 195-pounder who covers the net well and has an above average glove hand with quick reflexes and good cross-crease movement. He has developed good rebound control and sees the puck well through traffic. With the stud veteran Ingram in his final season, it will be interesting to see if the Blazers continue to give Ferguson near-equal time down the stretch to develop as their future No. 1.

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RLR’s chief scout attended last month’s Northwood Prep tournament ostensibly to watch a trio of forwards: Northwood’s Jon Dugan and the St. Andrews College duo of Corey Andonovski and Morgan Barron.

But in true scouting curveball fashion, he wound up being most impressed by St. Andrews blueliner Ryan O’Connell. The dynamic skating BU recruit tries way too many high risk puck-handling plays because he knows he can get away with them at this level. But you can’t teach the kind of skating agility, hands and offensive instincts he has. He jumps up into the rush constantly and forces play aggressively.  nd his great footwork prevents him from getting beat one-on-one defensively.

O’Connell is a wild young colt, but he deserves as much attention as his more highly touted teammates.