JDD!
In the long history of the Edmonton Oilers, drafting goalies is not a strong area for the team. Early on they selected Andy Moog and Grant Fuhr but after that it’s been a long list of backups, cups of coffee and epic failures.
I don’t know anyone who would reasonably argue the Oildrop have been even average in this area since the very early 1980s.
In the Kevin Prendergast draft era (2001-07), the Oilers devoted two high picks on goalies and the first one (selected in 2002) finally reached the show last night.
And he won. His SP is sub-900 but let’s be real here save percentage is a stat we can look at over a period of games to establish value.
Back when he was drafted, Redline said nice things about him:
Movement this good is rarely seen in 6-4 netminders. He exudes tremendous confidence, communicating with defensemen and taking charge around net like a traffic cop. Has outstanding reflexes and anticipation, and is very well balanced in his stance. Very positive body language and is big enough to cover top corners when down in butterfly. He isn’t as clean or consistent with the glove as you’d like, plays too deep in net, and doesn’t cut off shoot-ins behind the net well yet.
Report Card
Size/Strength: A+
Agility: A
Flexibility: A-
Leg/foot quickness: A
Glove hand: C+
Angles: B
LRebounds: B
Competitiveness: B+
Composure/Poise: A
Let’s look at Deslaurier’s SP and where he ranked in recent AHL seasons:
- 06-07: .908 (tied for 21st)
- 07-08: .912 (tied for 15th)
Deslauriers is already top ten on this list (incredibly) after 1 NHL game:
- Grant Fuhr 1981 (868gp)
- Andy Moog 1980 (713gp)
- Jussi Markkanen 2001 (128gp)
- Mike Morrison 1998 (29gp)
- Darryl Reaugh 1984 (27gp)
- Joacquin Gage 1992 (23gp)
- Mike Greenlay 1986 (2gp)
- Mike Minard 1995 (1gp)
- Adam Hauser 1999 (1gp)
- Jeff Drouin Deslauriers 2002 (1gp)
- Rob Polman-Tuin 1980
- Ian Wood 1982
- Chris Smith 1982
- Dave Roach 1983
- Brian Tessier 1985
- John Haley 1985
- Gavin Armstrong 1987
- Tom Cole 1988
- Greg Louder 1990
- Mike Power 1990
- Andrew Verner 1991
- Evgeny Belosheiken 1992
- Chris Wickenheiser 1994
- Jeremy Jablonski 1994
- John Hultberg 1996
- Patrick Dovigi 1997
- Alexander Fomitchev 1997
- Kristian Antila 1998
- Glenn Fisher 2002
- Devan Dubnyk 2004
- Bjorn Burling 2004
- Bryan Pitton 2006
Finally, a word from the man himself about his first NHL game: “My first game. My first win. You can’t ask for anything better,” said Drouin-Deslauriers. “The guys played unbelievable in front of me. I let in two tough goals, but the guys came back strong for me.”
I didn’t think JDD played a bad game last night: but the first goal was quite bad. I think this kid has a future (but if only as a backup), but I don’t think he would be ready to start more then 20 games. That being said I think last night proved we need to keep Roli (at least until we can see JDD in more games), because if Garon goes down and JDD becomes the starter we are in big trouble.
PS: you folk most likely have already read the post on Covered in Oil but if you haven’t you should. It is very informative to an outsider in hockey circles and put a sour taste in my mouth.
Long live the Oil, Down with self-rightous management.
I can’t speak to the Oilers’ poor handling of the affair, but I do wonder if there’s a rights issue involved. Is live blogging considered a “broadcast” of the game? And thus, is this coming more from rights-holders like CHED and Sportsnet, and the NHL itself?
Good game from JDD last night. Had some nerves, but that was to be expected.
I watched the pre-season tilt with a Flames fan who commented on the quickness of JDD’s glove hand. I replied, just before Garret opened his mouth to say the same thing, that the impressive thing for me was how well JDD gets up and down out of the butterfly for such a big man.
Personally I think that’s his strength, but his glove hand does seem to have come a long way since the Red Line days.
Whereas glove still seems to be Garon’s biggest weakness.
I like the idea of signing Garon to a three/four year contract and have JDD as his backup until he or Dubnyk is ready. I like JDD, he was drafted by a team that really mishandled his development (no AHL team for two years) but he’s stuck it through. I remember watching a couple of games when he was with Chicutimi(sp) and he was the team. Both he and Dubnyk were key components of the teams success (Dubnyk had the worst team team possible until his final year).
What I do notice with the two players is the odd soft goal they will let in that turns the tide of the game.
With Dubnyk I find that he’s excellent until he lets the first goal in, then its “open the flood gates”
GXL
I know is just one game but I’m not sure that barring injury Roloson is going to get another start for the Oilers. You feel for the guy but he’s getting some pretty fat EI cheques.
Calgary is gonna come out guns a blazing tonight. Another big test for the Oil.
I can’t speak to the Oilers’ poor handling of the affair, but I do wonder if there’s a rights issue involved. Is live blogging considered a “broadcast” of the game?
Ask Mike Boone. He does it every game, either from the press box or from his living room at Habs Inside/Out.
I thought JDD’s game was weaker tonight than it was during the last preseason game — he looked a bit shakier and tended to go down early — but I think at least some of that was nerves from the first “real” NHL game. I think the first goal was deflected by Lombardi, though he was never credited, but the second one he should’ve had, no question.
anyone know the status of Souray? I am overseas right now so I can’t get Edmonton media (radio etc.) since I have to read this on a cell phone.
Apparently Pouliot practiced as 2RW today instead of Gagner.
Fuck, MacT. Seriously. Just fuck. Cole is an RW, we now have an opening for a top-6 RW.
Fuck.
Oh, thank God, Gags is DTD… I thought MacT was just shifting the line because he didn’t have a point yet.
is Pouliot ‘crafty’ enough to play with the others on the Kid Line? not a knock on Poo, just a question. guess we’ll wait and see.
i’d be almost temped to put Hemsky with the remaining kids for tonight, and move Penner up with Horc and Cole. that line would be a handful…
Poo has earned that shot.
You know — outside of Hemsky, the closest guy on the team to filling the passing role that Gagner plays is…
Pouliot
“Poo has earned that shot.”
0 points in 3 games and 19 in 81 games clearly warrants a spot on the 2nd line.
The adoration for Pouliot around these parts blows any love for Schremp out of the water.
Meanwhile our leading goal scorer last year and this year remains on the 3rd line.
quote gary b
is Pouliot ‘crafty’ enough to play with the others on the Kid Line? not a knock on Poo, just a question. guess we’ll wait and see.
Poo has played with Crosby before. Shouldn’t be too bad with skilled complements.
Also, your photo reminds me of Eklund’s.
quote spoiler
I watched the pre-season tilt with a Flames fan who commented on the quickness of JDD’s glove hand. I replied, just before Garret opened his mouth to say the same thing, that the impressive thing for me was how well JDD gets up and down out of the butterfly for such a big man.
Personally I think that’s his strength, but his glove hand does seem to have come a long way since the Red Line days.
Whereas glove still seems to be Garon’s biggest weakness.
I think Garon’s strength is his butterfly, to be honest. When JDD is down and out he doesn’t hug the post and he kind of does this thing where he falls over backwards.
JDD is still a really good positional goalie and I think it’s just little things that will make him all that much better.
Garon does seem to have a weak glove hand. Roloson has a great glove hand but a weak blocker side.
Everybody has something they’re best at, though.
JDD seems to share a few characteristics with Garon in size, and atheliticism.
Hopefully he can work on his angles/anticipation. That Moss goal and the Iginla goal in preseason both came from the same spot.
Perhaps JDD has a kink in his technique that he needs to give some attention to. The tools look to be there and working just fine though.
Let’s be perfectly honest – if a real NHL starter is in net then this is a 4-1 hockey game. Nice that the kid got a start and a win but we almost gave the Flame a point or two they had no business getting. This is what he is folks – a .915 career best guy in the AHL who gives up a soft goal regularly. Translate that to the NHL and you get last night – do it often enough and we give up 6-8 points in the final standings. That could mean making the playoffs or missing in any given season in the WC – simply not worth the risk IMHO. Nice to see the kid get the win though.
It was only one game but I didn’t see anything that would lead me to believe that we Don’t still need Roli as insurance if we plan on making a run for the playoffs.
It’s like the man said: can you imagine Garon going down and this kid taking the reins?
We aren’t talking about Carey Price here.
Also interesting to note that he’s still prone to staying too deep in his net after so many games as a pro.
When it comes to the 78 bump, I’m shocked that 51 didn’t get the call. It’s interesting to note that 78′s been on for two GA already and he was money when it came to being low event down the ’08 stretch.
The whole thing about Dave over at CIO leads me to think that someone from ON tipped off the brass about his blogging. I doubt Lowe or Laforge stumbled upon that site but I’m thinking someone from ON tipped them off.
Dennis, 1 of those GA was the 2nd goal Deslauriers gave up. Tough to take anything away from that, it was a completely broken and harmless play.
In the 3 games, Pouliot has badly outchanced the opposition. The numbers will turn for him.
DB: I’m still a 78 guy and he had a really good run down the stretch last year; I believe he was +9/-4 in terms of true plus/minus once he came.
In terms of scoring chances for/against this season thus far, I have him at -5 for the first game and then +5/-4 for the second game.
I haven’t finished looking at the tape of the third game yet but he’s looking Ok thorugh 2 periods.
Granted, him and 51 both look better when Not playing with 33 and 78 was robbed by Hiller the other night in Ana on what should’ve been a goal.
he’s finding his legs and learning that forechecking is what will keep him in the show and I still believe in him.
I am a JDD fan and I think he played fairly poorly on a lot of shots, but at times he played closer to his skill level. I think he was a bit nervous.
Let’s be perfectly honest – if a real NHL starter is in net then this is a 4-1 hockey game.
Good point. There’s no reason someone playing their first ever NHL game might struggle a bit.