He is the best goalie not in the NHL and he is ranked 333 in my espn draft so I am thinking of taking him very late. How many games will he play this year?
If I was a betting man I'd say he's going to play a similar role for the Kings as last season, but with more call-ups. No more than 10-15 games though.
If you can get him 333, that's a steal of major proportions. There's no way he should be rated that late.
Quick has been the go to guy in LA, however, I'm not sold. His save percentage was a mediocre .907 last year. I just figured it out (room for error), but the Kings gave up 27.15 shots per game with Quick in net last year. That's well below the 31 or 32 shots per game given up by the league leaders last year. Over all the Kings play a reasonably responsible defensive game. This generally benefits goaltenders in both goals against average and save percentage. I believe the right guy can push Quick to the bench.
Bernier was wonderful in the AHL last year. Over the years, I have come to believe that a goaltender is ready for the NHL after posting a season of .920 in the AHL. He was .936. That's about as good as it gets. He's been groomed patiently and is NHL ready.
Comparisons (final AHL season). In bold are .918+
Tuuka Rask .915 Craig Anderson .919
Pekka Rinne .909
Jaroslav Halak .929
Ryan Miller .922
Marc-Andre Fleury .901
Jimmy Howard .907
Brian Elliott .926
Pascal Leclaire .915
Chris Mason .921
Ondrej Pavelec .914
Cam Ward .937
Dan Ellis .894 (wow)
Michal Neuvirth .919
Semyon Varlamov .916
Kari Lehtonen .929
Jonathan Quick .919
Ilya Bryzgalov .919
Antero Niitymaki .924
Antti Niemi .913
Certainly a lot of good ones in BOLD. A few good ones didn't get bolded: Fleury, Rask, Rinne. Thus, this isn't fool proof! It is food for thought.
I own Bernier in a keeper and he is tucked on my farm team - I like Ericdaoust don't expect more than maybe 15 starts out of him this year unless there is an injury to Quick.
If you can find a way to protect Bernier for 2011-12 and not need his starts this year, then I would jump on him. He is a good one.