I'm curious about your take on the whole Leighton/Boucher/Bobrovsky dynamic in Philly. Leighton's on the shelf, Bobrovsky has been seeing a lot of ice in the preseason and has posted some pretty spectacular stats in doing so (0.956 SV%, 1.2 GAA). Is this just a case of Laviolette giving an extra long look at Bobrovsky to see what they've got, or is he a legitimate option to get playing time while Leighton is out?
Any thoughts you can share on the situation in the Philly crease would be greatly appreciated.
Hey guys since I am doing a fantasy mailbag every week now, I have to cap questions that are left on Mondays only. If you have a question that falls on a Tuesday or later, just start another thread, otherwise I won't catch it.
I'll try to get to these over the weekend but I have a lot of work to do for the October Scouting Journal.
Otherwise drop them in Monday's School of Block fantasy mailbag and I'll be sure to answer them!! Thanks guys!
Bobrovsky is a legit talent but leaves a lot to be desired up high. He would get eaten alive if he were to start the season with the Flyers.
But I've been learning a lot over the last month about how teams handle their goaltenders, from a number of different pro goalie coaches and writers.
I would expect bobrovsky to start the season with the flyers, backing up boucher. He honestly deserves that opportunity, and Backlund needs to get some conditioning under his belt before he's ready to play with the Flyers.
So Bobrovsky will probably get that chance and he will probably thrive. He is EXTREMELY quick with his feet, much quicker than I ever saw when he played in Russia. As I've been saying for years, footwork is the foundation of good goaltending. And his feet are quicker than most NHL goalies.
But he still has zero NA experience. No matter how quick he is, he will struggle to cover angles up high and back-door plays. Once teams and players understand to shoot high on him, he won't be nearly as effective.
That being said, I think one year in the AHL will allow him to learn how to cover the corners and understand how to read back-door plays, how to play with traffic and bodies around his crease, etc etc. All the things that a goalie in Europe has to learn when coming over to North America.
But damn, does he have some quick feet. And that means he's going to be very good, and probably sooner rather than later.
He jumped from 50-something to the high-30's in the Top-100 Prospects Rankings update for October.
Reply With Quote
