Hey Justin. Doing some heavy duty scouting for the last picks of my draft and I intend to take Bachman with my next pick. However, I've also decided to drop Pogge and pick up another player after the draft is done. I'll shop Pogge first to see what I can get for him (we have a Leafs nut in the league, he actually drafted Jeff Finger in the 2nd round last year) but I don't expect that to go anywhere, so dropsy he goes.
I've been looking at Lalande and Curry, but frankly I don't like their situations. I'm a little too impatient for them to be stuck behind so much quality that I'm thinking I might as well swing for the home run longer term. I already have a bunch of goalies that will be viable in a year or two anyway.
I also looked over the different NHL teams and their goalie pipelines, and then I looked at the teams that aren't drafted heavily in my league and came to one conclusion:
I want Joacim Eriksson. Or Nicola Riopel. Riopel apparently looked good in Philly's prospects camp the other day and Eriksson is close behind Markström here in Sweden. Now obviously I wouldn't mind getting another Swedish goalie on my team, especially one that's very talented and seems to be molded for the North American game. But I want to get as good a read as possible on Riopel too.
I've already read your prospects goalie series on them, of course I was a little surprised to find that Riopel wasn't featured in Dobber's recent prospects guide.
Or I scrap the goalie thing and get another rightwinger, but that's not as fun
Love your train of thought with your decision to drop Pogge and draft another goaltender. You just rid yourself of one of the biggest prospect flops in recent history. LOL.
This is a good question...Eriksson or Riopel...both Flyers prospects.
For some reason this question seems pretty difficult on the surface, but one major aspect brings me to the conclusion that Nicola Riopel might be a better fit for your situation and your team.
Technique-wise, both of them are solid fundamentally, with Riopel having the edge in the quickness and foot speed department. Eriksson has the advantage in the size and stature department (only slightly from the various sources I'm looking at). Both goalies are pretty small compared to those behemoth goalies every GM loves. I would say Eriksson has a bigger presence in the net, but Riopel has the more efficient footwork, which makes him more mobile and agile in the crease. Again, it's only slightly and it's not a major difference that would flat-out make me choose one over the other. They are both solid propsects developing their game correctly and with success.
So you have a pretty black and white decision to make. You mentioned you were a little impatient with Curry/Lalande because of their situations being behind good goalies.
When I read that, it makes me think that you are looking for someone that will produce at the NHL level fairly quickly. In that regards, you'll want to go with Riopel. He has already played the last two seasons in the beastly QMJHL and has garnered some excellent awards and recognition.
Eriksson has stayed in Sweden, which is the right and smart thing to do. But he is behind Markstrom, which means his games played and minutes logged are nowhere near Riopel. So it's safe to say that Eriksson, although he's close in talent, is not on the same set of tracks as Riopel. Eriksson could be a better long-term solution, but if you are looking for results, expect them to come from Riopel first.
Personally I also like Riopel better than Eriksson. But that's because I'm more of a fan of agility and flexibility than I am size and stature.
Hope that helps!!! Smart moves on your behalf ... great strategy to look at each organization's depth charts.
Actually I can be pretty patient with this goalie as I already have guys like Elliott and Varlamov being viable soon. So I'm pretty set for the near future.
You should also know that Joacim Eriksson has switched teams to Leksand, so like Anders Lindbäck now in Timrå, he's not behind Markström in Brynäs anymore. He'll tandem with a veteran 33 year old named Timo Leinonen, probably stealing the starter spot. I see this as the perfect time to take him before he blossoms and he gets on people's radars.
Another thought I had was to grab Sexsmith and see how he fares when introduced to the pro game in Worcester. If he can handle it, I can stay with him and secretly sit on Eriksson. If he botches it, I dump him and grab Eriksson
i was never very impressed with sexsmith. decent goalie who benefitted from playing behind a strong team and excellent defensive coaching. there is a reason why he never got a sniff from team canada when it came time for WJC choices.
And weirdly enough he's ranked as the highest Sharks goalie prospect right now on Hockey's Future, ahead of Greiss and Säteri. He's got a rare B ranking as well, meaning that he's a fairly sure thing, according to them. I swear, I could kill someone for the randomness of that rating structure/system sometimes.
Alright, screw Sexsmith... I'll see how this plays out. Leaning towards Eriksson of course, since I'm a bit Swedish biased but I'll try to dig up some more Riopel stuff.
HF is terribly inconsistent with their rankings system for goalies, but at the same time everyone knows how tough it can be to rank goalie prospects. I like their website for the positional and technical analysis and I definitely like it for the European goalies.
Sentium, feel confident with your decisions. I loved what you said about grabbing Eriksson now before he takes off with his new team. That alone makes it a smart move to grab him while you have the chance....before he could break out and everyone wants him!!!
Go with Eriksson. Don't worry about Sexsmith...he's good but I'm not sold on him yet like I am on some of the others.
Yeah, I've found that first instincts are usually the best ones. Eriksson it is.
Btw, the most hilarious thing about HF and their rankings is that it varies from team to team since each team has its own HF writer. Phoenix usually gets a bunch of 8 level prospects, while other teams regularly undersell their guys. Their depth charts also leaves a lot to be desired usually. I also noticed something weird when I read through a bunch of reports written by the guy who covers Pittsburgh. He seems to get off on size. He couldn't gush enough about how big of a man machine Eric Tangradi is, etc. I was sitting there reading and caught myself thinking "alright, let's get to the actual skills... any day now...".
HF is a nice complement, should definitely not be taken as gospel. No source should, for that matter
Small update: Eriksson has two shutouts in three games so far in the preseason and have looked a lot better than the veteran he's split starts with this season. He's trained a bit with Johan Hedberg this summer and Hedberg has watched the games saying that Eriksson has great fundamentals and doesn't buckle under pressure late in games.
Even though I didn't pick him up now, I'm definitely going to keep an eye on him.
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Your take on Joacim Eriksson and Nicola Riopel?
I was a little surprised to find that Riopel wasn't featured in Dobber's recent prospects guide.
but I'll try to dig up some more Riopel stuff.
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