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Goalie Issue 2022
In our annual Goalie Issue, we have features on key NHLers Oettinger, Fleury, Talbot, Binnington, Markstrom, Shesterkin and Vasilevskiy, plus profiles on Kassidy Sauve and Ann-Renee Desbiens from the women's game. Also in the issue: a history of goalie goals, Part 2 of our look at the WHA's legacy as the league celebrates its 50th birthday, and we introduce the 'real' Ogie Oglethorpe.
METRO DIVISION
His time with Carolina has been limited, but PYOTR KOCHETKOV has already made an impact with his infectious personality – even if a giggling Andrei Svechnikov is the only one who fully comprehends his Russian teammate. Kochetkov, 23, first came on the radar after a standout performance at the 2019 world juniors when he was named the tourney’s top goalie, and his transition to North America has been seamless, winning a Calder Cup and even seeing some emergency NHL playoff duty with the Canes. DANIIL TARASOV was a well-known quantity when the Blue Jackets drafted him in 2017, but it was still some good forecasting by the team since the Russian netminder had missed all of his draft year after having a growth removed from his leg. What he did have…
REKINDLING THE FLAME
AMID ALL THE DRAMATIC team announcements this summer, one stood alone as the most significant to Jacob Markstrom as he took everything in from his home in Sweden. It wasn’t the departure of Johnny Gaudreau on Day 1 of free agency. It wasn’t the news that Matthew Tkachuk wouldn’t sign a long-term deal with the Calgary Flames. Nor was it the late-night call across the Atlantic from GM Brad Treliving, who wanted to pick Markstrom’s brain about adding Jonathan Huberdeau as part of the trade with Florida that quickly followed. It wasn’t even the massive addition of Nazem Kadri as a late free-agency coup. For the 32-year-old Flames netminder, the summer headliner was the revelation he and his partner, Amanda, are expecting a baby boy. “It was good,” Markstrom said after a…
ATLANTIC DIVISION
The Bruins’ management will only have to drive 50 miles south to see their top two goaltending prospects this season, with 24-year-old BRANDON BUSSI playing for their AHL team and PHILIP SVEDEBACK starting his college career at Providence. Bussi, who signed as a free agent out of Western Michigan last season, played the tail end of the 2021-22 season with the AHL Bruins. Svedeback, 20, joins the Friars after leaving Sweden to play last season in the USHL. Both goalies are big, mobile and talented. If UKKO-PEKKA LUUKKONEN and DEVON LEVI ever do make up the Sabres’ goaltending tandem, they’ll arrive in Buffalo with a ton of hardware. The 23-year-old Luukkonen, who appeared in nine NHL games last year, was the OHL’s goalie and player of the year in 2018-19, the…
THE COUNTDOWN
THE NARRATIVE FOR NHL goaltending has changed dramatically since the turn of the century, and the vocation has evolved into a job-sharing program. Back in 1998-99, when there were 27 teams, 18 of them started their No. 1 goalie in at least 70 percent of their games. The other nine teams had a 1A-1B setup, a 50-50 workload or the starter got injured and didn’t hit the 70-percent cutoff. Fast-forward to the 32-team current NHL, and it’s amazing to see just five teams had starters make it to that 70-percent starts threshold – Juuse Saros, Connor Hellebuyck, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Jacob Markstrom and Thatcher Demko. That means 27 teams used a shared-workload system or at least a lighter regimen for the main man. When have you ever heard of a Vezina winner –…
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