3 Maple Leafs land shockingly high on goalie prospect rankings
With the Maple Leafs appearing to be among the league's best in terms of goaltending pipelines, we can only hope they don't blow it.
Igor Shesterkin, Jake Oettinger, Ilya Sorokin, Thatcher Demko, Connor Hellebuyck, Jeremy Swayman, Andrei Vasilevskiy, and Jusse Saros. What do these goaltenders have in common besides their elite ability to stop pucks? All of these incredible, elite netminders were drafted and developed by the teams they play for.
In today's NHL, elite netminders don't get moved until they aren't elite any more. The only way to get one is by giving up a massive package or paying big bucks in UFA and hoping their best days aren't behind them. The Leafs haven't developed a true number one goalie since Felix Potvin, but it appears as though that is about to change.
Based off of public rankings by NHLRankKing.com, the Leafs have 3 goalies among the top 25 prospects in the NHL.
Joseph Woll rounds out the top 5, beating out Devon Levi, Arthur's Silovs and Joel Hofer. Dennis Hildeby ranks 17th, and Artur Akhtyamov 24th. Woll is obviously a starter quality netminder when he's healthy. Hildeby has shown great promise in the AHL this season, but isn't quite ready to make the jump to the NHL yet. Akhtyamov has impressed overseas, but time will tell whether his game will translate to North American ice, his .921sv% in 17 KHL games last season is impressive though.
Now of course with these rankings being done by public vote, they can easily be skewed by the size of Leafs Nation. Having the largest fanbase means that any type of public vote can easily be influenced by the popular vote. Having said that, this is a prospect specific site, and most people who pride themselves on being prospect experts do their utmost to avoid being called biased towards their favourite team.
What we do have to go on is what these three have done since being drafted, and all three have been more than good enough to warrant the hype they've been receiving. I can't remember the Leafs having prospects this good since they had both Justin Pogge and Tuukka Rask under their control. Let's hope this time they get it right!
| POLL | ||
MAI 20 | 528 ANSWERS 3 Maple Leafs land shockingly high on goalie prospect rankings Who is the Leafs' goalie of the future? | ||
| Joseph Woll | 205 | 38.8 % |
| Dennis Hildeby | 135 | 25.6 % |
| Artur Akhtyamov | 71 | 13.4 % |
| Someone else | 117 | 22.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
