Jonas Gustavsson's Fantasy Impact

Discuss it here!

Bachman is poised to back up Turco. I don't think Dallas should sign a veteran backup. Their history proves going with their prospects is the best way to go.

I also wanted to post that I am going to love watching a Swede and Finn duke it out this season on the same team ... and see how that plays a role in the Olympics...and their overall play.

If I were Brian Burke, I would seriously consider letting them duke it out the entire year and just ride the hot goalie. No guarantees, no expectations...just let them battle it out in practice and in games.

I can't continue to stress the importance of the Olympics on goalies vying for a spot on their respective teams.

Is it September yet?

HAHA, I was just thinking the same thing. I can't wait to see how many games "THE MONSTER" starts.

Other things I am looking forward to aswell are:

How will Turco will bounce back after last seasons down year?
How many games will Raycroft actually play in with Luongo infront of him?
Is this the year Nabby gets hurt?
How will Price do with all those midgets up front in Montreal?
Will Rask start 15-20 games for Boston?
The goalie carousel in Anahiem?
Emery in Philly, wowzers.
Detroit goalie situation? Ouch..

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Zorro says "vote for Dobber"
Angus is my best friend at dobberhockey..
Bruins believer since BIRTH..
Fav player: Cam Neely..

Nice post Zorro, my thoughts to your queries are as follows...

Turco will bounce back, and Dallas will be a better team overall.
Raycroft...I know Canucks nation is praying big LU, doesn't hurt himself again.
Nabby will get hurt this season, he can't keep up the iron man streak.
Price has to wrestle his own demons/confidence, I don't think the midgets will matter.
Rask will get his shot, at 15 games or so.
It will only be a carousel in Anaheim, until Bob Murray can find a taker for Giggy, who will be moved.
Emery big risk/reward candidate, I say he shines in Philly.
Osgood/Howard combo...good enough. The team infront of them is tremendous, and will hide a lot of shortcomings.

Can't wait to drop the puck!

Puck

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'To be is to do' - Socrates....'To do is to be '- Sartre..........
'To do be do be do' - Sinatra.

And just when we were talking about Bachman getting the backup job...

http://starsblog.dallasnews.com/arch...s-mess-up.html

Apparently, they are looking for a backup and have already done their homework:

He (Nieuwendyk) said they have done their homework on several goalies who could be backups, and now have to work the negotiations with the goalie they like best. Again, the team is on a budget, so the negotiations could take a few days. Some goalies are waiting for bigger offers and the Stars want to get a goalie at the right price.

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24GMs Dynasty (G A +- PIM PPP SOG W SV GAA / 4C, 4LW, 4RW, 6D, 1G)
Cap hit: $1188 out of $1250

C-Malkin $157,Schwartz $5,Granlund $5,Shaw $5,Rinaldo $5,Cervenka $5,Schroeder $5,Galchenyuk $5
LW-Hartnell $136,Nash $115,Leino $29,Kulemin $49,Gagne $32,Paajarvi $5,MFoligno $5,Joensuu $5
RW-Brown $115,Jagr $14,Grabner $40,Gallagher $5,Knight $5,Radulov $5
D-Karlsson $105,Edler $83,McDonagh $18,Bogosian $27,Mitchell $22,REllis $5,Salvador $5,Hamilton $5
G-Halak $127,Montoya $24,Bishop $5,Fasth $5,Allen $5

I watched the press conference with Brian Burke today and a few other videos about Gustavsson and it had a ton extremely insightful information in them.

http://mapleleafs.nhl.tv/team/consol...d=802&id=44728

Watch the first half of Burke's press conference, watch the first 5:00 of the second half and then watch the Corey Hirsch interview from a few days earlier!!!

There were a few things I found very interesting:

1. Burke's label and idea behind the "B-Plus" goalie. I've NEVER heard that term before, but it is an interesting way to describe what I would call an elite "tight butterfly" goalie. You could also consider it a goalie that uses the "Flybrid" style with very quick reflexes. Flybrid is more of a combination of the original hybrid style and the tight butterfly (butterfly+hybrid=flybrid).

Flybrid is a populae style in the NHL right now, as over the last two to three seasons a number of goalie coaches have come out with everything from camps to videos about it.

To me the "B-Plus" term also describes the following goalies:

Jonas Hiller (he is mentioned by Burke)
Roberto Luongo
J-S Giguere
Marc-Andre Fleury
Mathieu Garon
Ilya Bryzgalov
Steve Mason
Pascal Leclaire
Tuukka Rask
Craig Anderson (fringe B+)

Some others could possibly be considered B-Plus goalies, but the ones above are the best of the best right now.

2. It was funny to see how open Burke was about being persistent with Jonas and hounding literally almost hounding him to come to Toronto. That was pretty awesome...just shows you how much hype this goalie has right now and how highly he's regarded by Toronto's coaching staff.

3. Corey Hirsch is probably a pretty happy guy right now. He gets to learn from Francois Allaire and work with Jonas Gustavsson and Vesa Toskala...that's sweet. What he said about Gustavsson should remind you of many School of Block sessions...PATIENCE!

How patient Gustavsson can be mentally will play a major role in how smooth his transition is. They don't expect him to stop every puck or win every game, but learn from every experience and develop as much as possible under Allaire.

His references to a "healthy" Toskala seem a little misleading. He's healthy, but he also hasn't played since what...the trade deadline? I would say a RUSTY Toskala is more adequate. Everyone that hits the ice in training camp is healthy......

I also loved how Burke understood the major difference between Lundqvist and Gustavsson. Again, this is something I've pointed out on here many times...Lundqvist is a freak of nature because he plays SOO deep in his crease and has SUCH A WIDE STANCE that he can get away with it. So even though they're both Swedes, their games are nothing alike. Only Lundqvist can get away with wearing pads that have 5" thigh-rises.....well now they are restricted to 3" but you know what I'm saying.

So besides CONFIDENCE between the two goalies, PATIENCE is also another extremely important thing to watch. Not only period-to-period and game-to-game but over the course of the season.

Statistically and fantasy-wise, you can translate all of this however you want. I would say Dobber's analysis is very close to what I expect to see, maybe a slight bit lower depending on who his opponents are.

This stuff like patience and confidence matter in the fantasy realm because he could start off extremely hot and win a bunch of games on sheer talent, but run freezing cold after that. He could be up and down or he could be horrible all year. So watch for these warning signs in training camp. You don't want another Raycroft (8-game win streak, 6-game losing streak) stinking up your roster.

So does this include Tobias Stephan the backup last year? Cuz that worked out awesome...

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See Mike Smith, Marty Turco, Dan Ellis, Manny Fernandez etc

Stephan was in the system for maybe three full seasons ... obviously wasn't their best prospect ... but have still churned out some very good ones as you can see