We are going to do a mixed review again, with 2009 Heroes and Prospects and 2009 Between the Pipes. Let’s take a look at Between the Pipespack number 2:
Turk Broda – Greats of the Game – Turk played almost his whole career with the Toronto Maple Leafs, except for one season with Detroit Olympiques. He finished his career with a record of 302-224/2.53 and 62 shut outs. He won 5 Stanley Cups and the Vezina Cup twice. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1967 and is generally considered to be in the top 100 players in NHL history.
Corey Crawford – Blackhawks – 2003 – 2nd round – Corey is actually a pretty solid goalie. The problem is that he is splitting time with Antti Niemi, who is also quite a good goalie in his own right. Last season he went 29-19-5/2.83 with 3 shutouts. This season he was 22-20-3/2.59 with nearly a 92% save percentage. He and Niemi will be fighting for the backup spot next season, he deserves a break, he’s ready now.
Thomas McCollum – Red Wings – 2008 – 1st round – The Red Wings seem to have a never ending supply of great goalies and Thomas is one more of them. This season, his last in the juniors he finished with a record of 10-2-1 with a 90.3% save percentage. Look for him in the AHL next season and he will be leaned on more to play in more games.
Tony Esposito – Greats of the Game – He played the majority of his career with the Blackhawks and put up a career record of 423-306/2.92 with 76 career shutouts. He is a 3 time Vezina Cup winner and holds the record for most shut outs in a rookie season with 15. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and is considered one of the best goalies of all time.
Now for the 16th pack of Heroes and Prospects:
Benoit Pouliot – LW – Wild -2004 – round 1 – He was the 4th overall pick in the draft that year. Since then he has been shifting between Houston and Minnesota. Last year he put up 10-14-24 in 46 games. Not exactly the numbers he was putting up in the juniors, but he is coming along. This year he put up 14-21-33 in split time between the two clubs. He may never pan out to be the player they were hoping for, but he’s still young.
Mitch Wahl – C – Flames – 2008 – 2nd round – He is finishing up his years in the juniors this year and finished with 32-35-67 in 65 games. Not bad at all, look for him in the AHL next season. Still he is a few years away from making the line in Calgary.
Stefan Chaput – C – Hurricanes – 2006 – 5th round – After putting up great numbers for the Maineiacs last year, 33-36-69 in 62 games, he started the year with the Albany River Rats. He had some injury issues this year and only appeared in 15 games. He put up nice numbers though with a 4-7-11 statline.
Jamie Arniel – C – Bruins – 2008 – 4th round – Last season with the Sarnia Sting and the Geulph Storm he went 27-20-47 in 60 games. This season he played the whole season with Sarnia and went 32-36-69 in 63 games. Pretty damn good, but not good enough to crack the Bruins rotations. Look for him in Providence next year.
Justin Azevedo – C – Kings – 2008 – 6th round – Last year for the Kitchener Rangers he was an All Star. He went 43-81-124 in 67 games, this year he played for AHL Manchester and put up a respectible 12-24-36 in just 49 games. He is going to probably be in Manchester another year before cracking the Kings lineup.
Pack Ratings – 3.0/5.0 – not too bad, a lot of long term prospects, but the 2 legends in the BTP pack were a fun find.
God are those BTP cards nice looking. I’d prefer if all of the GOTG were black and white, or sepia though, even if it’s someone who retired last year.