Coveting the Goalie

As the draft came along this year and I looked at where we have holes in our system, my natural instinct was to worry more about goaltending than the rest of it. We have Anton Khudobin as our only legit prospect and I'm not sure he'll be an NHL-caliber goalie. Of course, my darling Brusty is the next Roy, but I'm not sure the organization sees it like I do.

As a result, I did a little investigating of the top goalies in the draft hoping the Wild would pick one of them somewhere down the line. The top two were Chet Pickard and Tom McCollum, and it was an easy choice for me after watching some scouting footage which goalie I could love more and would want to watch more. McCollum is a good goalie but... meh.

Pickard, on the other hand, was dynamic and athletic and snappy and aggressive and awesome. Come to mama! Of course, "mama" turned out to be Nashville, those saber-toothed bastards. Okay, not really bastards; I kinda like that team and don't have a problem with players I like going there, as opposed to going to the Ducks or some ass-clown club like that.

So, it was delightful to find this great interview (jump to page 17) with him in the Goalie News online edition. Man, talk about a kid with poise and maturity and a good head on his shoulders. Between him and the Blues giant goalie prospect, Ben Bishop, my goalie interest continues to spread around the league. It won't be long before I can't decide who to root for in any non-Wild, non-Stars match-up because everybody will have goalies I like.

We never did draft a goalie, so it seems the Wild are looking at goalies Cody St. Jacques (who played in Guelph behind McCollum last season but was traded to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds this summer) and Steven Stanford, who had unimpressive numbers for Prince George last season. Not seeing much there. Plus, both guys were only born in 1990, which means they're only 18 and couldn't play pro yet anyway. I dunno.