Since his selection at 38th overall in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, Josh Harding has been dubbed by most as the "goaltender of the future" of the Wild. After Dwayne Roloson was traded to the Oilers, Harding was called up from the Wild's AHL affiliate and started a few games. He played very well in those games and was penciled in as Manny's back-up for 2006-07.
But now Harding's status is not so clear. Kristofer Westblom has been getting a fair share of playing time in the ongoing prospects camp and has performed admirably. Westblom played in the WHL last season and posted an impressive 16-6-1 record with a 2.67 GAA. Besides Harding and Westblom, the Wild also have Miroslav Kopriva and Niko Hovinen in the system.
The future is a ways off, however. Barring a sudden onset of sieve-itis, Manny should be the main goaltender and start 60 plus games for the next 3 years.
3 comments:
It seems like you can never have enough good goaltending when you need it, then they suddenly get good, and you have too much. San Jose, Buffalo, hmm... who else... hmmm....
Oh, I know, Minnesota a few years back.
Waht a nice burden to have.
As silly as this statement sounds, I'm a big Budaj guy. The times I've seen him (granted only twice) he's been better than average.
My problem with him is his rebounds. I'm jumping on a little bit of a bandwagon here, but he needs to work on it. Hopefully, the new goalie coach will help.
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