Excellent point by Brian Burke and a Re-Evaluation of our Drafting Strategies
 

It may be that our greatest drafting problems will be solved for us in the new CBA. I was looking at the draft thread below and there was a lot of debate as to whether or not to take a young goalie in the first round. With the new CBA in place I'm opposed to taking any goalie before the 4th round unless they're the consensus number 1 or 2 and will be in the NHL within 2 years. As Brian Burke said, with the age of UFA status dropping dramatically over the next 6 years, by the time a goalie comes into his prime (26 or 27) he will be elidgable for UFA status. This means that all those guys who've been sitting around as backups, just waiting to break into starter status, will be UFAs for us to sign. It has come to a point where it makes sense to sign a goalie who is undrafted that you think highly of rather than draft him, get 2-3 years of him being a backup or partial starter, and have him blossom somewhere else. Whereas with quality forwards and defensemen you can get upwards of 5 years of service before they become UFAs, with goaltenders they will be coming into their prime at the time they become available to us for the grabbing. Therefore I propose that this year we focus on our defense and centremen, as always going with the BPA. I'm against drafting goalies unless the clear-cut BPA is a goaltender. In that case I wholeheartedly endorse signing them. But let's face it, Carey Price and Tukka Rask are not heralded as MA Fluery, Kari Lehtonen, or Rick DiPietro. I would be afraid that we'd only be developing these goaltenders as opposed to seeing them star for us which is a situation we want to avoid.

My .02,

T2M

The only problem I see is, you won't have a #1 goaltender. If you're satisfied with that situation going forward, then no problem. However, if you want to win some games over the course of the next several seasons you better find yourself a #1 netminder. Garon is NOT the real deal...not yet, maybe never.

I think T2M is right...sort of.

Goalies will likely be UFA's at about age 28. The guys who would be UFA's at age 26 or 27 would need to have joined the NHL at age19 or 20. What goalies do that? Not many. Most play in juniors until 20 and then the AHL for a couple seasons. In fact, several have played in college until they're 22 or 23.

The real problem I see coming from this is the older draftees...or kids who decide to go to college will be assets to the team for much shorter times. Noah Clarke for example will be a 28 year old UFA in just two years. TWO YEARS!!! And he's hardly had a chance to prove anything to the Kings. Joe Corvo would ALREADY be a UFA.

So teams are going to probaby push kids into the NHL a little later in some cases and a little earlier in other cases. Likely star-but not superstar-prospects like Cammy and Dustin Brown will probably be held out a little longer so teams can keep their rights a little longer. But other guys like Clarke and Corvo will need to be tested ALOT faster so the teams can either get some useful time from them...or trade them.

But that still doesn't alter the fact that the Kings won't have a #1 in net unless they draft one or trade for one. If the issue is draft v. trade then OK. But they'll need a goalie, however they elect to acquire one.

Personally, if the goalie isn't rated in the top five picks of the draft, than I wouldn't waste my time, especially with the new UFA age being put in place. Plus the Kings never really go after a "need" with their first pick the past five years. They always go after the best player available at that time. I don't think we'll change that method. Rounds three through seven maybe they can start looking for needs. But I agree with the first post, that goalies need the most time to develop. I would much rather go the trade route or UFA route.
I'm just hoping that we're in the top ten of drafting this year!

I think we should just given Garon a chance. He didn't have all that bad a year down in the AHL.

You're right but the thing is that under the new system, drafting a goalie won't likely get you a #1 in net anyway...........so why draft one very high?

Well, yes and no. He started strong but his play weakened as the season went along. By the playoffs you didn't know what you were going to get in net. In the closing games of the season, into the playoffs, he was pulled 3 times (I think) in the first period, two of those within something like the first 5 minutes of play!

Certainly he can be chosen to start for the Kings, but based upon last season - facing AHL caliber shots at that, not NHL caliber shots - he won't perform as well as you'd like and you'll end up souring on him instead.