Who would have thought Carter Hutton would have risen to 3rd goaltender on the Blackhawks Depth Chart at the start of the year. He was nothing more than an ECHL fodder signing. Really strong year in the AHL.
I'd start Hutton against the Devils. See what he can do
It's a good idea to give him a shot and maybe if he doesn't do so well it'll boost Crawford's confidence, maybe not. We saw how badly we move the puck with Keith out so goaltending the next four games needs to be pretty good.
I would say start Hutton against NJ butonly if we can make sure it doesn't hurt Crawfords confidence anymore then it has already been hurt by being pulled, we need him now and have to handle him with kid gloves.
As for Emery upper body injury? So is that concussion code, did Webers shot hit him in the head?
I am not interested in "developing" goalies. You can't trust him not to fall apart (like Crawford, Reimer, and many others before them) as teams scout him out and identify trends and weaknesses and once they do, that entire season is a waste.
We got away with it with Niemi with a stacked team. Established is the way to go.
Not sure if you realise this,but those established goalies you prefer had to develop first.
Seriously tho,the Hawks problem isn't developing goalies,it's evaluating them.The last time I remember them drafting a top-notch tender was Hasek in 83.They then showed more smarts by signing an undrafted Belfour in 87.They then decided Belfour was the better goalie and traded away Hasek.Yeah Belfour was good,really good,but Hasek was outstanding.Another evaluation fail !
IMO,developing your own talent is the way to go.However this requires your scouts being competent and historically the Hawks scouts have not been very good at judging goalies.
Not sure if you realise this,but those established goalies you prefer had to develop first.
Seriously tho,the Hawks problem isn't developing goalies,it's evaluating them.The last time I remember them drafting a top-notch tender was Hasek in 83.They then showed more smarts by signing an undrafted Belfour in 87.They then decided Belfour was the better goalie and traded away Hasek.Yeah Belfour was good,really good,but Hasek was outstanding.Another evaluation fail !
IMO,developing your own talent is the way to go.However this requires your scouts being competent and historically the Hawks scouts have not been very good at judging goalies.
Can we not do the Belfour Hasek thing, Belfour is a HOF goalie and possibly one of the top 10 goalies of all time, so keeping him over Hasek is a very minimal mistake. Plus that staff hasn't been on this team in 20 years.
Simple put the current Hawks management staff doesn't value goaltending enough. The fact that they weren't willing to give 3.5 million to Niemi who just lead them to a Cup but where willing to spend that to keep Hammer who was a 5th Dman shows that.
Hammer was a lot more than a 5th defensemen. He was one of our better players during the cup run. His game regressed a bit since his suspension early last season though.
Can we not do the Belfour Hasek thing, Belfour is a HOF goalie and possibly one of the top 10 goalies of all time, so keeping him over Hasek is a very minimal mistake. Plus that staff hasn't been on this team in 20 years.
Simple put the current Hawks management staff doesn't value goaltending enough. The fact that they weren't willing to give 3.5 million to Niemi who just lead them to a Cup but where willing to spend that to keep Hammer who was a 5th Dman shows that.
Was merely pointing out that the Hawks have a long history of misjudging goalies that continues to this day.The staff may have changed but the crappy evaluations haven't.
Side note-Belfour a top 10 of all time ?? No he's not,might not even be top 20.
