Blues Goalies

[Hockey_Jedi]

I just watched the Blues Digest video on youtube.com. Mark Pye. I know he's not well thought of on this forum, but he does bring up an interesting point. The Blues may need to move Colton Ellis so that they don't lose an asset. He stated Edmonton may not be feeling too good about their goalie situation. The Blues are pretty well set at goalie until Binner is gone. They also state Ellis has had success at every level, which shows that he is projecting towards the NHL. It's not that I want to get rid of an asset, but we have two goalies that are close to being NHL ready. I don't want to see them walk as free agents because there is no real opportunity with the Blues.

[theograce]

If Hofer plays well and the league believes he’s a starter then it will make things interesting very soon.

[danno]

It's kind of an unusual thing for the Blues to have depth at the goaltender position. Its a good problem to have.

Interestingly, all 3 player contacts end after the 26-27 season. I think that's the year that their collective futures with the Blues organeyezation will be determined. I don't see any of these goalies being moved this season unless a player demands a trade or there is a gross overpayment by a desperate team.

[STL fan in MN]

It's kind of an unusual thing for the Blues to have depth at the goaltender position. Its a good problem to have.

Interestingly, all 3 player contacts end after the 26-27 season. I think that's the year that their collective futures with the Blues organeyezation will be determined. I don't see any of these goalies being moved this season unless a player demands a trade or there is a gross overpayment by a desperate team.

Yep. All 3 are signed for 2 more years so no decisions need to be made super soon. Frankly, I was pleasantly surprised the Blues were able to get Ellis to re-sign for 2 more years on a two-way deal ($175k AHL salary this season, $225k next), but they did.

Ellis was voted the T-birds team MVP last season and deservedly so. Very cool, calm and collected. But also, you just don’t know how a guy will fare against NHL shooters until they do. But there’s currently no path for him here unless one of Binner/Hofer get injured. But the kid’s got the goods IMO.

Hopefully the picture becomes clearer on how they should move forward in a year or so.

[IsDurbanodoingtime]

Pye made a salient point that Ellis has dominated(at least excelled) in the leagues he has played in so far. His point about the necessity of a trade was a little confusing in that he seemed to intimate that we risked losing Ellis on waivers and that's why we needed to trade him for Podolzhkin or Savoie stat. Not sure the waiver point is accurate which would then render the rest of his analysis somewhat silly.

[STL fan in MN]

Pye made a salient point that Ellis has dominated(at least excelled) in the leagues he has played in so far. His point about the necessity of a trade was a little confusing in that he seemed to intimate that we risked losing Ellis on waivers and that's why we needed to trade him for Podolzhkin or Savoie stat. Not sure the waiver point is accurate which would then render the rest of his analysis somewhat silly.

Ellis is now waiver eligible so that’s a fair point. Teams tend to not claim goalies with zero NHL experience and then keep that guy on their NHL roster but it’s certainly possible.

That said, I heard earlier in the summer that Bruins prospect goalie Michael DiPietro might be a waiver claim risk so who knows. He has at least a little NHL experience though whereas the closest Ellis has come to date is preseason games.

[DawgDad]

This is summer so anything and everything is open for discussion, but in reality there is no current concern here regarding Ellis. I cannot imagine a scenario where the Blues let him walk for nothing unless he can no longer play or he eventually reaches UFA.

[dhsux]

Pye made a salient point that Ellis has dominated(at least excelled) in the leagues he has played in so far. His point about the necessity of a trade was a little confusing in that he seemed to intimate that we risked losing Ellis on waivers and that's why we needed to trade him for Podolzhkin or Savoie stat. Not sure the waiver point is accurate which would then render the rest of his analysis somewhat silly.

Ellis is now waiver eligible so that’s a fair point. Teams tend to not claim goalies with zero NHL experience and then keep that guy on their NHL roster but it’s certainly possible.

That said, I heard earlier in the summer that Bruins prospect goalie Michael DiPietro might be a waiver claim risk so who knows. He has at least a little NHL experience though whereas the closest Ellis has come to date is preseason games.

If the Blues really thought Ellis to be a waiver loss could they not invite him to camp or is he entitled/required to come to camp and then to be sent down and exposed to a claim?

[STL fan in MN]

Pye made a salient point that Ellis has dominated(at least excelled) in the leagues he has played in so far. His point about the necessity of a trade was a little confusing in that he seemed to intimate that we risked losing Ellis on waivers and that's why we needed to trade him for Podolzhkin or Savoie stat. Not sure the waiver point is accurate which would then render the rest of his analysis somewhat silly.

Ellis is now waiver eligible so that’s a fair point. Teams tend to not claim goalies with zero NHL experience and then keep that guy on their NHL roster but it’s certainly possible.

That said, I heard earlier in the summer that Bruins prospect goalie Michael DiPietro might be a waiver claim risk so who knows. He has at least a little NHL experience though whereas the closest Ellis has come to date is preseason games.

If the Blues really thought Ellis to be a waiver loss could they not invite him to camp or is he entitled/required to come to camp and then to be sent down and exposed to a claim?

All goalies, including Ellis, will be invited to camp and I’d expect Ellis to get into some preseason games as well. But eventually, they’re going to have to get down to two goalies and that’ll almost certainly be Binner and Hofer. Technically, they have the ability to carry 3 goalies (just carry one fewer F or D to be able to stay under the 23-man limit) but teams hardly ever do that. Three’s a crowd, there’s only 2 nets in practice, only one guy plays per game (usually), etc. There’s just not a need to carry 3 goalies on your roster unless one of them is on IR. Eventually, someone’s going to have to be exposed to waivers to be able to be sent to the minors and it’s not going to be Binner or Hofer. It’ll be Ellis.

[a smell of green grass]

I wished during the playoffs that they would have put Hofer in there for 1 game. If they had, we would know a bit more about Hofer at this point.

[Inglewood Jack]

I wished during the playoffs that they would have put Hofer in there for 1 game. If they had, we would know a bit more about Hofer at this point.

That is a quandary - does he play well in the highest stress situation of the playoffs and do you sit your starter?

I have reservations about Hofer based upon the "eye test" as that he appears to not have the quickness of Binner, but may be better positionally. When he plays the puck that lack of quickness and decisiveness is also observational. I hope he gets more games this season to see what the Blues have - a starter or trade bait. But a backup or 1B is not going to get much in return. Good dilemma to have internally though.

[bluetunehead]

Ellis could be a waivers risk, yeah. He'd have to get past 22 other teams to get to Edmonton fwiw, since the waiver order is based on the reverse standings from last season (until Mid-November anyway).

Then if Edmonton ever decided to send him down to the AHL the Blues would be able to claim him back.

Does a team that views itself as a Stanley Cup contender risk going into the season with a completely untested (at the NHL level) goalie on the roster? I'm not sure I see it. But I do think a team like Philadelphia could be a possibility.