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Dallas Stars Blogger •
We've heard about the courting of Jonas Gustavsson. He has met Ex-President Bush, and he's thrown out the first pitch at a Rangers game. God only knows how many other dignitaries he met and how many events he participated in during his visit. The Stars brought out the full spread to try to convince The Monster to come to Big D. Is he the best option to be the 2009 backup goalie?
The main question one has to ask is what the role of the backup goalie will be in 2009. Is it a developmental position or is the backup intended to put pressure on Marty Turco? If you go with choice A what happens if Turco doesn't rebound? If you go with choice B then how confident are you that Gustavsson is NHL ready at this point? We witnessed the learning curve with Fabian Brunnstrom last year. A young goalie's learning curve theoretically could be much more obvious on the scoreboard.
If you want to make your own decision on him do a quick youtube search. Just like Fabian, youtube has a decent amount of Gustavsson videos. He looks like a really good goalie in the videos, but Brunnstrom looked like a man among boys in his videos too.
If they lose out on Gustavsson the Stars have other options. They could go through free agency and find a backup goalie with the ability to stop some rubber. Martin Gerber and Manny Legace could both theoretically push Turco for playing time if he falters. Brian Boucher, Kevin Weeks, and Ty Conklin are all solid backup goalies that will not cost much money. Those 3 however will probably not push Turco the way Gustavsson could. If he's the real deal he could serve the same role Mike Smith did. None of the free agent options are nearly that level of threat.
I'm in favor of Gustavsson. I think his potential could be pretty special in time. I'm merely posing the question: What if Gustavsson isn't ready for prime time? Some of the free agent options are safer plays in 2009, but they don't have nearly the potential Gustavsson has.
I think it's absolutely worth the 1 year + rights risk. What do you guys think?
The main question one has to ask is what the role of the backup goalie will be in 2009. Is it a developmental position or is the backup intended to put pressure on Marty Turco? If you go with choice A what happens if Turco doesn't rebound? If you go with choice B then how confident are you that Gustavsson is NHL ready at this point? We witnessed the learning curve with Fabian Brunnstrom last year. A young goalie's learning curve theoretically could be much more obvious on the scoreboard.
If you want to make your own decision on him do a quick youtube search. Just like Fabian, youtube has a decent amount of Gustavsson videos. He looks like a really good goalie in the videos, but Brunnstrom looked like a man among boys in his videos too.
If they lose out on Gustavsson the Stars have other options. They could go through free agency and find a backup goalie with the ability to stop some rubber. Martin Gerber and Manny Legace could both theoretically push Turco for playing time if he falters. Brian Boucher, Kevin Weeks, and Ty Conklin are all solid backup goalies that will not cost much money. Those 3 however will probably not push Turco the way Gustavsson could. If he's the real deal he could serve the same role Mike Smith did. None of the free agent options are nearly that level of threat.
I'm in favor of Gustavsson. I think his potential could be pretty special in time. I'm merely posing the question: What if Gustavsson isn't ready for prime time? Some of the free agent options are safer plays in 2009, but they don't have nearly the potential Gustavsson has.
I think it's absolutely worth the 1 year + rights risk. What do you guys think?
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