Last Friday night, I had the opportunity to watch live in person, Detroit's 2012 3rd round draft pick, goaltender Jake Paterson in action with the Saginaw Spirit of the Ontario Hockey League.
Without question it appears the Wings have added a solid young goaltending prospect in the system with the selection of Paterson. The 18 year-old, Missaussaga, Ontario native displayed his fine goaltending skills on this evening as he participated in an impressive goaltender’s duel against undrafted Jaroslav Pavelka of the Windsor Spitfires.
Paterson has always been highly rated, ever since coming up through the ranks of the Toronto Marlboros organization in the Greater Toronto Hockey League. In sizing him up upon my first thorough viewing, he displayed many of the tools that you look for in a goaltender at the next level. His biggest strength appears to be his ability to move from post to post. He pushes off the posts extremely well and is excellent at moving quickly across the crease.
In addition, he is very sound positionally and quite effective at getting square to the shooter. His atheticism enables him to play aggressively and challenge shooters, with the knowledge he can get back into position to stop a rebound. On several occasions against Windsor on this night, he successfully limited the number of second chances the Spitfires could obtain.
According to many scouting reports, Paterson is also known for being a goaltender with excellent poise despite his limited big-game experience. Saginaw’s visit to Windsor was only eight days removed from their previous visit to the WFCU Centre in which Paterson and the Spirit got lit up in a resounding 6-1 defeat. The young netminder got pulled after allowing 4 goals on 30 shots but showed strong resolve in returning to the scene of the crime on this evening and providing his team with a chance to win.
Paterson stopped 36 of 38 shots but was on the losing end of a 2-1 scoreline. Windsor opened the scoring six minutes into the opening frame when Emerson Clark the puck out of mid-air into the net after Paterson had gone post-to-post to make a fantastic save on Windsor’s Michael Clarke (Colorado, 5th round, 2012). After Saginaw tied things up in the middle stanza thanks to Justin Kea (Buffalo, 3rd round, 2012) when Windsor’s prized rookie Josh Ho-Sang led a beautiful rush into the offensive zone and setup defenseman Trevor Murphy, who one-timed the puck past a screened Paterson to give the Spitfires a hard-fought 2-1 victory over the Spirit. Paterson was named the contest’s third star of the game in a losing effort.
It’s been an eventful November for Paterson. On November 12th, he participated in the CHL “Subway” Series for Team OHL against Team Russia. He played the final half of Game 2 and helped shut the door for Team OHL in a 2-1 victory where he stopped 8 of 9 shots he faced. He has started 10 of Saginaw’s 12 games in November and 24 of his team’s 27 games to date. Paterson’s biggest strike heading into last summer’s NHL draft was that he hadn’t been given much starting time in the OHL. Aside from his strong second half stint and playoff performance during his draft year, pure lack of experience was why he wasn’t placed rated higher on most draft boards.
Nevertheless, although Paterson’s statistics to date this season are not overwhelming (10-10-2, 3.55 GAA and .900 save %), it should be mentioned that Saginaw is not considered to have a strong roster this season in the OHL. On many nights, Paterson is the reason the Spirit are in the game. Prior to Friday night’s contest in Windsor, the young netminder spearheaded a comeback 4-3 Saginaw win in Sault Ste. Marie:
“We played very well and the crazy thing is, we lose,” said Sault head coach Mike Stapleton, whose club outshot the visitors 20-6 in the third period and 44-32 overall.
“We basically made two mistakes and they cost us. Two turnovers wound up in the back of the net.”
Stapleton gave credit to Saginaw netminder Jake Paterson, who made a number of saves from in close.
“He was unbelievable. He got them two points,” Stapleton said.
Saginaw coach Greg Gilbert also praised Paterson saying his netminder “came up big. He's a mentally tough kid.”
I'm certain the Wings would like for Paterson to continue his progress under Saginaw’s goalie coach Terry Barbeau, who worked previously with Ryan Miller for several years in Buffalo. Paterson’s style of goaltending has been compared to Miller and Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens. At 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds, Paterson has the requisite size NHL teams prize in a goaltending prospect. If he continues to play well for the Spirit, I would be surprised if Paterson doesn’t receive an invite to Team Canada’s Summer Evaluation Camp for the 2014 World Junior Championships.
With two OHL graduates in Petr Mrazek and Tom McCollum currently in the crease for Detroit’s AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids, I fully expect to see Jake Paterson continue his growth with the Griffins in two years time. Goaltenders are always difficult to project and are often known for taking much longer to mature than other positions. However, Paterson appears to exhibit all the necessary traits to one day don the Winged Wheel in Detroit.
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
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