In the run-up to seemingly every National Hockey League entry draft, the discussion inevitably turns to goaltending. Nobody has enough strong goaltenders, and the debate often shifts to if and when a hockey club should draft a goaltender.
There are a good many strong netminders available in the 2016 NHL Draft. Should the Calgary Flames take a look at any of them? The short answer is "yes," but the more complicated question is "but when?"
FIRST ROUNDERS
Here's a quick glance at first round netminders over the past decade:
- 2006: Jonathan Bernier, Riku Helenius, Semyon Varlamov, Leland Irving
- 2007: none
- 2008: Tom McCollum, Chet Pickard
- 2009: none
- 2010: Jack Campbell, Mark Visentin
- 2011: none
- 2012: Andrei Vasilevsky, Malcolm Subban
- 2013: none
- 2014: none
- 2015: Ilya Samsonov
Bolded names are basically NHLers at this point.