The big story in training camp this fall in Calgary has nothing to do with players, but the man set to guide them; in Coach Mike Keenan.
His nomadic history, his stellar accolades, his bombastic tirades all make the man a legend before he’s moved on to pasture, all of which makes him keyboard candy for local and national journalists.
However, if we must, if we truly dig deep and find a personnel story to dig our teeth into it’s that little battle to hold Miikka’ Kiprusoff’s golf bag that could hold some attention in the coming weeks.
It’s interesting in a “now” perspective with the Flame’s recent ramp up of the arsenal of young up and coming stoppers; it’s interesting in having a former number one pick finally getting a chance to prove his mettle.
But more importantly, it’s interesting in a historical perspective for the organization given their quarter century pattern to lean to experience in net wherever possible.
Youth movements have come in the form of bottom pairing blueliners and fourth line projects, in gritty energy players and powerplay specialists and in can’t miss prospects both up front and on defence. But rarely in the cage and the men wearing puck blockers … though they have had some success in the past when they’ve deviated from the norm.
Looking Back
The Flames arrived in Calgary with not one, not two, but three veteran goaltenders when they made the Northwestern junket from sunny Georgia to small yet bustling Calgary in 1980. They had a franchise stopper in Dan Bouchard, plus two up and coming vets in Pat Riggin and Rejean Lemelin.
This glut, along with Bouchard’s immediate distaste for the Wild Wild West resulted in the Frenchman’s divorce in a trade to his native province and the Quebec Nordiques. That newly minted Riggin/Lemelin combination took the Flames through their first two seasons in Alberta, and the franchise’s first playoff success in 1981.
From that point out is was pretty much the veteran conveyor belt through Calgary with names like Don Edwards, Rick Walmsley, Jeff Reese, Rick Tabaracci, Ken Wregget, Grant Fuhr and Roman Turek.
When confronted with a chance to see what a kid could do the Flames more often than not blinked, and found the first “soon to be awful because he’s just about to expire” goaltender that they could get their hands on.
Now this isn’t to say Calgary decision makers over the years were without fortitude and the ability to trust in youth; to take a chance. It doesn’t take guts to put a marginal prospect into a NHL role, it takes stupidity and for a good junk of these years the Flames didn’t really have the young stud goaltender to take a chance on.
Dwayne Roloson was a good young prospect in the 1990’s and got his chance. Others like Andrei Trefilov and Jason Muzzatti got a cup of coffee but didn’t prove their worth.
In Calgary Flames history there has only been three other training camps that have featured an all out battle for a goaltender position, with varying degrees of success.
1987-88
This wasn’t much of a battle, but the Flames turned the backup role over to a rookie, Doug Dadswell in 1987. The Cornell graduate had a great first pro season in the AHL for the Moncton Golden Flames going 24-12-1 and showing the brass he was ready. In Calgary he was 8-7-2 on a very good Flames hockey club, a record that included an infamous start in Jersey with only 300 snow bound fans in attendance. He never played an NHL game again, but opened a goalie school in Calgary years later.
1998-99
Eleven years later the Flames opened their backup position to an intriguing backup battle between top prospect Jean Sebastian Giguere, and the plucky Tampa Bay Lightening cast off Tyler Moss.
The previous AHL season in Saint John featured a friendly tandem that were very much equals, with both stoppers getting over 30 starts and losing ten times apiece. Their goals against average and save percentage marks were virtually identical.
In the end, Moss broke camp as the Flames new backup to starter Ken Wregget in a season that would feature no less than six different goalies getting time with the big Flames due to injury. Through this confusion the Flames found Fred Brathwaite and started a nice side story in a very bleak period in club history.
Just over a year later Jean Sebastian Giguere would be lost to the Anaheim Ducks as Craig Button made a call in protecting goaltenders for an expansion draft. Tyler Moss was dispatched to Pittsburgh in the Brad Werenka deal and bounced around as a back up for several teams there after.
1985-86
Saving the more interesting, and certainly more successful for last; the 1985-86 training camp.
Like the Moss and Giguere battle of 1998, the previous AHL campaign featured a contested battle between Mike Vernon and Marc D’Amour. The two young goaltenders split the duty and had similar statistics save for their win loss record where D’Amour was the superior winning eight more games than Vernon.
The camp itself featured the two along with NCAA goaltender Rich Kosti in a battle to backup up incumbent Reggie Lemelin. When camp broke it was the AHL win expert Marc D’Amour getting the job with Vernon and Kosti dispatched to Moncton.
D’Amour made 15 appearances that season but had his NHL dream fall apart due to a strange medical issue that him dehydrate and lose weight with each and every spell in the nets. This injury opened the door for Mike Vernon to get the start at Christmas in an exhibition game against a traveling Soviet team and the rest is history.
NOW
Which brings us back to today, and the current camp battle between two AHL goaltenders; Brent Krahn and Curtis McElhinney, two soon to be pro goaltenders; Matt Keetley and Kevin Lalande, and a junior aged goaltender and number one pick Leland Irving.
There are similarities.
The AHL battle between two goaltenders is present as Krahn and McElhinney have shared the duties on the farm for the past two seasons, each with a year as the number one guy.
Also present is an injury that could keep one player, Brent Krahn, from taking advantage of a great opportunity much like the unfortunate Marc D’Amour of 21 years ago.
The Flames first turn to youth between the pipes mined themselves a franchise goaltender and key Oiler killer in Mike Vernon; a watershed moment in the team’s history that defined success in Calgary every bit as much as Lanny McDonald’s moustache.
The next two kicks at the can were far less eventful with a career minor leaguer winning time, or in a drastically bad example, a future Conne Smythe winner lost to another organization.
It all comes down to opportunity, the ability to judge talent at a young age, timing, and that intangible blind luck to sort out a young stable of goaltenders and their role or lack of a role in Calgary Flames history.
This training camp is key, but so too is the next few as the five young goaltenders squeeze from roster to roster like sand leaking from a massive hockey pocket that will determine if the right decisions were made, and the right assets retained for development and investment. Which goaltenders should get starts in the preseason and which should be optioned out early? Which guy should start in the ECHL and which should start in Quad City? Should the best guy get the backup role and bed soars on his behind or the starting gig in the AHL?
All these questions will be very key in the next few weeks, and subsequently months and years.
Get it right and Miikka Kiprusoff has a ready and able catching mitt to pass that goaltending baton, leaving the team in great shape into the next decade. Get it wrong and it’s a slippery slope to the next set of aged goaltenders filling the twine and stop gapping a bad era in the hopes that next draft pick or unsuspecting trade will turn things around.
With the veterans set to report tomorrow for fitness testing, the puzzle officially comes into play.
Keenan aside, an interesting little battle to keep an eye on.
