Returning to form

It doesn’t take a copy editor to know that Leland Irving’s life makes for a good human interest story. At eight years old, when most young Canadians are just beginning to traverse the world of hockey, Irving was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare type of cancer, which required 13 months worth of chemotherapy to overcome. That kind of experience can put something like hockey in its true context when it comes to the greater scheme of things. For Irving, it also seems to have taught him perseverance at a very young age.

Irving was selected 81st Overall by the Everett Silvertips in the 2003 WHL Bantam Draft, part of one of the greatest draft performances of all time by a single team as the Silvertips also selected NHL first round products Peter Mueller and Zach Hamill that year. In his first two years with the Silvertips, Irving posted Save Percentages of .930 and .925, through ninety games. Equally as impressive were his Goals Against Average statistics from those seasons, at 1.80 and 1.91 respectively. With numbers like this, it becomes very easy to understand why the Calgary Flames made him the 26th Overall pick in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft.

Like Carey Price the year before, the pick was questioned by many. Miikka Kiprusoff was then only twenty-nine and had won the Vezina Trophy only weeks earlier for his play in the 2005-2006 season. It seemed to many hockey observers that Irving would be left to rot on the vine, trapped on the depth chart while Kipper tended the twine at the Saddledome for much of the next decade. As often happens with prospects in these kinds of situations though, either no one told Irving or he set out to prove them wrong. In his next season, Irving put up a .929 Save Percentage and a 1.86 Goals Against Average to go with a .708 Winning Percentage. These stats earned Irving a back up spot behind Carey Price on the Canadian World Junior team that won gold in Leksand-Mora, Sweden.

But somewhere, Irving’s stock dropped. When Hockey Canada and the Russian Hockey Federation agreed to the Super Series in the summer of 2007, Irving was widely considered to have fallen down the depth chart at Hockey Canada, this time behind Jonathan Bernier and Steve Mason.  Nonetheless, Irving managed to outduel Simeon Varlamov in Game 3 of the Series, play the most minutes of any Canadian goaltender and post a Save Percentage only a thousandth of a point behind Jonathan Bernier who recorded the Series’ only shutout. Irving was also a final cut from the World Junior team that year. The Silvertips weren’t the team most prognosticators had them as heading into the season, having lost Peter Mueller to the Phoenix Coyotes during training camp. Irving’s statistics were the worst of his WHL career but he still managed a .919 Save Percentage with a 2.45 Goals Against.

Since turning pro last season, he’s been nothing but good news for the Flames  down on the farm. Irving’s strengths as a goaltender are in his positional and fundamental games. Not blessed with great size, he’s a very positionally sound goaltender which mitigates only slightly above average reflexes. He thinks the game at an NHL level already and grabbed the starting reins from Matt Keetley in Quad City last season. So far this year, he’s started eleven games to the tune of a .925 Save Percentage and a 2.25 Goals Against. Good for AHL player of the week honours.

Calvin Pickard knows the burden of having a tough act to follow. After all, older brother Chet is not only also a goaltender but a first round pick of the Nashville Predators and widely expected to compete with Pekka Rinne to be the future of that franchise in net. Chet’s probably most known to hockey observers though as either the guy who split time with Dustin Tokarski during last year’s World Juniors or as the guy who seamlessly picked up the goaltending reins in Tri-City after Carey Price moved on to red, white and bluer pastures. Little brother Calvin took over a set of goaltending reins all his own for the Seattle Thunderbirds last season and isn’t playing like he’s going to let them go any time soon.

The younger Pickard split time with Louis Domingue of Moncton last summer as the goaltending tandem for Team Canada at the 2009 Ivan Hlinka Tournament and Pickard acquitted himself well against stiff challenges from the Swedes and Swiss. Upon his return to Seattle this season, Calvin appears to have carried over the form that helped Team Canada to a Gold Medal. In 13 appearances, Pickard has posted a .915 Save Percentage on a dreadful Seattle Thunderbirds team. Not quite blessed with the size his brother has, Calvin stands 6′1″ and 208 pounds. There’s room yet for him to grown into his frame. His style is more that of a hybrid goaltender who prefers to stay on his feet. He also shows a very goo comfort level with the puck. Early projections still have him as a top 60 pick and while Pickard may not having the billing of Jack Campbell or Louis Domingue, some of the bigger goaltending names in the upcoming draft, don’t expect that to bother him. After all, he’s played this role before.

Bryce O’Hagan came into the OHL with a lot of buzz. It has since died off considerably but O’Hagan still has one big fan that keeps him on the minds of scouts who make the circuit, Hockey Canada. O’Hagan teamed with Kootenay’s Nathan Lieuwen on the 2008 Canadian Ivan Hlinka entry that won gold and then donned the Red and White again last spring with Michael Zador for a Canadian team that finished a disappointing fourth in Fargo-Moorhead. It looked like O’Hagan had turned it up early on this season as he and Swedish netminder charged out of the gate and staked the Greyhounds to a 7-0-0-0 record. But recently, the same concerns that have plagued O’Hagan in the past are rearing their head. When he’s on, he’s absolutely great. His lateral movement his fluid, his reflexes border on the cat-like and he anticipates the play very well. But when he’s off, he’s really off. It’s six-to-five and pick’em right now if O’Hagan even gets drafted. But I think that a team with a good goaltending coach capable of toughening him up mentally and giving him some consistency could work with his natural tools to create a serviceable back up. There are a lot of games to be played between now and late June, but for this Greyhound, the home stretch has likely never seemed so short.