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 | In his last three seasons on the AHL Hutchinson has shown steady improvement, keeping his GAA below .250 and his save percentage above .920. And things kept getting better when Hutchinson earned a brief audition with the big club, going 3-0 and posting a very frugal 1.64 GAA. Not to show any regress, Hutchinson switched to the baby jets in St. John's at the end of the season and has provided exceptional goaltending as they have marched through the playoffs, posting (dare we say) championship numbers of a 1.61 GAA and a .946 save percentage . . . | | Edmonton - June 7, 2014 - It was a surprising illness that at first randomly affected the goalies of some NHL clubs, mainly western Canadian ones.
In Vancouver it was a man made malaise where then GM, Mike Gillis, traded two number one goalies, and somehow wound up without an NHL starter and instead has two borderline backups. Diagnosis: questionablestarterisis.
In Edmonton it manifested in a form known as goaliecollapsitis, where a seemingly steady netminder, Devan Dubnyk, fell off the charts, eventually winding up in the AHL, leaving his former team scrambling to shore up their exposed goaltending position.
But in Winnipeg it took a hybrid of the earlier forms. Fan favourite Ondrej Pavelec, affectionately known as Pav among fans, was at one time considered a steady goalie on the rise. He provided consistent tending in the Jets inaugural season but it was in his second season the cracks began to appear. His save percentage dropped to a questionable .906 the lowest among NHL starting netminders.
Nonetheless, no one rang the warning bell, at least not yet. But as the 2013-2014 season evolved, and eventually came to a close, the obvious became apparent, even to the most reluctant Jets' fans. Not only was Pavelec no longer on the rise, the optics of his late season performance appeared to clearly illustrate Pavelec was no longer an NHL starter, and even rose question marks about his ability to remain in the NHL.
As is the often the case in today's NHL, the truth was in the numbers. Pavelec's save percentage dropped to .901 in 2013-14, his lowest NHL numbers since the 2008-09 season. His GAA meanwhile rose to 3.01, the highest it had been since the 2009-10 season. Pavelec is a young goalie, so the hope was that with more games, he would round back into form.
Unfortunately those hopes rapidly eroded during, and especially at the end of 2013-14 season, as Pavelec played poorly in key games leaving Jet's coach Paul Maurice to often turn to back-up Al Montoya in relief. Just as soon, and sadly, the Jets dropped out of the playoff hunt, leaving a serious question mark in the line-up, and GM Kevin Chevaldayoff with his first major challenge.
To this point Chevy has been very much a ":slow and steady wins the race" kind of guy. Preaching patience to ownership and fans alike. Chevaldayoff has assuredly followed a business plan that focusses on developing from within, through the draft, and trading opportunistically and strategically.
The Jets' current goaltender situation could force Chevy to change this approach or . . . maybe not.
Here are the options Chevy is faced with: Wait to develop one of the goaltending prospects and trade for a proven perhaps journeyman tender that can be had for cheap and buy time. Or, make a major trade, offer one of Winnipeg’s steady if unspectacular forwards (see Andrew Ladd) and make a daring pitch for a proven number one (Ryan Miller, Jonas Hiller may be a bargain). Or maybe there is one more option, a riskier one albeit, but one with dual payoffs.
Chevaldayoff has shown he is conservative, so a big trade isn’t likely. Blue chip goaltending prospect Eric Comrie will take more time to develop than a band-aid solution prospect can offer. But my guess is, Chevaldayoff has found the solution in his own backyard. And that solution is in the form of late blooming goaltending prospect Michael Hutchinson.
For many people the name Michael Hutchinson name is very close to Michael Huchence, INXS front man that starred in the 80’s. The Jets' Michael Hutchinson was originally drafted in the third round by Boston, but also appears ready to star.
In his last three seasons on the AHL Hutchinson has shown steady improvement, keeping his GAA below .250 and his save percentage above .920. And things kept getting better when Hutchinson earned a brief audition with the big club, going 3-0 and posting a very frugal 1.64 GAA. Not to show any regress, Hutchinson switched to the baby jets in St. John's at the end of the season and has provided exceptional goaltending as they have marched through the playoffs, posting (dare we say) championship numbers of a 1.61 GAA and a .946 save percentage . . .
So the question is, will Chevaldayoff take the risk, gamble that his new goalie phenom will continue to translate his success in the NHL game? My guess would be yes. He still has Pavelec, and by all indications Chevaldayoff is not writing him off and if Hutchinson can take some of the pressure off Pavelec he might regain form. And if Hutchinson continues to improve, the move could make Cheveldayoff look like a genius, which I suspect won't bother the Jet's GM too much and will give him options, especially if one of the other Jets' goalie prospects starts to make a push.
So don't look for any major moves that will gut the line-up for a proven number one, slow and steady isn't necessarily sexy, but it often wins the race. For the Jets, time will tell.
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