Half(ish) year Prospect Round-Up: The Goaltenders

Since we’ve gone half the year through, it only feels right to take another look back at the half season the prospects in net have had so far:

AHL:

Dan Vladar

GP: 19

SV%: .896%

and

Zane McIntyre

GP: 25

SV%: .884%

Look, Providence went through a bad spell to start the season and now they’re both doing better, but the defense in Providence is all over the dang place in terms of individual game performance. That said, it’s hard to say who’s really doing better. Mac’s been getting more time, but who knows where both of them will go from here.

OHL:

Kyle Keyser

GP: 28

SV%: .928%

While ending up the backup for a silver medaling USA team could be considered a disappointment for Keyser, the fact is...he still medaled, and was instrumental in getting them there. Keyser’s time in the OHL hasn’t changed much at all meanwhile; still the Generals’ starting goaltender, still head and shoulders above Cole Ceci and Aiden Hughes, even in their fairly limited starts, and of course...utter domination of the OHL’s Save-% leaders among starters. Kyle Keyser’s 2019 is looking to bring him directly to the OHL Playoffs, where given how loaded Oshawa is and how well he’s played, they’ll probably hang on to Keyser for a little while before he can consider life as a Providence Bruin.

NCAA

Jeremy Swayman

GP: 28

SV%: .913%

Emil Westerlund’s Twitter

Through some trick of the coaching staff, through finally not playing seriously good ranked teams over and over, their schedule throwing them a bone for once, or just finally buttoning down and playing some defense for once in their godforsaken lives, The Black Bears have finally found a happy hockey balance for the life of Jeremy Swayman, their starter, who has started to rebound from the misery he was experiencing early on in this season.

...Of course, that doesn’t mean Maine is actually upkeeping that whole “defense” thing going for any longer than a few minutes at a time, and he’s still seeing an ungodly amount of vulcanized rubber coming his way, and he’s probably not going to see the postseason this year. So long as he continues to hold the fort down in a team seemingly allergic to stopping rushes, he’ll be able to shine in the sheer amount of pucks he’s stopped.