Jussi Rynnas named AHL Player of the Week

next year, we lose jiggy and spend those dollars on a forward.

we go with jonas and either rynnas or reimer as backup.

the other of rynnas or reimer plays with scrivens on the marlies.

by the end of NEXT season (or at the trade deadline) we will know which of these young goalies we are going to keep and we can hopefully trade away at least one of them for a decent return.

then, go out and sign another two of the ‘best goalies not in the NHL’.

burke probably has the genius plan to sell allaire and the leafs as a training ground and entry point for unsigned goalies to get into the league. if jonas, rynnas and scrivens are all playing pro hockey in a few years, it would seem like an easy sell to go out and get at least another two good young unsigned goalies.

burke did this before didn’t he? didn’t he bring up a goalie that ended up in phoenix?? a good plan for sure, because we don’t use draft picks to get these guys, and we could turn them into our own goalies and/or trade bait. who knows, we could potentially parlay a guy like rynnas (or scrivens) into either a starting goalie for us or a first round draft pick.

Jonas Gustavsson – 2 year contract (ends after next season) – upon expiry, he is an UNrestricted Free Agent

Ben Scrivens – 1 year contract (ends after this season) – upon expiry, he is a Restricted Free Agent

Jussi Rynnas – 2 year contract (ends after next season) – upon expiry, he is a Restricted Free Agent

James Reimer – 3 year contract (ends after this season) – upon expiry, he is a Restricted Free Agent

So if we don’t resign them, we’ll get compensated with picks. All except the monster, who is due after next season.

I bet Reimer resigns for a two-year deal after this season, and I bet Scrivens also resigns for a 2-year deal after this season. But only if Jiggy does NOT resign. They will all then have a chance to keep playing more at a higher level. The battle between Rynnas/Reimer for who makes it to the big club first will be VERY interesting. I see one of our young guys (Rynnas?) coming through surprisingly strong and actually challenging for the number 1 spot on the big club within 2 years. The way the NHL goes, this often happens, where young goalies seemingly come from nowhere and end up posting a great year in the NHL. I think with the sheer number of young goalies in our system, and Allaire as their coach, we are bound to experience that over the next couple of years with one of our guys.

i also liked scrivens a lot in camp. and rynnas looked weak. but rynnas is now seeming to find his legs. maybe he is learning the N.American game. Who knows, maybe a year in the AHL would have been the best place for The Monster to learn as well.

Maybe that will be the factor that allows Rynnas to leapfrog Jonas over the next couple of years.

All conjecture of course. I just like being deep with good young goalies. No superstars like Luongo, or Price, or anything, but those can’t miss young guys are WAY more rare than the nameless goalies who prove their value only after a few years in the AHL…..

We are deep at goalie. We are TOO deep at high priced D.

Our top 6 forwards are very very weak as a group.

Where we need to improve is obvious.

i’d also like to comment on kadri. i think this kid is gonna be REAL good. you simply can’t teach the kind of hands he has.

watching highlights of him the other night, you can see his biggest weakness now is being soft on the puck. too easy to knock around. that is because he is still learning to play with men. when he adds some more mass, and learns how to play HIS game in THIS league, he will be just as dangerous as he was in junior. we’ll see some glimpses of it this year, and it will be on full display from next season onwards.

in fact, i bet this season will be the only time in his career he’ll get less than 50 points. i think he’ll be our first point-a-game guy since mats, once he strengthens up a little more and learns this league.