by Ryan Smith | AHL On The Beat
A case might be made that goaltenders have essentially the most unpredictable growth path of any place in any skilled sport.
Take the vastly completely different circumstances of a pair of younger netminders within the St. Louis Blues group for instance.
Joel Hofer arrived on the professional scene full-time with the 2021-22 Springfield Thunderbirds, a staff that went on a magical run to the Calder Cup Finals, profitable their first seven postseason video games within the course of. Hofer earned worldwide viral fame by turning into the primary goalie in AHL postseason historical past to bodily shoot and rating a aim.
His growth additional superior the following season, when he was named an AHL Second Group All-Star after profitable a Thunderbirds staff report 27 video games. Earlier than he had even reached 90 appearances within the Springfield aim crease, Hofer had risen to full-time NHL standing, the place he has remained in St. Louis because the begin of the 2023-24 season.
Nevertheless, as NHL groups and basic managers can attest, you can’t put all of your eggs into one prospect’s basket. A 12 months after choosing Hofer within the fourth spherical of the 2018 NHL Draft, Doug Armstrong used his third-round decide in 2019 on one other goaltender – one with a distinctly completely different background and bodily make-up: Colten Ellis.
Early returns on the Ellis choice have been, in a phrase, astonishing. In the course of the COVID-shortened 2020-21 QMJHL season with the Charlottetown Islanders, Ellis put up a season among the many greatest in current CHL reminiscence. He received 23 of 24 begins, posting seven shutouts within the course of and a microscopic 1.78 goals-against common.
Upon turning professional, nevertheless, Ellis realized – as nearly each goaltender does – that such lofty and gaudy statistics don’t all the time translate.
“In junior hockey, there’s a number of ability, however whenever you’re transitioning to professional hockey, the sport simply comes a lot faster,” Ellis stated. “Guys are in a position to make performs faster and they’re larger, stronger, and quicker. That was the most important adjustment for me, studying to play at a pace the place performs develop so rapidly, coupled with there being a number of damaged performs.”
Regardless of some anticipated rising pains, Ellis was in a position to earn 16 wins in 40 mixed appearances as a rookie with the T-Birds and the ECHL’s Worcester Railers. He picked up his first AHL win in his debut at Bridgeport with a 28-save efficiency on Nov. 6, 2021.
For Ellis, his sophomore marketing campaign would deliver in regards to the first main bout of adversity in his profession. With Springfield’s goaltending set between Hofer and Vadim Zherenko, and Worcester using their New York Islanders affiliation to fill out their netminding, Ellis needed to discover a new house with ECHL Tulsa. For the primary time in his profession, Ellis noticed his save proportion dip under .900, and his targets towards common had risen to three.46.
The most important blow, nevertheless, got here within the type of a hip damage that required surgical procedure early in 2023, ending his season early and placing his profession at an essential crossroads with only one 12 months remaining on his entry-level contract. Unable to play, Ellis found the age-old story that absence makes the guts develop fonder.
“Being away from hockey for therefore lengthy actually made me miss it,” Ellis recounted. “I feel I form of misplaced that (ardour) a bit of bit in my first 12 months and a half as a professional. I used to be off the ice for 3 or 4 months of that spring and going into the summer season, and it made me understand how a lot I like hockey, and I feel that reignited the hearth in me to need to be a professional hockey participant and hone in on all of the elements that make me a great skilled. I dialed in on what makes me who I’m.”
Ellis, not like many goaltending prospects of the period, is just not a towering presence, standing simply 6-foot-1. The 24-year-old is just not naive to the altering panorama of the place, although.
“[Being a smaller goalie] wasn’t actually talked about till perhaps the final couple of years,” he stated. “I didn’t see myself as a smaller man. I play a distinct type of sport than [Zherenko] would play, completely different than Hofer, and completely different than [Jordan Binnington]. It’s about realizing what your sport is and trusting the people who find themselves serving to you get higher.”
Ellis has no scarcity of nice assets to lean on, from his longtime goaltending mentor Scott Gouthro to Blues goaltending coach Dave Alexander, and most notably, Thunderbirds goaltending coach and Blues goaltending growth coach Dan Stewart.
“Stew has been nice for me,” Ellis stated. “One in all his greatest attributes is that he’s very tailor-made to who he’s teaching. It’s not a one-size-fits-all methodology. He’s good at zoning in on what makes me the perfect model of myself, and he’s in a position to throw in recommendations or work on sure parts of my sport, and we construct off of that.”
That partnership, mixed with a resurgent ardour for the place, has propelled Ellis not simply in his private growth, however amongst his friends. Courting again to the 2023-24 season, Ellis has posted a .916 save proportion over his final 25 AHL appearances, together with a stellar .924 mark throughout his stint in Springfield final season. Had he performed sufficient minutes to qualify for statistical management classes, Ellis would have completed within the top-five in save proportion by the entire league and second amongst rookies.
Maybe most promisingly, although, Ellis has found that pleasure for the sport normally correlates with success.
“You’re taking part in the perfect whenever you’re having essentially the most enjoyable. An enormous message has been to play the place your ft are at and don’t get forward of your self attempting to play on the subsequent degree. Care for the place you’re at, and luxuriate in that course of.”
