Cats put experience in net
Published Tuesday November 24th, 2009
Shane Owen, 19, is in his third major junior season
The Moncton Wildcats are looking for a net gain.
The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League club may have found it with the addition of goaltender Shane Owen yesterday. The Wildcats will get their first look at the 19-year-old today in practice.
Owen, 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds, was a third-year veteran with the Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League. He had a 4.31 goals-against average, .880 save percentage and 3-6 record this season as the starter for a club that was in the bottom half of the league.
He became available when Erie received 20-year-old goaltender Jaroslav Janus back from the pros last week. Janus, who played for Slovakia at last year's world junior championship, was selected by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2009 National Hockey League draft.
Owen cleared OHL waivers and then joined Moncton as a free agent.
"The general manager in Erie, Sherry Bassin, I worked with him for six years (with the OHL's Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds),'' said Moncton head coach and director of hockey operations Danny Flynn. "They were the team that sent us (goaltender) Jhase Sniderman (in 2005-06).
"Owen brings us some experience. He's got 60-plus major junior games under his belt and was the starting goalie in Erie this season. I've had some good reports on him so we want to take a look at him.''
Moncton, 13-8-1-2, and the Prince Edward Island Rocket, 13-9-1-2, are tied for third in the Atlantic Division. They're six points behind the second-place Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, 15-8-2-3.
Moncton is fourth best defensively in the QMJHL with a 2.67 goals-against average. It has a 17-year-old starting goaltender in Louis Domingue and a 19-year-old backup in Wendell Vye.
Domingue has a 2.71 average, .906 save percentage and 9-8 record, but he's struggled recently and was pulled in the past two games. Vye has done a very solid job with a 2.06 average, .928 average and 4-3 record.
"We brought Shane Owen in to have a look at him,'' said Flynn. "The reports on him are good, but I've never seen him play. Step 1 is to get him into a practice and then we'll see how things sort themselves out.''
The Wildcats, who have one win in the past five games, aren't sure which goaltender will get the start when they face the Drummondville Voltigeurs on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Moncton Coliseum.
"We're definitely planning to keep three goaltenders at this point,'' said Flynn. "We'll keep three as long as necessary to make the right decision.''
Moncton is the only QMJHL contender that's relying on a 17-year-old starting goaltender. It was widely expected that the club would look for a veteran goalie during the league trading period, which runs from Dec. 19 until Jan. 7.
Domingue, a first-round pick in the 2008 QMJHL draft, is a promising goalie who helped Canada win the gold medal at the 2009 Memorial of Ivan Hlinka Tournament -- a world under-18 tournament this summer.
Central Scouting ranks Domingue as the top QMJHL goalie who's eligible for the 2010 NHL draft. There will surely be interest in him during the QMJHL trade period, but it's unlikely that Moncton will give him up.
If Owen sticks with Moncton, look for Domingue to be his backup so that he can continue to gain experience. The fallout in that scenario would be Vye being sent to the Dieppe Commandos of the Maritime Junior A Hockey League.
"My job as the director of hockey operations is to try to improve this team every day,'' said Flynn. "We saw a goaltender become available that we think has a chance to improve our team. Step 1 is to get his rights, get him in here and evaluate him. He's been home for 10 days or so since leaving Erie. We want to see where he's at in practice in terms of his conditioning and his skill level. Then we'll go from there.''
Cat Tracks
* Chicoutimi Saguenéens forward Nicolas Deschamps is the QMJHL Offensive Player of the Week. He had three goals and seven points in three games.
* Baie-Comeau Drakkar goaltender Nathan Dunnett, a Miramichi native, is the QMJHL Defensive Player of the Week. He won both his starts with a 0.50 goals-against average and .980 save percentage.
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I cannot stand the argument to "bring the local boy home", the Cats aren't out there to develop local boys, they are a team and a business trying to win a championship.... they are interested in the best players at the best interest of the team, now don't get me wrong, if Dunnett is the same cost as Owen then the Cats would take him without flinching giving that he's the local boy, but they aren't just going to go out and pay a premium for the local kid.
People do not seem to understand that all these kids are entered in a draft, they are picked based on skill and not where they are from....no team is going to take a player that isn't as good as the next available player just cause he's local.... that's a recipe for disaster.
I will say, the Cats do try to land local talent when possible, but it can be difficult in this league.
Its not about "stabbing" Vye in the back, Wendell is good but not a starter in this league that can carry a team, its not often you see a 19 year old backup in his first year in the Q. Wendell will understand this, he knew his position going into the season, he knows it would be as a backup and the likes of dealing Domingue are pretty unlikely as he's the Cats future, so if he couldn't carry the load, which he cannot unfortunately, they have to try to bring someone in to help this team get back to winning.
A local boy doesn't change the attendance significantly, winning however, does and that is what its all about.
The Cats and any other team in the Q is not like a midget team where they develop the best local kids, the Q is a business, plain and simple. Nothing in sports is better than a winner for business, taking local talent is not but they do try when it is realistic, this case is not
Why would you get someone that cheap? Because it costs nothing, its not a gamble, its free, where do you pick up a guy with 3 years under his belt for nothing?... not sure how you can question that. This guy has 3 years experience, Vye has none, and if you read the article, he didn't make the team because they have a 20 year old goalie and want their backup to be a young pup much like the Cats and Domingue. The OHL is again thick in goaltending, much like the year we picked up Sniderman.
Once again, if you read the article, they aren't dropping Vye, they're testing out Owens, if he is better than Vye than its an open and shut case, Vye has his chance, he's had a long one since the beginning of camp, he's solid but not a starter on a team that we're supposed to have this year. Also, Flynn & co, are professional coaches, me and you are not, they may see something in Vye that they don't like or have confidence in.