The impression I'm getting is that a goaltender being able to handle the puck really well is a similar thing to a defenceman having a really hard shot. Fantastic for him, but a defencemen with a really hard shot won't get one cent more in a contract than one without. It's not an important enough skill to pay for, and everybody knows it. Perhaps goaltender stick work could be a bit more valuable than this, but I don't think it'd be much more valuable.
This conception makes it odd to me that the NHL went on a crusade against goaltender puckhandling with their trapezoid nonsense. Personally, it only comes up a few times per game, but I've always enjoyed non-trapezoid hockey much better. This would add more value to a goaltender's stick in my opinion. It would make them actually able to deter dump ins as an offensive idea, and who doesn't want that? Nobody likes watching what the majority of the time is an intentional turnover.
I agree that the cause for the low-event environment of the past was things other than the trapezoid. Yes, the goaltenders could theoretically deter dumping the puck in, but only the great ones (Martin Brodeur and Marty Turco, basically) actually did that. The much bigger problem was the offside rule that you discussed, and the fact that it was before the days of the hooking penalty. If you wanted to spice up the game a little bit, I think eliminating the two-line offside and reintroducing hooking as a penalty would've been enough. I'm not sure what the point of limiting the goaltender's ability to touch the puck even was.
I think this opens up a conversation on unimportant skills in general. Much like the hard shot defenceman, it's likely not much additional value to have a great puck handler at goaltender compared to a really bad one, but there are some vacuum situations where it really helps. It's sort of like the 'strong-armed QB' thing that I deal with on my side of the fence. It's not as if it doesn't help to have a cannon, but if you rank arm strength, and then you rank the best QBs, the correlation doesn't exist. I would suspect the same thing occurs with stick work out of a goaltender, although that's strictly a guess on my part.
The impression I'm getting is that a goaltender being able to handle the puck really well is a similar thing to a defenceman having a really hard shot. Fantastic for him, but a defencemen with a really hard shot won't get one cent more in a contract than one without. It's not an important enough skill to pay for, and everybody knows it. Perhaps goaltender stick work could be a bit more valuable than this, but I don't think it'd be much more valuable.
This conception makes it odd to me that the NHL went on a crusade against goaltender puckhandling with their trapezoid nonsense. Personally, it only comes up a few times per game, but I've always enjoyed non-trapezoid hockey much better. This would add more value to a goaltender's stick in my opinion. It would make them actually able to deter dump ins as an offensive idea, and who doesn't want that? Nobody likes watching what the majority of the time is an intentional turnover.
I agree that the cause for the low-event environment of the past was things other than the trapezoid. Yes, the goaltenders could theoretically deter dumping the puck in, but only the great ones (Martin Brodeur and Marty Turco, basically) actually did that. The much bigger problem was the offside rule that you discussed, and the fact that it was before the days of the hooking penalty. If you wanted to spice up the game a little bit, I think eliminating the two-line offside and reintroducing hooking as a penalty would've been enough. I'm not sure what the point of limiting the goaltender's ability to touch the puck even was.
I think this opens up a conversation on unimportant skills in general. Much like the hard shot defenceman, it's likely not much additional value to have a great puck handler at goaltender compared to a really bad one, but there are some vacuum situations where it really helps. It's sort of like the 'strong-armed QB' thing that I deal with on my side of the fence. It's not as if it doesn't help to have a cannon, but if you rank arm strength, and then you rank the best QBs, the correlation doesn't exist. I would suspect the same thing occurs with stick work out of a goaltender, although that's strictly a guess on my part.
Where would the sick toe drag into a pass I had in ball hockey this week fall?
Pretty high in ego-boost/60 I’d imagine
And maybe Teammates Sick of Me/60 as well.