Patience in the Paint

Patience is a virtue, especially when it comes to the paint.

It takes time for goaltenders to develop.

It’s takes patience to build a championship caliber team.

Sure you can acquire assets at anytime to supplement your product or put it over the top, but at what cost?

When it comes to goaltending patience is everything.

You need patience in the paint if you plan on building a winner.

You see that’s what makes the next question so intriguing.

How many goaltenders have the Moncton Wildcats drafted and developed?

The answer can be multi-layered depending on your perspective, but realistically the answer is four.

JF Damphousse, Simon Lajeunesse, Corey Crawford and Nicola Riopel.

Over the organizations 26 years of existence, realistically the franchise has only produced four franchise netminders.

Obviously, this is up for debate, but can you think of any other goalies that have been drafted by the Cats, played at least three seasons with the organization and have had a massive impact?

Names like Matthew Davis, JC Blanchard come to mind. They meet the three year prerequisite, but in their fourth seasons were traded away.

Everyone knows franchise goaltenders are rare and only come along every once and while, but the track record for producing netminders in the Cats organization isn’t the greatest.

I realize that might not sit well with some people, but that’s the reality.

The numbers are their to prove it.

Obviously, the Cats have acquired some amazing goalies via trade that have gone on to impact the organization like Alex Dubeau, but that is what makes this week’s acquisition of Vincent Fillion so unique.

Nevertheless, you still need to be patient.

Building a championship team takes patience and time.

Time for young players to develop, learn and grow.

Time for them to make mistakes, go through growing pains and adversity along the way.

You just can’t snap your fingers and have a championship caliber team over night.

Trusting the process and sticking to a game plan is essential in building a championship team.

In doing so you might even have a realistic chance at being extremely competitive for two seasons.

Many teams across the QMJHL right now are looking at a two year model.

Given the current situation those teams have been very cautious with their asset management.

We all know drafting and developing is everything, but I would suggest patience is equally important.

The knee jerk reactions may work on some fronts in Junior hockey, but they certainly don’t apply to between the pipes.

You need patience between the pipes if you want to build a champion from the ground up and that’s exactly what Ritchie Thibeau and his staff are trying to do.

By all accounts Vincent Filion is a prototypical franchise goaltender in the making, let’s just hope everyone will give him the space and room to grow and develop.

Let’s not try to rush things or add undue pressure.

Let’s sit back, watch and observe, but more importantly appreciate a talented young netminder come into his own.

The revolving door of goaltenders and philosophy around that position from a Moncton Wildcats perspective is drastically changing, due in large part to patience.

Patience is a virtue, especially in the paint.