Who Is Better? Roloson or Deslauriers?

In Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers' only preseason start so far this season he looked impressive. On the front page of The Edmonton Journal it read something like, Oilers goalie puts together star performance. He has yet to play a single second of a regular season NHL game but I firmly believe he's a legit backup. Roloson and his $3.66M cap hit is unattractive not only to us but to every other team in the league.

But after Deslauriers' impressive preseason performance, I started thinking, is Deslauriers better than Roloson?

He is the future of Oilers goaltending (with Devan Dubnyk) but many dub him has a career backup. He's only 24 years-old and I'm sold that he's already a backup. So if he continues to grow, he could become a legit starter once Garon doesn't have any gas left in the tank.

Roloson is the past of Oilers goaltending. He lead the Oilers to a Cup Finals appearance but hasn't done much since. He could barely hold a 0.900 save percentage last season.

Deslauriers was put behind a terrible Falcons defense last season and took tonnes of shots. He always comes out of the gate fast but he always seems to wear down. As a backup he's not gonna have to play as many games and he can play the way he does at the beginning of each season for a full season with the Oilers.

Roloson was put behind a terrible Oilers defense in 2006-07 but this season, Garon proved that he was better than Roloson.

So who is the better goalie?

I truly believe that Deslauriers will have a higher save percentage (in around the same number of games as Roloson) but Roloson could win more games.

Roloson is a game-breaker. When we really need to win, Roli can turn it on and deliver a 35 save shutout. But if we don't really need to win, he lets in 4 goals on 25 shots. Because not only did he take us, the Oilers to the Cup Finals but he also led a mediocre Minnesota Wild team to the Conference Championships a little while back. He would be a great pickup at the deadline for a lot of teams that are looking to go far in the playoffs.

But in my opinion, Roloson needs to show up every night, and he's failed to do so. Therefore, Deslauriers should rightfully take his spot in the Oilers lineup. It's about time we developed a goaltender rather than just signing a backup and hoping he works out or trading for a mediocre goaltender and hope he works out.

Since the Tommy Salo era (pre-2002 Olympics), we haven't had a legit #1 guy until Garon. We don't want to have to keep giving up assets to get goaltenders, so we might as well give Deslauriers a chance to develop.

Right now, if I'm the Oilers, Roloson is as good as gone. He should be sitting in the press box on MOST nights. But that's just my opinion.

Would Deslauriers Really Clear Waivers?

I have been discussing how the three goalie system could work against players such as Rob Schremp and Gilbert Brule. It could also work against the Oilers. Marc Pouliot or Ryan Potulny could get outperformed in camp. They would respectively be 13/14 on the Oilers depth chart, but would have to get sent down to the minors through waivers, and possibly get claimed. We have invested 4 years of development in Jeff Deslauriers, we will not give him up for nothing. But do teams really want him?

He has yet to play a single second in the NHL. He wasn't THE BEST goalie in the AHL, although he was up there. JDD got a huge workload in the AHL, but just sitting him up with the big club could really hurt his development.

We really do have a goaltender controversy now. It's not like in 2005 where it was, Conklin or Markkanen. It's who's going to be the backup. The old experienced veteran, or the new kid on the block.

I'm obviously not a GM so I would have no clue if JDD would clear waivers. But I really think he would. He's on a one-way deal and hasn't proven that he is better than any other backup in the NHL.

So what do we do? We have to trade one of JDD or Roloson. For me, it would be Roloson. This year, could be a good year for rebuilding. We could have a lot more prospects develop in the NHL, and in 2-3 years prove to be contenders. But is their a market for Roloson? Doubt it. In an ideal situation we would trade one of them for a draft pick and life goes on.

The Oilers need to waive Roloson. Hopefully he gets claimed by LA in hopes they can reach the cap floor. If not, put him on re-entry waivers, then I'm sure someone will take him. $1.8M for a proven goaltender with playoff experience, a lot of teams will jump on that, like Chicago (looking for a cheaper backup). We get the monkey off our back and it's all good.

Expectations for 2008-2009: Goaltenders

Mathieu Garon-Last season Mathieu Garon stole the starting job from Dwayne Roloson. This year he will go into camp with the starting job. He had a 0.913 save percentage and a 2.66 goals against average. Looks like a legit starter to me. But he only played 47 games. A lot of that had to do with him starting the year as backup but if he had played a full(er) season what would his numbers have looked like? Maybe not as good but still decent. This year is a contract year for Garon so I expect him to step up his play a little bit this year.

Projected numbers: 60 GP, 0.915 save %, 2.50 GAA

Dwayne Roloson-Since the 06 cup run Roloson has slowly been aging. Last year it showed, as he lost the starting job to Mathieu Garon. However, in the 06 cup run I believe he was playing over his head. 2006-2007 was really not a good measuring stick as the whole season was a disaster for the Oilers but he still played decent and was the best Oiler on a lot of nights. Now Oilers fans want to get rid of him after a bad year. I know he's not getting a lot better but is it really worth trading him? For what? A mid-low round draft pick. It's not as if the Oilers are tight on cap space and Roloson makes a decent backup. He almost carried the Oilers to the playoffs last year after Garon got injured (although he had a few bad games). Think about it this way. Roloson is underperforming his contract and Garon is overperforming his contract. So if you think as if their contracts are switched around both seem to have fair salaries.

Projected numbers: 12 GP, 0.900 save %, 3.00 GAA

Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers-Mathieu Garon took five years to develop into a backup. Of course he had a good 30 or so games of experience before. Deslauriers has taken four years but hasn't had a single second in the NHL. This year will likely be the year he gets some starts. But he has to prove to be a legitimate backup before everyone starts to come up with proposals to trade Roloson. However, I still believe he can be the future of goaltending for the Oilers, I believe he can be much like Garon and will some day be as good as him.

Compare these numbers:

Garon:

1998-1999	Fredericton Canadiens AHL	40	2,222	14	22	2	-	114	1,190	3	3.08
1999-2000	Quebec Citadelles AHL	53	2,884	17	28	3	-	149	1,463	2	3.10	.898
2000-2001	Canadiens	11	589	4	5	1	-	24	233	2	2.44	.897
2000-2001	Quebec Citadelles AHL	31	1,768	16	13	1	-	86	1,071	1	2.92	.920
2001-2002	Canadiens	5	260	1	4	0	-	19	147	0	4.37	.871
2001-2002	Quebec Citadelles AHL	50	2,988	21	15	12	-	136	1,658	2	2.73	.918
2002-2003	Canadiens	8	481	3	5	0	-	16	267	2	1.99	.940
2002-2003	Hamilton Bulldogs AHL	20	1,150	15	2	2	-	34	537	4	1.77	.937

Deslauriers:

2004-2005 Edmonton Roadrunners AHL 22 1,258 6 13 2 - 62 553 0 2.96 .888 2004-2005 Greenville Grrrowl ECHL 11 673 7 3 1 - 26 432 1 2.32 .940 2005-2006 Hamilton Bulldogs AHL 13 666 4 7 - 35 0 3.15 2005-2006 Greenville Grrrowl ECHL 6 335 2 4 - 17 0 3.05 2006-2007 Wilkes-Barre Penguins AHL 40 2,231 22 12 - 92 1,001 4 2.47 .908 2007-2008 Springfield Falcons AHL 57 0 26 23 - 147 0 2.90

Consider that Oilers only had 1 AHL affiliate before the Falcons, of cource side tracking Deslauriers development. However he has shown signs of brilliance in the AHL and we will have to see what he can do in the NHL.

Projected numbers: 10 gp, 0.910 save %, 3.00 GAA