6/18, 6:00 AM - Building the Prototypical Team Part VIII: Goaltenders
Number One Goalie: Roberto Luongo (Vancouver Canucks)
If you were to build an NHL goaltender from scratch, odds are he would very closely resemble Roberto Luongo: big,
quick, technically sound and smart, with the ability to log heavy minutes and steal games for his team. Luongo isn’t perfect – he doesn’t handle the puck all that well and struggled down the stretch for the Canucks this season, a part of the reason they wound up missing the playoffs. Despite that, Luongo is still NHL netminder who most resembles the perfect goalie.
Others considered: Martin Brodeur, Miika Kiprusoff, Kari Lehtonen, Marc-Andre Fleury, Rick DiPietro, Ryan Miller, Evgeni Nabokov
Backup Goalie: Johan Hedberg (Atlanta Thrashers)
There are plenty of guys in professional hockey who could do an adequate job
filling in for a starting goalie in a pinch, and there are plenty of guys who are happy to fill the role of reserve netminder and are willing to work towards the team’s success, no matter what their role in it. What is rare is to find these two qualities in the same player. Hedberg is such a player, filling in well for the oft-injured Kari Lehtonen, but willing to give up the spotlight once the team’s number one was ready to go.