With their fifth round selection at last weekend's NHL Draft, the Blue Jackets picked goaltender Parker Snell from the WHL's Edmonton Oil Kings. Today, we'll talk about his game and project his development path.
Snell was one of 32 goaltenders taken on day two of the draft. That's a lot of puck stoppers. In fact, that's the most taken in one single draft since 33 were taken all the way back in 2004.
This past season, Snell spent his rookie WHL season serving as half of the goaltending tandem for the Oil Kings, along with 19 year old Ethan Simcoe. They nearly split time evenly, but by season's end; it felt like Snell was taking over as the team's full-time starter.
Snell pick got into 33 games with the Oil Kings, posting a 21-9-1 record on the back of a .895% save percentage, 2.74 goals against average, and 3 shutouts. For comparison, Simcoe got into 38 games, but only 3 of those were in the month of March-compared to 6 for Snell.
The split starts continued early into the playoffs, but by the time the Oil Kings were eliminated, it was Parker Snell's crease. He played the team's last two games, which happened on back-to-back nights. His playoff run was pretty solid, with a 2-1-1 record behind a .924%/2.22 stat line.
Goalies are a crapshoot.
At this point in the draft, teams are reaching deep into their scouting bags to find players. Honestly, taking a goalie like Snell in the fifth round makes a lot of sense. He didn't get the lion's share of action, but by season's end; he had shown marked improvement. And, he was a high bantam pick.
Clearly, the Blue Jackets scouting staff saw something in his game that warranted using a pick to snatch him up. From the bits of footage I've seen, it makes sense.
At 6'2", Parker takes up a lot of the net, even when he's in his butterfly. He's an aggressive, athletic goaltender, who relies on his length and reflexes to make the saves. He has good lateral movement and a knack for making those highlight reel saves.
However, I did notice some negative tendencies here as well. On some plays, he was slightly off on his angle; having to rely more on those reflexes than he probably should. The result of making those dazzling saves is often rebounds.
While he was quick to cover up a lot of those, it's something he will have to work out of his game before he turns pro. Shooters at the next level will pick those corners, and be quicker to those rebounds.
In all, I think Parker Snell is an interesting prospect. He has very a projectable game. Really, he reminds me a lot of Elvis Merzlikins at the same age. If the Blue Jackets can get that kind of value out of a fifth round pick, it's a solid win.
It never hurts to take goalies late in the draft. Don Waddell and his staff have done a nice job shoring up the goaltending pipeline. Adding Snell to the mix certainly doesn't hurt.
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