Pierre Dorion made his first moves as GM firing most of the coaching staff (Dave Cameron, Andre Tourigny, and Rick Wamsley); Jason Smith was also removed, but offered another position which he may or may not take. Only Chris Schwarz and Tim Pattyson remain (for now) at the NHL level. I hope we see a similar cleansing at the AHL level, but one thing at a time–and frankly, keep in mind this is the most obvious and easy move Dorion can make.
The only potential surprise in all this is Wamsley, who has received a lot of credit for goaltending development since he joined the organisation in the summer of 2010, so let’s look at his results and see if that praise is earned:
2010-11
Brian Elliott – the worst season of his career and is traded to Colorado; has had fantastic numbers in his five seasons in St. Louis (3rd in save% this season)
Pascal Leclaire – utter disaster; retired after the season
Craig Anderson – regained his form after being acquired from Colorado (full breakdown of him below)
2011-12
Alex Auld – worst season of his career sending him to Europe before he retired
2012-13
Ben Bishop – had decent numbers, but is traded to Tampa; now the Lightning’s #1 goaltender (4th in save% this season)
2013-14
Robin Lehner – worst numbers of his career; doesn’t improve much the following season; now Buffalo’s #1 goaltender (9th in save% this season)
2014-15
Andrew Hammond – career numbers, which came back to earth this season
Wamsley has been unable to get the most out of three #1 goaltenders (we can argue about Lehner, but he’s a projected #1 goaltender and that’s how Buffalo is treating him), while ushering out the careers of two others. What he can hang his hat on is basically Craig Anderson, and as much as fans love him he’s been all over the place with Ottawa (I’ve excluded the 2010-11 mid-season numbers as I don’t see what impact Wamsley could have had):
2011-12 .914
2012-13 .941
2013-14 .911
2014-15 .923
2015-16 .916
If you remove 12-13 this is not particularly impressive. I don’t see anything here that suggests the Sens are truly losing something of value in Wamsley.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
2 Comments
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
eyeonthesens 
Well, when you put it like that…
[…] of this said, there is legitimate argument that Wamsley wasn’t the wizard he might have been sold […]