I thought it was kind of a social faux-pas to be sober when in Europe? Soo why did Ondrej even get a ticket? Weird. Anyway let's get to the Jets.
At 24 years, Pavelec has already proven he can handle a starter's workload (175 games over the last 3 seasons, average of 58 per). The Jets brass seem confident he can be a starter for years as they dished a $3.9mil contract at him for the next 5 seasons. That's not a bad dollar amount for his games played, but his numbers haven't been up to par (2.91gaa, 90.6sv% last year on perhaps the best team he's played for in his young career). The Jets are still building for a brighter tomorrow though, so you'd think his inconsistent play will continue to settle behind a steadily improving defense.
The 6th overall pick in 2004, Al Montoya has never lived up to the hype. He had a very brief flirtation with NHL quality play in 2011 with the Isles, but seemed to slip back into his old skin this past season. He seems quite erratic when looking at his stat sheet.. goals against averages shoot from 3.00+ all the way down to 2.39 with the Isles during that flirtatious year. He's been playing behind some pretty bad defenses so perhaps a year behind a young-up-and-coming defense will yield some quality starts. He'll be called upon for about 15-20 starts so long as Ondrej remains healthy, so the workload won't be quite so much as what he played last year on Long Island.
In AHL news Edward Pasquale's second pro-season was much better than his first. He played goal for the newly-minted St. John's IceCaps (who would have thought a franchise would name themselves after a frozen drink from Tim Hortons) and boy did he play it well. His regular season marks at 2.41gaa, and 91.1sv% added to his playoff numbers (where he ran the IceCaps to the semi's) of 2.42 and 92.3 give him a solid base to build upon. His contract will be up after this season so if I were him I'd be pushing Montoya for all he's worth.
With Pasquale securely installed in St. John's, his one-year-elder Chris Carrozzi had to find starts in the depths of the ECHL. He's definitely gotten in his minutes after entering 77 games for the Gwinnett Gladiators, and Ontario Reign in the last 2 years. He's only posted a 2.90gaa and 90.4v%, but ECHL rosters and numbers are very VERY undependable. It just matters that he's getting starts regularly. Depending on Montoya's reliability either Pasquale or Carrozzi may get a crack at some big-league starts this season.
After being recalled and assigned to and from Milwaukee about a hundred times (while only ever getting 1 start through 4 years) Mark Dekanich had enough. At 26 the former Colgate starter had punched his ticket in the AHL with the Admirals for 3 great seasons before an ankle injury derailed him last year. A 66-40-12 record with a 2.22gaa and a 92.0sv% are nothing to sneeze at in the 'A', but it's just the 'A'. He too will be pushing for some emergency starts as time is running out on establishing himself as something other than a quality AHL option.
Personally I would love to see Dekanich at least get into a couple starts for the Jets, guys like him put in a lot of time and effort. However, he'll have a tough time beating out his new-younger teammates in St. John's. So long as Montoya doesn't implode there probably won't be any starts to go around in the back-up role anyway. In the end this all depends on Ondrej.. was that DUI just the tip of the behavioral iceberg? Jets fans better hope so.
Due to the fact that Pavelec has been terribly inconsistent (I had him in a fantasy league..) I have to rank the Jets down the list. 4 blockers out of 10 to shatter the cheekbone..
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