Pearce hasn’t looked that great in Toledo.

I’ve watched him when the Walleye have come to Kalamazoo to play the Wings and he seems to have lost his game somewhat.  The Walleye’s defense isn’t great and they lack a physical presence so they get pushed around a bit anyways… but Pearce’s play has not been great.  He makes the saves he should make, but not much else…  he probably needs to stay in the ECHL for now to hone his game a bit.

We’ve seen Tyson Sexsmith, Robert Mayer, Jeremy Smith, Miika Wiikman (who was just traded from the Rangers to Phoenix yesterday)... all in Kalamazoo this year with their ECHL teams, and all have game that is well beyond Pearce’s right now.  Kid’s still got plenty of promise, but it’s a rough game by comparison.  And a guy like Wiikman that has struggled to even stick in the AHL this year when he might actually be able to back up in the NHL on any given night… it’s a tough league to be a goalie in.

He’s not “wasting away” there, trust me.  The ECHL is a pretty fast league.  Timing and reflexes are quite different from collegiate hockey.  On some nights they play a faster game than the AHL even because everyone’s looking to make a name for themselves and the talent is rather good, and they’re a bit younger overall.

If Toledo can make the ECHL playoffs (which it looks like they will because the East division is soooo bad) Pearce could get some valuable playoff development in and it’s likely the Walleye could go more than just one round and out, and he certainly won’t be getting that experience in G.R (The Griffs are 2 points out from being the worst team in the entire AHL).  Don’t underestimate that experience…

Posted by Primis on 03/04/10 at 09:56 AM ET

Hey, thanks for the input. I don’t follow ECHL at all, so I really know very little about it. But it is interesting to ponder the difference defense and better coaching make.

I think Howard is really the perfect case study. He has simply reeked of a player who was not going to live up to his potential. It seems every year since he turned pro we heard the same comments after training camp about how he hasn’t progressed the way they expected, etc. How is it possible he could then come up and IMMEDIATELY be a top ten NHL goalie all year? I mean, he’s facing way more talent, way more speed, way more finesse, way more strength, and way more power… yet, he seems to be far more successful already than he was in the AHL. Why?

The only logical answers are the defense in front of him, even at their worst, is so much better than anything he’s played behind in his life, that he can just “make himself big”, “challenge the shot”, and “let it hit him”. The D does the rest. The other explanation is that the daily training with the Wings coaches, not to mention the invaluable mentoring he’s getting from Ozzie, is really mentally preparing him in a way he’s never experienced. I don’t know, it’s hard to qualify this stuff. The fact is, that it’s apparent with goalies that they can play better the better league they are in. Could definitely be true with Pearce as well.

Posted by perfection from LaLaLand on 03/04/10 at 01:29 PM ET

Grand Rapids really is in fact just that bad most years.  They teach the same puck control game at the AHL level and it doesn’t work very well.  It molds well, but doesn’t get AHL results.  The Griffs do great developing NHLers… not so great a job developing successful AHLers.

Jimmy sometimes didn’t help his own cause, but yes there’s a reason that guys in the AHL were saying to reporters that “Howard doesn’t belong down here, he belongs in the NHL”.

In Kalamazoo with the K-Wings we had a kid most of this season that’s a Flyers prospect named Jeremy Duchesne.  Going into the season we were told he was a TERRIBLE goalie and that the Flyers were trying to hide him, bnury him in their system.  We were told to “beware” him, and that he wasn’t capable of a darn thing.  The K-Wings actually offered Duchesne to the IHL’s Quad City Mallards (because at the time he was the 3rd goalie on the roster) and they turned him down.  So they stuck with him and let him prove himself a bit.

It turns out, in fact, that he’d been playing for terrible ECHL teams and that nobody ever gave him a reason to have confidence in himself.  Kzoo waived Julien Ellis, and kept Ryan NIe and Jeremy Duchesne.  Duchense turned his game around enough now that he’s in the AHL in Adirondack backing up Backlund.  He may have, in fact, saved his status with the Flyers organization as a legit prospect.  So you never really can judge by AHL performances, or ECHL performances even.

Pearce does need some time though.  The Walleye don’t have a great reputation developing players to send up, to be honest, but ... Pearce is still definitely raw.  Goalies can take a long time to develop and mature.  Both McCollum and Pearce are probably a couple of years away if you ask me.

Another possibility—Howard at times reminds me of Osgood in his younger days.  Osgood didn’t so much as make saves as fight the puck off, and early on that’s what Howard weathered until he got his confidence up and his timing down.  I suppose it’s entirely possible that Howard possesses the same “STFU Switch” Osgood’s shown in the past, I guess.

Posted by Primis on 03/09/10 at 03:04 PM ET