Goalie Wolf strives to be the best
Bottom-of-depth-chart goalie prospect continues chasing dreams with Flames
Dustin Wolf’s draft day story is emotional and well documented.
It was the culmination of a road that was born while he was watching Miikka Kiprusoff stop pucks during his (brief ) San
Jose days; a dream nurtured by his parents, Mike and Michelle, with a move to Hermosa Beach, Calif., so their only child could play with the Los Angeles Junior Kings. It continued with another move to Lake Stevens, Wash., so Wolf could play in the Western Hockey League with the Everett Silvertips where he would go on to post the WHL’S best save percentage (0.936) last season as Carter Hart’s successor.
It continued when the Calgary Flames brought him and his entire family to tears when they selected him No. 214th overall, far after many players and their families had departed Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
But his story does not end there.
“Ever since the draft, you feel like you’ve gotta do better, you know?” Wolf said on a quiet day prior to his first game in Scotiabank Saddledome as the Flames rookies welcomed the Edmonton Oilers prospects for Calgary’s second and final game of camp on Tuesday night. “You want to be the best out there. I think after I came back from development camp (in the summer) and went back home, it was just, ‘I want to be the best.’ And I want to come into this season and into this camp and do the best I can and try to take as much experience as I can from this and take it back to Everett.”
Take this summer, for example. Following his first NHL development camp in early July, the team gave him clear instructions to improve his cardiovascular fitness on top of his Ryan van Asten-issued Flames strength program.
“As a goaltender, it’s kind of tough because you’re not doing quick 40-second shifts,” Wolf said. “You’re in there for the full game, so it’s a little different (than a player). The quick, endurance stuff, as well as explosiveness and long distance, just being able to maintain a certain speed at a lower heart rate.”
So, what did he do?
Took it back to basics, of course.
“In my neighbourhood, there is one hill, so I would just do laps around it,” Wolf said. “It was tough. Running, in general is hard.
“My street is kind of like a big oval with houses around the middle. The hill goes up and then down, kind of like a ramp. It would seem easier on the way down, but hard on the way up. I just tried to do as many laps as I could without dying, basically.”
This is what the kid is about. And he has to be.
Generously listed at six-feet and 165 pounds, Wolf is considered an undersized goalie. His NHL comparable is Juuse Saros, and because he can’t rely on his size he has to rely on his skill and smarts to predict the play in front of him. Wolf, out of necessity, also has a deeper understanding of space and depth.
Stockton goalie coach Thomas Speer explains that a netminder like Wolf is able to read the blade of a stick longer upon the shot and isn’t so quick to drop down to protect the puck.
“Five, 10 years ago, (goalies needed to be) big, big, big,” Speer said. “Now the pendulum is coming back a little bit and you don’t have to be as big. Big guys can get away with stuff hitting them, or misreading a play because pucks will just hit them because they’re big.
“Wolfy, because he’s so good at reading the play and tracking pucks, when he sees the puck he either catches it, controls it or it sticks to him. It’s because he’s so good at reading the blade and tracking pucks … you’ll see it, when they rip it, he doesn’t even flinch and stands up and it goes right into his glove. It’s fun to watch.”
With five goalies currently in Calgary, he is at the bottom of the Flames’ depth chart based on his age and resume; a prospect in every sense of the word.
He just turned 18 years old in April and is heading into his third season in the WHL. In the coming days, he’ll be dispatched back to his junior team to start their 2019-2020 campaign.
Yet in Tuesday’s game against the Oilers, he was solid and did not look out of place.
This is a big year for Wolf as there’s a good chance he could represent the U.S. team at the world junior tournament in Ostrava and Trinec in the Czech Republic this winter. He, along with Flames prospect Demetrios Koumontzis, suited up for the Red, White, and Blue at the world junior summer showcase in Plymouth, Mich.
At the same time, there is patience required when it comes to Wolf ’s development and there is no intention on rushing him to the big leagues anytime soon.
“I tell the goalies: You want to be in the NHL tomorrow. You want to be in the NHL today,” Speer said. “But if you were able to be in the NHL today, you’re probably not going to get there tomorrow. Wherever he’s going to play next year, he needs to worry about being that best version of Dustin Wolf every day, tomorrow.
“He’s going to be closer to being a Flame that way.”
Because he’s so good at reading the play and tracking pucks, when he sees the puck he either catches it, controls it or it sticks to him.