Who will be the next Brandon Bussi?
The Carolina Hurricanes just won the Stanley Cup, in large part thanks to the contributions of Brandon Bussi, a 27-year-old goalie with no prior NHL experience.
After years of hard work, and excellence, in the AHL, Bussi finally got his chance this season when Pyotr Kochetkov was injured and Frederik Andersen struggled, going 31-6-2 in the regular season.
Then, as Andersen carried the team through three rounds, Bussi’s number was called in the Stanley Cup Final, where he went 3-0 in his starts to help seal the series in what would have been his rookie year if he wasn’t too old to qualify as a rookie.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by Kevin Woodley of InGoal Magazine to discuss which under-the-radar goalie has the capability to be the next to make a Bussi-like impact.
Carter Hutton: I think at times there’s a problem with the league where we don’t want to give guys chances, right? It’s like the devil you know, and I think with coaching and players, we see that very, very often. And a perfect example of that is Brandon Bussi, right? Brandon Bussi bounced around like we watched him and, you know, go through it. Then all of a sudden he’s this gem that just runs the table this year during the regular season. Is there some takeaway that we can take watching the Carolina Hurricanes, what they were able to do this year with the, with Freddie Andersen and with Brandon Bussi? And that situation, is there somebody out there that could be the next Brandon Bussi in the market?
Kevin Woodley: Well, I think you saw a trade this week that tells you that teams were thought Dennis Hildeby would be high on that list. Not every team perhaps, but there were certainly teams that when they looked at goalies that would require waivers and teams that had too many goalies in their system, you know, the need to create a spot in the National Hockey League for Dennis Hildeby probably played a prominent role in Toronto’s decision to move on from Joseph Woll. Because he was going to be the next Bussi. And I think the size one is interesting, Carter, because I’m with you… because there’s another guy in the American Hockey League that is basically following the same exact profile, and I don’t think he should have gotten through waivers last year. He does, and he wins American Hockey League, not goalie of the year, but player of the year, and that’s Michael DiPietro. And size is definitely one of the only things separating him from a National Hockey League opportunity, despite continued success in the American League. And listen, hey, listen, like full disclosure, I don’t have access to really good adjusted numbers in the AHL like I do in the National Hockey League. And for sure, when you talk to people, Providence as a team has a system that’s probably pretty friendly for goaltenders. So the numbers might get pumped up. We’ve heard the same of Grand Rapids with Detroit and some of the numbers that their goalies post. And the questions about how much of it is the goalie, how much of it is the system around Sebastian Cossa, another name that’s being linked to the Edmonton Oilers. So I don’t have that answer, but I do think there are goalies in the American League coming up on waivers, you know, that are going to be of interest to teams. Bussi had success, and then he lost the job ironically to DiPietro.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…