The next wave: as one generation of star goalies begins to fade, a new group is ready to claim its place

FEW PREDICTED THAT THE Montreal Canadiens would win the Stanley Cup in the spring of 1986.

The Habs finished the 1985-86 season in fifth place in the then Wales Conference on the strength of 87 points and a 40-33-7 record. While Mats Naslund finished among the top 10 scorers and fellow Swede Kjell Dahlin led all freshmen with 71 points in 77 games, there was little else spectacular about the team.

The goaltending chores were the responsibility of an unproven rookie by the name of Patrick Roy, who managed only a single shutout the entire year and finished the regular campaign with a 3.35 goals-against-average--nowhere near the league-leading 2.55 average of Philadelphia Flyers goalie Bob Froese.

But Roy used the postseason pressure cooker as a springboard to the most-successful goaltending career in the history of the NHL. His incredible puck-stopping feats during the 1986 playoffs put the 20-year-old rookie in the record book as the youngest player to ever win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP in the postseason.

Since then, Roy has won multiple awards, including two additional Smythe Trophies for his playoff heroics in 1993 and 2001. But his greatest contribution to the game will never appear in the record book Roy's play inspired a whole new generation of goalies, now in their mid-20s, who form the next wave of outstanding NHL goaltenders. [For a look at how Roy inspired a whole generation of goalies in his home province of Quebec, see "Quebecois Goalies Invade the NHL".]

"Patrick Roy was a big reason I became a goalie," says 26-year-old Vancouver Canucks netminder Dan Cloutier. "It was incredible growing up in Quebec when the Canadiens won the Cup. I grew up watching him and really admired the way he competed. Patrick Roy is a winner. So you really can't go wrong admiring him."

Like Roy in 1986, Cloutier was an unknown quantity prior to last spring's fast-round playoff series against the Detroit Red Wings. He enjoyed a solid regular season, establishing a Canucks club record with seven shutouts and winning 31 games, more victories than he had amassed in his previous four NHL seasons combined. Cloutier grew stronger as the season progressed and was instrumental in the Canucks' 11-2-1 record down the stretch.

Despite winning the first two games of the opening-round playoff series vs. the Red Wings, Cloutier and the Canucks were unable to pull off the upset. Still, lessons can learned through defeat as well as victory. "I'm just going to keep playing the same way I have," Cloutier says. "I'm a play-the-percentages-type goalie. I try to come out and challenge and play the shooter. When I'm out there and the puck drops, I'm just focused on what's in front of me."

Does Cloutier follow the old-school standup style of goaltending or follow the butterfly method perfected by his childhood hero? "I'm a little of both," he says. "I try to stand up as much as I can, but I also use the butterfly and even dive around once in a while. I'm not the most technical guy in the league. I just go in there and battle. I try to give the team a chance to win."

Like Roy, Cloutier uses his innate competitive drive to stop the puck and inspire his teammates to victory. "Dan is aggressive, quick, and he is a competitor," says Vancouver team captain Markus Naslund. "We've had Dan bail us out a lot of times."

Jose Theodore bailed out the Montreal Canadiens so much last season that the 26-year-old netminder won the Hart Trophy as the league MVP and the Vezina Trophy as the league's top goalie.

"He had a tremendous season," says Mitch Korn, goaltending coach of the Nashville Predators. "The thing I feel strongly about is, you have to leave your feet to make saves. It's not if, but when and how. Theodore's `when' and `how' is outstanding. His `when' is based on his ability to read the puck off the stick, and Jose doesn't blindly drop. Every time you leave your feet, you have to have a purpose. He does, and therefore he doesn't get himself in trouble. Jose drops after he reads the puck."

The next wave of potentially dominant netminders includes three Roy devotees who were chosen in the first round of the 1995 entry draft: Jean-Sebastien Giguere (13th overall), Martin Biron (16th), and Marc Denis (25th).

"[Giguere and Biron] are similar goalies. They're big, lanky guys who block a lot of the net They're very talented guys that read and react well," Korn says.

While Biron has remained with the team that originally drafted him and is now a vital cog for the rejuvenated Buffalo Sabres, Giguere had brief stops in Hartford and Calgary before settling in as the main man between the pipes for the improving Anaheim Mighty Ducks.

"I think he can be a star in this league," says Anaheim GM Bryan Murray. "Giguere proved to me last year that his work habits are so good that it's going to allow him to be a real top-end goaltender. There were games last year that he gave us a chance to win when we didn't play very well. Technically, he is good. His work habits are such that he is going to allow himself to be awfully good."