With a rising star on one side and a veteran AHL goaltender on the other, Abbotsford Canucks head coach Jeremy Colliton is ready to rock with either of his goaltenders when the AHL playoffs commence.
As Canucks fans know, Arturs Silovs is the rising star. He holds a .907% save percentage, a 2.47 goals against average, and has a 24-11-5 record through 42 appearances in the AHL this season.
Spencer Martin is the veteran AHL goaltender, and holds a .914% save percentage, a 2.56 GAA, and has a 6-6-2 record with 14 appearances in the AHL this season.
Jeremy Colliton had a pregame interview with Abbotsford play-by-play man Brandon Astle and was asked about the goaltending situation for the playoffs.
“These are things that are in the future, we’ll let it play out,” said Colliton. “We like how both guys are playing right now. And that’s a big reason why we have an alternating. I don’t think there’s a reason to get out of that right now, they are both playing well.. Having said that, it’s a competition and that’s great. I think that’s part of why we’ve had such good goaltending lately is because both guys know that there’s another guy pushing him.”
A strong playoff performance is a big step for either Silovs or Martin.
Silovs, who just turned 22 years old a few weeks ago, is continuing to trend toward being an NHL goaltender but is still likely a year or so away from really being in the conversation. Getting a strong AHL playoff run on his resume would certainly help the cause for him to see more consistent NHL action sooner than later.
As for Martin, a good bounce-back in the AHL  would really help his chances of winning the backup job with the Vancouver Canucks. There’s certainly uncertainty with who is going to backup Thatcher Demko for next season and Martin is a very cheap option to fill the role.
There are four games left in the AHL season. Abbotsford plays on Saturday night, this coming Wednesday and then wraps up the regular season with a pair of games next weekend. We have our eyes on that Wednesday start. It should be an indicator of which goalie they want to begin with for the playoffs.
We caught up with Silovs on a recent episode of the Canucks Conversation. It’s a fun chat!
Who do you think should start in net for Abbotsford during the AHL playoffs?