Livescore
At 6-foot-7, Ottawa Senators prospect Mads Sogaard shares the record for being the tallest goalie in NHL history, but the organization is still waiting for him to truly stand out as a prospect.
On Saturday night in Winnipeg, Sogaard got another chance to show what he can do at the NHL level. But he didn’t have his finest performance in a 4-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets.
That prompted some social media discussion about Sogaard’s progress and whether he remains a bonafide prospect in the organization. We’re not here to predict his future, but we are here to say it’s too early to give up on him, especially based on his tiny sample of games this season.
His start in Manitoba came under difficult circumstances. Linus Ullmark had just emerged from the holiday break still dealing with a back injury, and after the tear the veteran has been on, he left Sogaard with a brutally tough act to follow.
The kid was called up and thrown right into the fire on the road against the NHL’s first-place team (by points). That would be tough enough if Sogaard were in mid-season form. But thanks to a lower-body injury on October 20th, he had played in just seven hockey games this season, and only four in the past two months.
This wasn’t an EBUG deployment, but it wasn’t far off.
Sogaard probably isn’t ready to be in the NHL right now, let alone provide anything close to what we’ve seen from Ullmark, the 2023 Vezina winner who was on one of the best heaters in Senators history.
Other fans are including Sogaard’s past body of work in their assessments. Common complaints include: being too deep in his net, sliding out of position when moving laterally, or going down too early. All fair points. But it needs to be mentioned that the Sens have generally been a defensive gong show for Sogaard’s past body of work – not exactly the best conditions for goalie development.
Additionally, Sogaard just turned 24 two weeks ago. That’s a nice age for an NHL forward, but goalies take longer to get there. There are only three goalies under 24 who’ve played more than eight games in the NHL this season (Dustin Wolf, Spencer Knight, and Alexei Kolosov).
And maybe taller goalies like Sogaard, gangly as they are, need even more time to blossom. Consider some of the other members of the NHL’s tallest goalie club, which is fitted with extra-high door jambs.
Former Senator Ben Bishop needed seven years to become an NHL regular and became a stud. Ivan Fedotov is now part of Philadelphia’s three-headed goalie monster this season, nine years after the Flyers drafted him. Mikko Koskinen needed nine years after his draft day to finally emerge as an NHL goalie in Edmonton.
Sogaard was drafted just five years ago, 37th overall. By goalie standards, that’s like being an early first-rounder.
That said, Sogaard is old enough, even by goalie standards, that he needs to at least show serious signs of progress this season. He has a one-way NHL contract kicking in next season, which suggests that the Sens see him as Ullmark’s backup for 2025-26.
If he can’t show signs of progress over the next four or five months, whether it’s here or in Belleville, then everything needs to be re-evaluated. But that time isn’t now. In the meantime, his performance on Saturday night should have little bearing on his current stock as a prospect.
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