Before we get to the write up on prospect #15, Adam Werner I wanted to do a quick little recap of the previous 5 prospects.





20. Sasha Mutala

19. Matthew Stienburg

18. Alex Beaucage

17. Tyler Weiss

16. Brandon Saigeon





And with that, comes our first Goalie on the list. In the past I have thought about making this list strictly skaters because Goalies and Prospects is straight voodoo madness. But I said what the heck, I like adding the wrinkle of keeping goalies in play for this. However (spoiler alert) it is part of the reason why Werner is the only Goalie prospect I have listed in the top 20. I went back and forth and debated heavily on Justus Annunen but he barely missed the cut. But that is neither here nor there, so let's jump into the voodoo talk.





Werner was part of the Avs 2016 draft class, he was taken 131st overall in the 5th round. Since being drafted in the summer of 2016 Werner has played all over Sweden. He's suited up in the ElitLeague (Top Junior League), the Allsvenskan (Top Minor League) and the SHL (Top Pro League). Most recently he has suited up for Farjestad BK of the SHL. Now I could go into his stats and what not but I don't want too. Mainly because that's a lazy way to evaluate players, especially goalies. Their statistics really don't mean much at all. There are so many other things that go into scouting and evaluating goalies that I don't want to waste time on that. And just to note here, scouting goalies is incredibly difficult as I already mentioned. It's a totally different animal, so I am not going to pretend that I know everything and that I am some sort of goalie expert because I certainly am not. For myself and this write up I am basing most of this off of what I have read and studied from other smart people and based off of how the Avs have treated him and view him in their plans going forward.





One thing I do know when watching Werner though, is that he has prototypical NHL size. He is a little skinny but for a young 22 year old I don't see why he can't add 10-15 lbs to his frame. He has the ideal frame and size in the sense that he is 6'5" and naturally covers a lot of net. His athleticism at that size is what has earned him a pro contract to this day. He is a superb athlete and recovers well when out of position. He has the athletic ability to make all the saves needed.





For the upcoming season, Werner looks to make the full time move to North America. It is no doubt the AHL competition he will be facing will a pretty big upgrade compared to the players he saw every day in Sweden. On the flip side he should have a pretty good defensive unit playing in front on him, so really we will see how he handles the day in and day out workload of being an AHL #1 goalie. Leading up to this season, the most amount of games Werner has played in any season was 47 games in the 2017-2018 in the Allsvenskan league. He did end up coming over and playing 4 games for the San Antonio Rampage. He had a rough outing in his short stint in the AHL, got shelled with a .880 sv%. Obviously there was quite a bit of adjusting to the North American ice, as there will be this coming season for him.





For me what I really want to see out of Werner is to more or less pick up where Francouz left off. Now obviously Werner is not as good an overall goalie that Francouz is and I don't expect him to match Francouz's play from last year. That's why he is in the NHL this season. Where I expect Werner to pick up is more so where the team was. He should not be losing this team any games. This team should continue to improve and be a more competitive team in the payoffs this year. There will obviously be growing pains with him both with the AHL ice and playing against better pros. He will need to learn to be a pro and handle himself accordingly. But it is important to keep in mind he is only 22, while old for this list that is young for a goalie prospect. He's a rookie and has all the tools you want to see in a young player to develop into a nice piece. I fully expect him to take advantage of this opportunity and handle the day to day duties of being the number 1 guy.