The hockey goaltender is a complicated species.

Crowned the hero in Game A, demoted to the goat in Game B. Overvalued on Team A, undervalued on Team B. Victim of poor team defence under Coach A, beneficiary of good team defence under Coach B…

Luckily, the position’s complexity is balanced by these three widely accepted truths:

1) Taller goalies naturally offer greater net coverage, lending them an automatic advantage over the vertically challenged;

2) Mastering the art of puck tracking can help a shorter goalie overcome the so-called height disadvantage;

3) Goalies, big and small, tend to take a backseat to skaters at the annual NHL entry draft, due in part to the late-blooming nature of puckstoppers.

The three truths will collide next weekend. Dozens of netminders are headed to Buffalo to sweat it out inside the First Niagara Center in hopes of watching an NHL executive call out their name from a podium.

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“It doesn’t really matter. For me, I don’t care when I go (in the draft). I just want to go,” said Carter Hart of the Everett Silvertips, the Canadian Hockey League’s goaltender of the year.

Based on conversations with industry insiders, as well as consultation with various pre-draft rankings, the chances of the opening round featuring a masked man are slim. Nobody in the 1998 age group jumps off the page — similar to the 2011, 2013 and 2014 drafts, all of which were devoid of a first-rounder — and it’s not a deep goalie class, either.

Since 2005, the year the draft was trimmed from nine rounds to seven, an annual average of 21.8 goalies have been selected. Over that 11-year span, only 46 goalies, or 4.2 per draft, went in the first two rounds.

“The draft is just a number, it’s a door being opened. It’s an opportunity and what you do with that opportunity is completely up to you,” said Zach Sawchenko, an expected mid-rounder who this past season posted a .916 save percentage in 51 Western Hockey League games for the Moose Jaw Warriors.

Generally speaking, the 2016 class boasts a nice mix of taller goalies who cover plenty of net, such as 6-foot-4 Sherbrooke Phoenix Evan Fitzpatrick, and smaller goalies who track the puck incredibly well, like Hart.

Many Canadian NHL franchises, namely the Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames and Winnipeg Jets, lack organizational depth at the position, making them prime candidates to scoop up at least a pair of goalies during the festivities in Buffalo.

Sawchenko, who is the same height as Hart, had his hands full at the pre-draft scouting combine earlier this month. He fielded questions about his size (6-foot-1, 179 pounds) from all eight NHL teams he met with, including the Leafs and Jets.

“It came up in every interview,” the Calgarian said with a grin. “The biggest thing that I look at is, if you’re 6-foot-4, or 6-foot-1, if you stop the puck, what does it matter? Obviously, those 6-foot-4 guys have that advantage because they fill up more net but, if you’re stopping the puck, what does it matter?”

To InGoal Magazine’s Greg Balloch, size isn’t a deal breaker — if a short netminder is an elite puck tracker, he’ll find success. Balloch, a goalie consultant for the Jr. A Surrey Eagles, believes Hart (.918 SV% in 63 WHL games) is a first-round talent and the top goalie prospect available.

“What puts him above some of the other goaltenders is his patience on his skates, which is caused by his ability to track the puck,” Balloch said of Hart’s spatial awareness and angling. “He never really reaches for his shots. He knows his net so well.”

Edmonton Oilers goalie coach Dustin Schwartz has worked one-on-one with Hart for six years. It’s safe to say he knows Hart’s skill set better than anybody else.

“I think his puck tracking is very, very superior to a lot of goalies,” Schwartz said. “I think he does an excellent job staying on the release (of the shot) and tracks the puck into his save execution and into his recovery very, very well. He’s a really strong skater and I think that his mobility within the net is pretty good. I think his post play is an area he needs to keep refining.”

While not towering like the 6-foot-7 giant that is Ben Bishop of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Fitzpatrick is nonetheless a commanding presence between the pipes. The St. John’s, Nfld., native finished atop NHL Central Scouting Services’ list of draft-eligible North American goalies after demonstrating he’s not simply taking up space.

“He knows situations very well,” Balloch said. “He’s very confident in a lot of his save selections. You’ll see a lot of guys at this age who will have a lot of different techniques in their head — or in their toolbox, as we like to call it — and they get confused over when to use which and they use them in the wrong situations or too much. I think Fitzpatrick is a little more developed in that area than a lot of other guys.”

Clearly, Hart and Fitzpatrick are different goalies — size-wise and skill-wise they aren’t cut from the same cloth. Both will be drafted, though, and likely in the first few rounds.

And then the pair, along with the rest of the goalie draft class, will be dissected based on their perceived shortcomings.

In other words, it’s complicated.

FIVE TO WATCH

CARTER HART

Team: Everett (WHL)

SV%: .918 in 63 games

Ranking: 2 (North American goalies)

Expected to go: Second round

EVAN FITZPATRICK

Team: Sherbrooke (QMJHL)

SV%: .896 in 54 GP

Ranking: 1 (N.A.)

Expected to go: 3rd

FILIP GUSTAVSSON

Team: Lulea Jr. (Sweden Jr.)

SV%: .893 in 20 GP

Ranking: 1 (European goalies)

Expected to go: 3rd

TYLER PARSONS

Team: London (OHL)

SV%: .921 in 49 GP

Ranking: 3 (N.A.)

Expected to go: 3rd

COLTON POINT

Team: Carleton Place (CCHL)

SV%: .915 in 33 GP

Ranking: 4 (N.A.)

Expected to go: 4th

*rankings via NHL Central Scouting Services

Email:jmatisz@postmedia.com

Twitter:@MatiszJohn