Who to keep an eye on in training camp: Jonas Hiller
By Sean
Continuing my look at who to keep an eye on in training camp, in this post I will discuss Jonas Hiller. He will be a welcome addition to this team, even though he’s been with the Ducks, it almost seems like he is a free agent signing. I would say that the Ducks would be better off with platooning Dan Ellis and Ray Emery but……………that would just be straight up dumb………..and silly.
There is no question he is the best option for the Ducks at goalie. He missed much of last season with vertigo symptoms. It was very frustrating for me to watch games and know that our starting goalie is out not because of a physical injury but because of a type of dizziness. I have never had vertigo so, it’s probably worse than I think it is, but it just got a little frustrating for me at least, I do not know about anyone else.
This past year might have been his best had he not had vertigo symptoms. He was 26-16-3 with a 2.56 goals allowed average and a save percentage of .924%. He did set career highs with 5 shutouts and that save percentage in just 49 games. His best season so far was 2009-2010 when the Ducks did not even qualify for the playoffs. He has little playoff experience in his career, just 13 games played, but besides his record, his playoff statistics are pretty good, 7-6, 2.23, .943.
You need to watch Jonas Hiller because once training camp starts, we will finally see whether or not he is symptom free. Yeah, yeah he’s told reporters that he is completely symptom free and will be ready for training camp with no effects. Can you imagine what it would look like if a player was participating in practice with vertigo symptoms? I would think it would be quite humorous. But, I digress, like I said we will finally see if Hiller is finally over this vertigo trip. If he is, he could continue to improve and have a type of season last year could have been. If not, well, um, I guess, Dan Ellis will take over and a player like Jeff Deslauriers or Igor Bobkov would be our backup…………..oh god. That’s just not good. So, hopefully things go back to normal, please.