Is drafting a goaltender high in the draft worth it?

For this week’s contribution to Puck Prospectus, I further examined the value of goaltenders in the NHL.  More specifically, what the success rate was of netminders drafted higher in the draft as opposed to lower, or not at all.

Almost everyone knows that the draft is somewhat of a crapshoot. For all the work teams and scouts put into projecting the future production of teenagers, there is an element of luck involved as well. This element of luck may be even more apparent when it comes to goaltenders. As the above statistics indicate, only 20% of goaltenders drafted (in the first seven rounds) over the eleven draft years of 1991-2001 have played 100+ games in the NHL. While these are the overall numbers, is there greater likelihood of success for drafting goaltenders later in the draft as opposed to earlier?

Read the entire article here.