Ranford's thoughts on goalie prospects

Kings goaltending coach Bill Ranford is charged with keeping track of all the goalies in the Kings' system, so I asked him to share his thoughts about how the goalie prospects are performing so far this season. For some reference, here's the list of where the goalies are and how they're performing this season (with record, goals-against average and save percentage):

KINGS: Erik Ersberg (1-1-1, 1.61, .911), Jason LaBarbera (3-5-1, 3.01, .884)
MANCHESTER (AHL): Jonathan Bernier (1-1-1, 3.58, .874), Jonathan Quick (1-4, 3.62, .893)
ONTARIO (ECHL): Jeff Zatkoff (4-3, 2.29, .933)
READING (ECHL): Danny Taylor (1-4, 3.77, .880)
JUNIORS (WHL): Martin Jones (9-2-1, 2.00, .921 for Calgary), Linden Rowat (5-0-2, 2.66, .905 for Regina)

Question: Who else have you seen in your travels so far this season?

RANFORD: ``I've watched Zatkoff a few times. Kim Dillabaugh (goaltender development) has been out to Manchester once. Basically, because of the way their season starts, three or four weeks later, the focus for me at the start of the season is to be here. Kim has made a trip out there. I'm actually going to see the Manchester guys next week. They're doing a swing through Toronto and Fort Erie and stuff, so I'll see them there. I talk to all my guys on a weekly basis and I've seen them all on DVD.''

Question: Obviously you haven't seen them live yet, but any impressions of the Manchester guys?

RANFORD: ``I think it's been a little bit of a struggle from a team standpoint there. They're not winning a lot of hockey games. Quick got off to a slow start and has played much better in his last couple starts. He's got one and almost stole a second one. Bernier had a good first game, struggled for a couple and has been strong lately. I think it's a little bit of an adjustment for both guys. They both wanted to be here and they're not happy about being in Manchester, and they both want to play. That's the tough part too. They're kind of splitting right now and they're both frustrated that they're not playing a lot.

``Then with Danny Taylor, I haven't seen Reading. That's the one team I haven't seen. I just got Danny's DVD today. From the sounds of it, the team isn't playing great in front of their goalie, whether it's Danny or (James) Reimer.

``Then with Zatkoff, he's been unbelievable for them. The last game I did see wasn't a great result, but he's facing a lot of rubber. He's facing a lot of shots but they play fairly sound defensively. They just don't have a lot of offense, so he's going to have to win a lot of 2-1 hockey games this year, according to Karl (Taylor, head coach). Karl is starting to get a couple of his guys back. He just got (winger Jon) Rheault back. Manchester ended up signing two of his guys. He sent two guys to Manchester and they ended up signing, so that didn't work out great for him. But they're very solid on the defensive end but they don't have a lot of heavy-duty scoring punch up front. I think that's going to turn around for them.

``The way I look at it, the goalies are playing well. Both of the guys in junior... (Martin) Jones is top of the league. He has played very well for Calgary (of the WHL). (Linden) Rowat had a little streak of two weeks where he had a bad shoulder, and he just got back playing but I think Jones is 8-2 and Rowat is like 5-1 (for Regina of the WHL), so they're both playing well.''