Featured Article
Spotlight on Davis Parley
Written by: Unknown on 09/13/2003 
Sometimes
even the best players get overlooked at some point in their hockey life, but
that is no longer the case for Kamloops goaltender Davis
Parley. After being chosen in the fourth round 120th overall by
the Florida Panthers in the 2000 National Hockey League Entry Draft in Calgary,
he has now come full circle.
Not
concerned about the past, he has chosen to focus on the present and the
opportunity to show the Calgary Flames and the rest of the NHL he has the tools
to succeed at the next level. Just before arriving in Calgary for training camp
fitness testing Parley said “he just wanted to keep it simple and go in and
have a great camp and show the Flames what he had to offer.” Discussing his
long-term goals over the next two to three years he feels that “if I play in
the East Coast or American Hockey Leagues and progress and show consistency then
I feel I will better equipped for the NHL.”
This British
Columbia native hailing from Surrey has the prototypical body type of most NHL
goaltenders. He’s lanky at 6’2”,194 lbs he can fill the net whether
sprawling or standing. Describing his own attributes he feels that “my
strengths are cutting down my angles and being a big boxy player and my movement
in the crease and my play with the puck.” However he did think “I could use
some work on being a little faster in his lateral movement, high shots and
perhaps two on ones.”
Parley is a
confident and poised goaltender who has just completed an outstanding junior
hockey career. He gives his team
both on and off ice leadership and his level of play keeps his team in games and
gives it the opportunity to win games the team normally would not.
He has stolen many games where his team has been outshot by 10 or more
shots: he won 80 games in his WHL career while facing an average
of 33.21 shots per game. Davis has
excellent positional play and his skating and goaltending skills have enabled
him to be the top goaltender in the WHL over the last three years. Quickness, discipline and determination are among Davis’
strengths. Parley’s goalie coach
over the last few years has been Ian Clark.
Stastistics
Comparable Team Shots Against for last three years
Kamloops
gave up 33% more shots than Red Deer, 29.5% more shots than Kelowna, and 24.5% more than Kootenay. Davis
Parley led the league in save percentage in 2000-01 and 2001-02 and finished sixth in 2002-03 behind a injury-riddled Blazer team.
Davis
Parley’s WHL record
2002-2003 Season:
|
GP
|
W
|
L
|
T
|
SO
|
Mins
|
Shots
|
GGA
|
SV%
|
|
| Kamloops |
50
|
25
|
19
|
4
|
3
|
2856
|
1460
|
2.77
|
.910
|
| Playoffs |
6
|
2
|
4
|
0
|
1
|
495
|
250
|
1.94
|
.936
|
Parley closed his four-year
WHL career with his best post-season ever. He logged a 2-4 record (three
of the losses coming in overtime), a 1.94 goals against average, and a .936 save
percentage. He made 54 saves in a 2-1 triple-overtime loss to the Kootenay
Ice in game six and 77 saves in a 3-2 quadruple-overtime defeat in game three.
This season in high shot games, Parley had the following record:
30-35 shots: 8 wins, 3 losses, 1 tie.
36-40 shots: 5 wins, 2 loss.
41-45 shots: 1 win, 1 loss, 1 tie.
51+ shots: 1 loss.
2001-2002 Season:
WHL
Leading Goalies Save Percentage
|
GPI
|
Mins
|
GA
|
Shots
|
SV%
|
Wins
|
Losses
|
Ties
|
|
| Parley, Davis (Kamloops) |
36
|
1994
|
92
|
1107
|
.917
|
20
|
11
|
1
|
| Thomson, B. (Prince George) |
42
|
2375
|
108
|
1237
|
.913
|
20
|
17
|
2
|
| Brust, Barry (Spokane) |
60
|
3540
|
152
|
1734
|
.912
|
28
|
21
|
10
|
| Bendera, Shane (Kelowna) |
50
|
3027
|
125
|
1416
|
.912
|
24
|
15
|
11
|
| Ward, Cam (R.D) |
45
|
2630
|
99
|
1115
|
.911
|
29
|
11
|
4
|
2000-2001 Season :
Leading Goalies Save Percentage
Parley, Davis (Kamloops)
Blackburn, Dan (Kootenay)
Boxma, BJ (SC)
Garnett, Michael (Saskatoon)
Bendera, Shane (Red Deer)
Note: Minimum 2000 minutes played.
In 22 of his 27 wins Davis had over 30 shots (including eight wins with more than 40 shots and he won all three games he had 50 or more shots, giving up only two goals in each of those three games). He faced an average of 37.25 shots per game, a considerable 47% more shots than Bandera, for example, and still led the league in save percentage. Note that Kamloops was the youngest team in the league and also one of the most penalized.
1999-2000 Season
|
GPI
|
Mins
|
GA
|
Shots
|
SV%
|
Wins
|
Losses
|
Ties
|
Shots per game | |
| Parlay, Davis (Kamloops) |
25
|
1438
|
78
|
748
|
.896
|
8
|
14
|
2
|
31.21
|
WHL GOALTENDER
COMPARISON
High
Shot Win Chart (Prior to 02-03 season)
|
Parley
|
Krahn
|
Blackburn
|
Bandera
|
|
| 30-35 shots and won |
11
|
12
|
19
|
16
|
| 36-40 shots and won |
11
|
6
|
6
|
2
|
| 41-45 shots and won |
6
|
3
|
4
|
2
|
| 46-50 shots and won |
6
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
| 51+ shots and won |
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
From
36 to 51+ Parley won more high shot games than Krahn, Blackburn and Bendera
combined.
By rule of
thumb, goaltenders take two to three years longer to develop than skaters, so
you never really know what you have until the player is 23 to 24 years old. Even
then sometimes it requires some additional tweaking of their game for one to two
more years to push them to that elite level. Taking a look a these statistics
perhaps does not tell the whole story but Parley may just be one of those
goaltenders in four or five years where people say what a nice pick up and why
did Florida ever let him go. It seems you can never discount a goaltender at a
young age and it is clear Davis Parley is one of them.
