Avalanche Draft Profile: Michael DiPietro

Get to Know Michael DiPietro

Date of Birth: 6/9/1999
Place of Birth: Windsor, ON, CN
Ht: 6’0″ Wt: 194 lbs
Catches: Left
Position: Goaltender
Team (League): Windsor Spitfires (OHL)

Statistics

What Scouts See

Crease Giants:

Michael DiPietro is one of the highest Hockey IQ goalies of the draft. He’s also the top draft eligible goalie that the Canadian Hockey League is putting out this year. DiPietro has done everything asked of him this season. DiPietro’s high Hockey IQ shines through in all aspects of DiPietro’s game. It shows up in his consistency which is apparent in-game and game-to- game. It shows in how DiPietro reads the game as he very rarely loses sight of the puck and follows it from the stick of the shooter all the way to his body. He’s also very good at resetting his focus in-game that allows him to bounce back after a bad goal and provide quality goaltending for the rest of the game.

DiPietro’s hockey IQ is supplemented by his high-level footwork, which makes him one of the quickest goalies in this draft. The hockey IQ/footwork combination is important to have for DiPietro as it helps mitigate the fact he doesn’t take up as much net as Oettinger/Skinner/Petruzzelli. So DiPietro has to be smart about when to aggressively challenge and in how he recovers. This combination also makes DiPietro highly effective in stopping tipped pucks as he’s capable of changing direction mid-motion and getting something in front of it.

Lastly, DiPietro’s movements are very polished. His upper body rarely loses position which translates to successful last second, quick lateral movements.
One aspect of DiPietro’s play that needs improvement is his rebound control on High Danger Shots Against. DiPietro knows his weaknesses and tries to compensate for them via speed. This causes issues as he’ll react too fast creating a dangerous rebound. In order to move past this he’ll need to slow himself down a bit so as not to be exposed on rebounds at the pro level. On shots from outside of the High Danger Area though DiPietro consistency performs above average rendering opposing offenses one-and-done.

There are two other small issues that would be helpful for DiPietro to shore up. The first is his decision making on the poke checks. Would like to see him pick and choose his spots better though it is a rare moment in the game and ultimately not that big of an impact looking at the season. Lastly is on his crease depth. While I do like how aggressive he is it would be better if he dialed it back a bit on odd-man rushes as he doesn’t always leave himself the option to get over for the pass.

Statistical Analysis: Michael DiPietro wasn’t only the top first time CHL draft eligible goalie but he was a top goalie in the entire OHL. DiPietro finished 1 st in GSAA (27.861), 2 nd in GSAA/60 (0.569), and 5 th in Quality Starts % (0.620) while making the 2 nd most starts (50) among his CHL DE peers. In the OHL DiPietro finished 5 th in GSAA, 5 th in GSAA/60 and 7 th in QS%. The success didn’t stop there for DiPietro asin his 7 playoff starts DiPietro posted a 0.857 QS%, 0.613 GSAA/60, and a 0.917 SV%. The reason Windsor couldn’t eliminate London wasn’t DiPieto, it was a lack of offensive support.

There are still improvements to be made though. A minor issue is seeing DiPietro’s consistency improve as towards the end of the regular season he did struggle and had his worst stretch of games in his last 12 starts of the season. DiPietro also struggled a lot with posting a quality start immediately after having a below replacement level start. In 6 bounce back situations this season only two of those starts were quality starts and he posted a 0.866 SV% in those situations.

Draft Ranking

DiPietro is widely ranked as the second-best goaltender in this draft class and is expected to be selected either in the late first or early second round.