Rob Shields
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Robert Jason Shields (born November 19th, 1987) is a professional ice hockey goaltender playing with the London Knights. He was drafted second overall in the 2005 MIHL Entry Draft, making him the highest-drafted goaltender in the history of the league, and is considered one of the best young talents in the entire sport. After playing with the Stastny Sharks for two years in the Mainland Hockey League and earning a number of honours for his play, he capped his final season by backstopping the team to their first Memorial Cup victory in two decades. He was originally projected to be picked in the early second round of the 2005 Draft, but London had just seen their veteran goaltender Luke Priest announce his surprise retirement and chose to trade up to draft Shields instead. The move was greeted with both shock and derision from fans, pundits and some other players, but London had faith in Shields regardless.
He spent the 2005/2006 season with the Knights' minor league affiliate, the Lemaire Tornadoes, playing 41 games and amassing a rookie record 31 wins along with a 2.07 GAA and a save percentage of .957. Despite this excellent play, the Tornadoes had poor offensive play and missed the postseason by a single point; it was in the minor-league that he first became known for his odd style of goaltending. In a time when most goaltenders played using the butterfly method, he maintained his stand-up style used since his time in the junior leagues and put more emphasis on his stickhandling, on occasions completely leaving his crease to play the puck like a third defenseman, drawing comparisons to Carl Wall. It was expected that he would certainly begin the 2006/2007 season with Lemaire, if not stay there for the full season; however, the breakdown in contract negotiations with Elmer Penner saw him leave for the Tanguay Titans and Shields' excellent performances in the preseason games and the training camp prompted London's management to bring him up to the full roster.
Shields repaid this faith in him, stepping in when Simon Casey was sidelined with a severe injury two weeks into the regular season and compiled a fantastic rookie record, playing in 41 games - second only to the Lalonde Greyhounds' Dany Lacroix, who played 44 times - winning 34 times with a GAA of 2.12 and managing nine shutouts. He was beaten to the Chris Neish Trophy by Tilson's James Cloutier, but lead the voting for the John Rodriguez Trophy for best rookie by a long way to cap off an excellent personal season. His play has drawn a number of comparisons from television and internet analysts of the sport, but the most common one is to Hall of Famer Reece Perry; while Shields is less physically aggressive than Perry, he shares his trait of leaving his crease to play the puck even when opposing players are threatening.
