Goaltending is one-third and should be less focus on a team build than the forward and defensive positions. You build the team from the back out and we all saw what happened to the Flames after they went to the finals. It was a slow miserable decline into the abyss until the team can't go any further down as far as what the Oilers are doing. From the point where the Flames picked up secondary scoring before getting the the Finals in 2014 to where they were at the height of their division, the Flames were pretty solid from back to front. As the Sutter teams went on through the years, it was evident that the some holes were not filled and all Sutter did was he kept building the defense and did a makeshift patch-up work for the forwards and goalie as Iggy and Kipper held the opposite ends.
If we all look at this season thus far, if it wasn't for the offense picking up the goals to tie a lot of the games to go into OT, the Flames would've lost a lot of one to two goal games. This was seen before with the "Young Guns" back in the late '90s and the Flames teams back then had good goalies. We can also argue that those goalies back then were probably better than the goalies we have currently. But the reasons the Young Guns era didn't go anywhere was because there were no secondary scoring except for Iggy doing it all. Right now, the Flames scoring is spread between the lines and even the first two D-lines are contributing. It is also very evident in the past month, especially playing against the really good teams (Ducks, Kings, Islanders, Rangers) that you see the Flames being hemmed in their own zone. We all can say that the goalies did a great job of keeping the team in the game. However, the amount of shots that were blocked is amazing to say the least. Sure, one can always argue that without Hiller, the team wouldn't be in a playoff position at all. I can argue the other way and say that if Gaudreau, Jooris, Gio, and Brodie weren't there to provide the goals, who cares if a #1 goalie in the world took to the stage - the Flames are still in the rebuilding process.
Teams built to win the Cup has always been built with scoring depth up front with a mix of big d-men that are good defensively with a couple of mobile offensive minded players. As for goalies, you can pick almost any #1 goalie from any team (except from the Oilers) to win the cup on a Stanley Cup winning team. Most goalies nowadays are good enough to stop at least 90% of the shots. It is up to all the other guys in front that need to do things on the other end of the rink to win the games. This is why I say it is better to build the team from front to back rather than back to front. I still contend the team this year without Hiller would result in about the same amount of points. Even if they weren't contending for a playoff spot, at least the rebuild process would continue with maybe a better pick at the end of this season. With a good goalie skewing the progress of a rebuild, it can be bad for the future rather than good.
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