Quote:
Originally Posted by Fighting Banana Slug
For me, Smith is a marginal upgrade on Elliott, if for nothing else that he won't be dogged all year for his crappy playoff performance from last year. Hopefully, Smith can provide average goaltending with a few steals along the way. I think he is fully capable of that.
Just as importantly, although some have derogatively called this "stop-gap", I think that is entirely the point of the acquisition. They weren't looking for a long term savior, as I think this trade indicates they feel they have some home-grown talent that will step up. They aren't ready yet, but I think this is in some way a vote of confidence that the young guys will be ready in a couple of years.
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This is right. Had Elliott not been so weak in the playoffs (even if the Flames still lost to the Ducks), I suspect the consensus would be that, unless there's an elite goalie available, he'd be okay to re-sign at about the same salary based on his play over the entire season, which was bad, then good, then okay.
So the Flames get Smith who is probably at about the same level, more or less, at about the same salary. Not a huge upgrade, but competent to keep the Flames competitive until one of Gillies, Parsons or maybe even Rittich can step up. I think that management is justifiably confident that one of them will.