Quote:
Originally Posted by belsarius
As he had to clear waivers in order to play as a full member of the Heat he was signed by them to a PTO for the season so he could get some playtime. I think a PTO in the AHL limits the player to 10 or 15 games (I'd have to look it up). He was third in games played because unlike the other two he had a finite number of allowable games to play and would have been better used later in the season if the lockout went for the full year, and it made more sense to play their actual full time goaltenders more often.
He wasn't the third goalie based on them being better, it was a contract constraint. The fact that he didn't show well in the few games he played though made it appear as he was the third stringer.
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PTO game limit is 25 games. After that expired, he was still eligible to sign a second PTO for another 25 games. So he was looking at 50 games total in the AHL this season under PTOs.
So basically Irving wasn't playing because he wasn't showing enough in practice & his limited games that warranted him playing over Brust/Taylor (which says a lot considering the organization should be pushing heavily for him to get starts even if he isn't the best option at winning).