Quote:
Originally Posted by JiriHrdina
And given that multiple teams have interest, it isn't just the Flames' brass that seems to think this guy has something.
I'm not going to state an opinion on Talbot because frankly I've barely watched him. Which I suspect is the case for many here.
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Admittedly, I've only seen a little of him but it's the idea of trading for a backup goalie, who puts up good numbers in limited starts, from one of the best defensive teams in the league that scares me.
Ben Scrivens, Jonathan Bernier, Tim Thomas, Ilya Brygalov, Roman Cechmanek, and Scott Clemmenson are just a few examples of net minders who saw their play decline once they left the comforts of elite defensive teams. Inversely, Brian Elliot goes from statistically the worst goalie in the league to one of the statistical best, Devan Dubnyk goes from having "a lot of bad habits" according to Barry Trotz, who buried him in the minors and traded him shortly after, to a Vezina nominee in the span of a year and a half. They're still the same goalies; the team in front of them is the only thing different.
As for Talbot, since 2008, the New York Rangers the Rangers have been top 9 in goals against. They've been top 5 in every year year except for two(2009 and 2010), in fact. In that time, goaltenders such as Steve Valiquette had a line of 2.19/.916, Martin Biron lines of 2.13/.923 and 2.32/.917, Chad Johnson 2.35/.919(in 5 games) and now there's the late blossoming Cam Talbot with the 2.21/.926 line. Talbot's 34 starts last year are a larger sample size than any of the others, which is fair enough, but I'd argue that's still statistically insignificant.
Now, you might say, "the Flames see something they like in Cam Talbot that makes him different." My response would be that he was probably available for free up until this year. If they liked his athleticism, flexibility, positioning, physique, demeanour, or whatever and thought he had potential, they would have picked him up at the time. I'm sure they would have rolled the dice on a young netminder, instead of giving the known journeyman Joey MacDonald 21 starts in 2012, especially since they were happy to test out the unknown Reto Berra the following year - and somehow conned Patrick Roy out of a 2nd for him.