Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
I'd much rather Scott Darling over Ben Bishop.
He may not have experience as a starter, but he'll come at half the price and has better career numbers than Bishop. About 1/3 of the games played of course, which changes how you have to consider those stats, but he's also the same size as Bishop and plays the position with more athleticism. 2 years younger as well.
He could be Talbot 2.0, certainly. Grubauer is interesting too, only 25, numbers right behind that of Matt Murray.
Otherwise I'd be interested in getting Lehner out of Buffalo. Some drama there, bad situation, RFA, young (25), and impressive numbers considering the team, could be a great fit for the Flames.
Bishop might be better than all of these guys, but I don't see him being much better. If Bishop took a 1-2 year deal, or came in at less than 5m, then you take that risk. Otherwise I fear you're paying way too much for too little. We can get a big upgrade for near the same-price as Elliott, maybe up to 3.5m, but we certainly don't need to spend the extra 2-3m above that for a guy who was nominated for a Vezina on a great team.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
Bishop is not a sure thing. He'll be 31 with 2 great seasons as a starter under his belt and 2 underwhelming seasons (numbers that put him in the bottom half and even right at the bottom of 40+ game starters).
If you're paying big money, you better have more than a 50/50 shot of getting a top 20 goaltender.
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This is also how I feel about Bishop, sure he has had good seasons but he will come at a hefty price tag and term. Get a cheap goalie(Brad was on in Murray and Jones, so the scouting do have a idea of what they want/like.) If the price is not too high Petr Mrazek out of Detroit won't look bad(there was some talk of the Red Wings exposing him in the expansion(don't know how true this is.)
I think the Flames will makes trades A and B, A being the trades before the expansion draft(true # 1 goalie, a top line RW because they can afford to protect another forward and a goalie) and trade B, trades after the expansion draft(a top 4 D man and other trades.)