Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
But I go back to what I said about Oshie ... stay away from other team's high end free agents. Do that and you avoid 6 or 7 big mistakes compared to one "win" over a window of X number of years.
|
I don't know if goaltending is comparable to the other positions, though. You can afford to be patient and work on your other positions because there's three defensive pairings and four forward lines to juggle players through. One line can struggle because you failed to shore it up, while two other lines click and carry your team, meanwhile that top 6 winger is ripening on the farm for next season.
With goaltending the term "safe is death" comes to mind, especially when you're four years into an otherwise successful rebuild. At a certain point you can't sit back and say "It may not work out and bite us if we go big game hunting" because little game hunting may put you in the same failed position in a couple years.
It's the most difficult position in hockey to successfully fill because it relies on very good to elite playing on a consistent basis to be considered successful and there's only one on the ice at a time, with only two dressing.
There's a reason so many GM's swing hard on goaltending and often miss and it's not because there's 15+ dumb GM's in the league. Meanwhile, we get to sit back and go "Ooooh, why'd they do that" with hindsight and "Why would you risk any of those??!!! That guy's been injured and is 30 years old!!!!!!" because we have no pressure to put a decent team into contender status.