I suppose it will be another year of Smith as the starter, with hopes of Rittich and/or Gillies improving next season.
Sure is disappointing that Rittich dropped the ball when Smith went down. Up to that point it had looked like the goaltending situation in Calgary had finally turned the corner and we might be alright going forward. No it's just a big fat question mark again.
The biggest opportunity I see out there for snagging a potential long term starter is with the Caps. Holtby is a Vezina quality goalie still in his prime, but is being outplayed this season by Grubauer who is a pending RFA once again. Plus they have Samsonov coming up the pipeline.
You'd think the likelihood of them moving one of their NHL goalies this off season is at an all time high. If I was them I'd keep Holtby and look to move Grubauer, but teams have recently had success going the other way and trading their veteran and giving the starter role to the younger guy, like Pittsburgh, Tampa and Anaheim for example.
Would suck to give up even more assets for yet another damn goalie, but this would likely give the Flames a long term starter in net finally as opposed to the short term moves they've made lately while trying to find an answer in goal.
Unfortunately with 36 year old Smith under contact for another year some other team will probably find their answer in net via Washington this off season, and the Flames will continue to be stuck in the perpetual goalie conundrum going forward unless miraculously one of the young guys finally steps up.
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