Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
It has led to the Flames actually developing a goalie who looks like he could be a bonafide NHL starter, is only 26-years-old, has improved every year since he arrived in North America, and you want to dump him?
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It would be pretty silly to want to dump him if that’s what I thought, wouldn’t it?
The fact remains that Rittich’s career high Sv% is 0.911, which is completely average among NHL goalies. And he’s a complete wild card with only two years of NHL experience behind him, so to say he could be a bonafide NHL starter is complete guesswork on your part.
Lehner is only 13 months older and has played 9 seasons in the NHL already (albeit the first two or three were very small sample sizes). And has several seasons where he was far above average, including a few extended seasons with a 0.920+ Sv% - something this team has not been able to enjoy since Kipper.
People were brushing off Bishop as well, saying he’d be too expensive, and what that got us is more bargain bin goalies who couldn’t get it done. Sometimes you have to pony up and take some risks to solve a weakness for your team, because relying solely on hope and reclamation projects doesn’t generally get you very far when you’re in your window to contend. The same thing was happening during the Iggy/Kipper years with the rotating carousel of bargain bin “1st line” centres.