Quote:
Originally Posted by mrdonkey
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.
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You can’t look at Rittich’s save percentage in the aggregate. You forgot that all his less than average play can be explained away by lingering injuries or difficult starts.
If it was me, I’m signing Rittich to no more than a 2 yer deal, unless he is willing to accept nothing more than backup money.
Flames have little choice but to gamble a little at the goalie position. At least let’s limit the long term downside risk.