Quote:
Originally Posted by Buff
Sorta, but not really.
They went with Fleury for their first 4 years. He was 35 his last regular season as their starter. The year before they grabbed Lehner because at Fleury's age you couldn't rely on him to keep being the #1 starter for much longer. The drop could be sudden. They split Lehner and Fleury but Lehner had life problems. Thompson stepped up and they had Hill come aboard shortly thereafter. Hill took over when Thompson was injured for the 2023 playoffs. They tried to go back to Thompson as 1a and Hill has 1b but Thompson doesn't seem to be a fit on a Bruce Cassidy team. Hill is good enough for them so they let Thompson look for greener pastures.
Yeah they've changed goalies, but there was reasons beyond changing just because of change.
|
It's more their whole philosophy around keeping players. They've never been sentimental about keeping vets. Fleury, Marchessault, Stephenson, Smith, Pacioretty, etc.