Who will be our starting Goalie in early November?

[GoJetsGo]

Everyone is likely aware of our goaltending situation with Hiller, Ramo and Ortio looking to battle it out for three spots in September as it sits now.

Just curious how everyone thinks this will shake out, and who will most likely be starting with regularity a month into the season (once the dust has settled)?

Will someone take the reins? Tandem again?

Who's the odd man out?

Still possible we see a trade?

Looking forward to the start of camp to see how this story develops.

[killer_carlson]

I'm guessing that it Hiller.

He's my least favorite out of the three, but he was pretty darn good against Vancouver and down the stretch. I think he has a great year in a contract year.

[AC]

I'm still expecting Hiller to get traded.

Hartley and Treliving are both on record saying a 3 goalie rotation doesn't work, and I think we'd probably lose Ortio on waivers.

Trading Hiller makes the most sense to me.

[jayswin]

This is the one team situation that I honestly can't even make a prediction on. I mean I'd say we go into next season just like last season with Hiller and Ramo battling for the starter role.

But you can't even confidently say that because they'd have to waive Ortio, and despite the idea that you take the risk of waving him because it's tough for teams to pick him up as he'd have to stay up, I honestly just don't see Brad Treliving taking the risk, it just doesn't seem like him.

I mean, you get one team in the whole league that goes "Ohhh, that goalie, he was really strong in the A and showed great potential when called up to the NHL, let's just grab him and see what happens" and all of a sudden the Flames are sitting there with egg on their face at the loss of a valuable goalie prospect who's already shown NHL capabilities.

My best guess is they attempt to trade Hiller before the season starts, and I believe they may even just do the three goalie thing for a little bit (I know they said they didn't want to) while they figure something out, rather than risk losing an asset as valuable as Ortio.

I guess they could send Hiller down and see what happens, too. I'd imagine Brad would actually entertain that before sending Ortio down.

[GoJetsGo]

I kind of have a feeling that Ortio will end up the best of the three if he's given a chance to take the ball and run with it.

[jayswin]

The biggest issue at play with any decision made here is the fact that neither Ramo nor Hiller is a true number 1. Our team only got number one goaltending because when one faltered, the other one came in with something to prove and usually played like a true number one for a bit until they didn't....

Ortio may be able to do that with Ramo, or he may not and then all of a sudden Ramo struggles like he inevitably does, and instead of Hiller coming in and playing like a number one, an inexperienced Ortio comes in and plays just okay.

Then all of a sudden unnecessary losses start piling up and we miss the playoffs because of it.

I know discussing Ramo and Hiller usually leads to everyone picking their favorite and saying who's better and who we should keep, but at the end of the day neither is exceptional, and we got adequate goaltending last year only because we had both of them.

Pick your favorite and ditch the other and we might be hurting in short order. Or Ortio might come in and show he's ready and legitimately compete for number one. Then we're laughing.

[dammage79]

Ortio will be the #1 and Hiller will be the wiley veteran back-up / 1b. Ramo find a new home.

Seriously, Ortio will the guy this season.

[GoJetsGo]

Are there any realistic trade targets out there in net that would be a legitimate upgrade?

[Alberta_Beef]

Hiller will be the starter in the sense that he will have more games, but Ramo will only have 1 or 2 games less.

Ortio will be waived, go unclaimed and get demoted.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by dammage79

Ortio will be the #1 and Hiller will be the wiley veteran back-up / 1b. Ramo find a new home.

Seriously, Ortio will the guy this season.

Haha, of all the scenarios this is the absolute least likely. You know we just signed Ramo to a free agent deal, right?

If their plan was to stuff Ramo in the minors or shuffle him off to another team they would have just not signed him.

[dammage79]

Originally Posted by flameswin

Haha, of all the scenarios this is the absolute least likely. You know we just signed Ramo to a free agent deal, right?

If their plan was to stuff Ramo in the minors or shuffle him off to another team they would have just not signed him.

Does it really matter? They re-signed Ramo for Insurance after all their digging for another goaltender dried up. It wasn't like the signed him right out of the gates. They tried finding better and didn't have an luck. Seemed pretty clear to me that Ramo was down the Flames list of people to sign.
Bringing Ramo back is all about competition in camp. Instead of having 2 goalies battle for the #1 spot the goalies now have to battle for 2 spots between the 3. This is Treliving and Hartleys mantra.

Saying this is the least likely scenario out of any scenario is just as crazy as no goalie has stolen a spot out of camp yet and no goalie has been anointed by anyone save the fans.

The title was who will be the #1 by november. Ramo won't be here is my prediction.

[PugnaciousIntern]

I'm comfortable with either of the vets, don't really have a strong preference for one over the other, but am not sold on either. I'm hopeful that Ortio can take it and run, but that's partially wishful thinking because I'm not satisfied with either of the vets, and simply want Ortio to succeed.

That said, I'd argue that Ortio has shown that he can play in this league, and it's time to take the risk and bring him into NHL. I'm thinking that training camp will turn into a Ramo/Hiller competition, and the weakest link gets traded. Both should be moveable.

[Strange Brew]

I believe Ramo starts the season as number #1.

I am very interested to see who the starter will be for game 1 of the playoffs. I believe there's a good chance that player is not on the current roster. I think BT was hot and heavy after a goalie this past off season (talbot, jones) but the prices were high and then the Hamilton trade presented itself.

I think it's 50/50 we see a deal for a goalie during the season. Bernier?

[Alberta_Beef]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

I believe Ramo starts the season as number #1.

I am very interested to see who the starter will be for game 1 of the playoffs. I believe there's a good chance that player is not on the current roster. I think BT was hot and heavy after a goalie this past off season (talbot, jones) but the prices were high and then the Hamilton trade presented itself.

I think it's 50/50 we see a deal for a goalie during the season. Bernier?

He was only in the goalie market before re-signing Ramo, there was some speculation Hiller was available but it wasn't concrete as far as rumors go. I think they wanted someone to supplement Hiller the whole time and they don't think Ortio is ready. That said I wouldn't be shocked if any of the 3 goaltenders were moved.

[foofighter15]

Fairly certain we'll get the exact same "we 'ave two no.1 goalie and we'Re going to run with 'ose 'ot" that we heard last year.

[hockey.modern]

Hiller/Ortio - Hiller will take control of starter but slowly Ortio will take the starter position by the second half of the season.

Highly unlikely but it would be awesome if Gillies dominates the AHL and we can trade Hiller for assets along with bringing Gillies to the big leagues

[skudr248]

Trade Hiller already

[Caged Great]

Ortio was terrible in the beginning of the last two seasons, there was a reason why he started in the ECHL in 2013-14, and Adirondack had a horrid start last year.

Signing Ramo while having Hiller there gives you adequate goaltending at the very minimum. Ortio if he has a bad camp will easily pass through waivers. If he is good in camp, he'll make the team and we likely see Hiller getting dealt.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Alberta_Beef

He was only in the goalie market before re-signing Ramo, there was some speculation Hiller was available but it wasn't concrete as far as rumors go. I think they wanted someone to supplement Hiller the whole time and they don't think Ortio is ready. That said I wouldn't be shocked if any of the 3 goaltenders were moved.

Are you saying he was only interested in a goalie because he didn't know if he could sign Ramo? I think that's unlikely. He re-signed Ramo to a 1 year deal once he knew he wasn't trading for a goalie.

[dying4acup]

My belief is that Ortio will be here no matter what.

I do not believe the organization believes that either Hiller or Ramo can be a cup winning goalie.

I believe that the organization does not know that about Ortio or Gillies.

In terms of the starter in Game 1, I am clueless.

I could have seen the Flames start the season with 3 goalies if the team wasn't so deep all over the place. This makes training camp so much more interesting for me:

Most teams break camp break camp with
2g
7d
14f

Flames could have
3g
6d
14f

Or
3g
7d
13f

Or

2g
7d
14f

Or

2g
8d
13f

Or

.....