Call it
.808 & Heartbreak.
After another disappointing loss—this one, a 6-4 defeat at the hands of the Boston Bruins—it is clear that Mike Smith's days as a goaltender of NHL calibre have come to an end.
Despite boasting a 12-9-1 record on the year, Smith's performance over his 23 games has been nothing if not shaky. His penchant for allowing late goals at inopportune times has been deflating, to say the least.
And while Kanye West's
808s & Heartbreak received acclaim for its unique sound and production, Mike Smith's .808 save-percentage against Boston has received attention of an opposite nature.
Reactions have been swift and damning. The individualized nature of the goaltending position has centralized the vast majority of public and journalistic scorn regarding the Flames' losses this season upon the shoulders of #41.
Rightfully so. While Mike Smith's style of play is nothing if not unique, said uniqueness has not reverberated this season with the success that Kanye West found with his 2008 album.
Brad Treliving has never been one for inactivity. Heading into the 2017 playoffs, the Flames' general manager swung a deal to address the Flames' biggest area of need, acquiring right-shooting defenseman Michael Stone from the Arizona Coyotes.
Stone immediately hit it off, forming a good second defensive pairing with T.J. Brodie and, in doing so, pushing clearly past-his-prime rearguard Dennis Wideman out of the lineup.
Now, like with Wideman, Treliving has an aging and expiring UFA toiling unsuccessfully on his lineup. However, unlike with Wideman, it is much more difficult to shelter a goaltender who plays an individual position.
Finding a replacement for Smith has to be a pressing priority for Treliving. While David Rittich has been splendid in an increased role this season, there is precedent in seeing him falter down the stretch. And while Rittich has shown no real sustained signs of slowing down thus far, he has been hit by injury.
Rittich has been significantly better than Smith and can be trusted as a player, but as an asset, questions about him still linger. It would be prudent for Brad Treliving to look at a few external options to bring in as a complement to his Czech netminder.
Option I: Jimmy Howard
Working on his 10th season as the Red Wings' starter,
Jimmy Howard is playing on an expiring contract and, on the surface, makes sense as a trade target. He's due for $5.3 million this season, but the Red Wings would probably retain salary and they could also take Smith back in return.
Howard plays behind a particularly porous defensive corps which boasts the likes of Mike Green, an overpaid Danny DeKeyser, and an ancient Niklas Kronwall. However, despite this handicap, Howard's save-percentage currently sits at .918—well above the NHL average.
In addition, a trade for Howard could also include another player coming to Calgary. The Red Wings' roster features a number of potential fits for the Flames' lineup, including wingers Gustav Nyquist and Thomas Vanek and depth defenders Nick Jensen and Kronwall.
However, what might deter Treliving is the rumoured cost.
According to Elliotte Friedman, Red Wings GM Ken Holland has been insistent upon receiving a first-round draft selection in exchange for Howard's services. The Flames did not select in the first round in 2018, having elected to part ways with their pick as part of the Travis Hamonic deal. That factor may prohibit Howard from switching red jerseys, should Holland's asking price not decrease.
Option II: Sergei Bobrovsky
A two-time Vezina Trophy winner,
Sergei Bobrovsky has yet to show it in his play this year. On a Columbus team sitting around where many projected them this summer, Bobrovsky has been a disappointment. His .910 save-percentage this season is well below his normal rate—a big red flag for a goaltender who has been
rumored to want a steep increase from his current $7.4 million cap-hit.
Bobrovsky's current deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets expires this summer, rendering him an unrestricted free-agent. However, another inhibiting factor perhaps preventing the Flames from acquiring him as a rental is that his own team, Columbus, has been doing rather well. They sit in third in the competitive Metropolitan Division, and with fellow big-ticket name Artemi Panarin also facing UFA status this summer, Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen faces a few months of uncertainty regarding keeping or trading his marquee pending free-agents.
In the end, it seems Kekalainen will either deal both Bobrovsky and Panarin, or keep them. With his team in the playoff hunt, it may make sense for the GM to pursue the latter option. However, even if Bobrovsky is put on the trade market, it may be smart for Treliving to steer clear. With his middling statistics and sure-fire high cost, Bobrovsky seems like a prime candidate to be a classic trade-deadline bust.
Option III: Someone from New Jersey
Taylor Hall's team is a mess right now. The New Jersey Devils have a decent offense powered by the talents of Hall, Kyle Palmieri, and Nico Hischier, but their defense has been poor and their goaltending is prime for a shake-up.
In one corner, there is
Cory Schneider, whose best days appear to be
well behind him. The oft-injured goaltender has put up a ghastly .852 save-percentage in nine NHL games this year, losing them all. He's coming off a summer hip surgery, which frequently means a long recovery time.
However, the Flames cannot afford to wait, and Schneider has done a lot of waiting—it has been over a year since he last won a game. And with three more years after this one at a $6 million cap-hit, the Flames would be tying themselves to a worse version of Smith at a higher salary with suffocating term. AKA: an anchor.
Schneider clearly must be avoided. However, the Devils have one other option, and he is intriguing:
Keith Kinkaid. A pending UFA, dealing Kinkaid would make a ton of sense for Devils GM Ray Shero. Behind a brutal team, Kinkaid has posted relatively pedestrian numbers. While his .901 save-percentage does not do much to inspire confidence, Kinkaid performed admirably in 2017-18 during the Devils' surprise run to the playoffs. With a solid defensive team in Calgary, his numbers could certainly return to the stratosphere of the .913 save-percentage he boasted last year.
As a cheap trade option, Kinkaid is appealing and his $1.25 million salary is the opposite of prohibitive. A tandem of Rittich and Kinkaid could certainly work.
Option IV: Robin Lehner
Robin Lehner's career has been marred by volatility. The Swedish netminder has seen his season-by-season save-percentage shift like a sine wave, going from .905 up to .924 and .920 and then back down to .908 over the four seasons preceding this one.
Of course, any discussion of Lehner's abilities must come with recognition of his courageous public battle with mental health issues.
In a captivating piece with The Players' Tribune published over the summer, Lehner detailed his tumultuous time as a Buffalo Sabre and revealed to the world the steps he had taken towards recovery.
As a result, seeing Lehner return to success has been one of the best feel-good stories of 2018-19. As a member of the upstart New York Islanders, Lehner has posted an electrifying .930 save-percentage. While this is partially a testament to the locked-down system brought in over the summer by new coach Barry Trotz, it also serves as a reminder that a refreshed and motivated human spirit can bring a healthy and young body to its peak.
Lehner is definitely young by NHL standards, at just 27 years old, and by all indications, he is on the road to being healthy, both physically and especially mentally. For an organization that has shown great regard for those in need in the past, as seen with their handling of the situations of Brian McGrattan and Micheal Ferland, it is probable that the Flames would welcome Lehner with open arms.
However, would the overachieving Islanders be willing to deal him? Signed to a one-year deal, Lehner has proven to be a vital cog in his team's success. Whether said success is sustainable is anyone's guess. But should the Islanders falter, Lehner would surely be near the top of Treliving's acquisition list, and given his lack of past consistency, the Islanders' cost for him likely would sit lower than that of others on this list.
Option V: Curtis McElhinney
As a 35-year-old,
Curtis McElhinney continues to defy the odds. Now with Carolina—his seventh NHL team—"McBackup" is in the midst of another banner year, currently posting an 8-5-1 record with a .924 save-percentage on an otherwise-middling Hurricanes team.
While wily Flames fans may recall McElhinney's rocky beginnings whilst donning the Flaming "C," his recent career has been uniformly solid. From Columbus to Toronto to Raleigh, he has consistently put up one good season after another.
In addition, he may come cheap in multiple ways. McElhinney's $850,000 salary would be easy to slide in underneath the cap, while his frequent soirées on waivers should lower his trading cost. His advanced age and relative obscurity should also help towards increasing his value to a suitor.
If he is content with settling for a lesser name, Brad Treliving could do wonders in acquiring Curtis McElhinney. While a tandem featuring he and David Rittich may not look incredibly sexy on paper, the two of them have combined for a .922 save-percentage this year.
Should that rate continue after a McElhinney trade to Calgary, Flames fans would no doubt be in for an excellent second half to the 2018-19 season.
Option VI: The Field
A few other pending unrestricted free-agent goaltenders could be on the market in the next few weeks and months. While they might make less sense than the names previously mentioned, they, for the sake of completeness, are worth a passing look by Brad Treliving.
-
Semyon Varlamov has faltered after a white-hot start in Colorado, but he still sits at a .912 save-percentage for 2018-19. He is a pending UFA, but the Avalanche remain firmly in the playoff picture. Sitting in the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference, it is hard to imagine Colorado GM Joe Sakic choosing to deal his workhorse in favour of the relatively unproven Phillipp Grubauer, but if the Avalanche continue to slide as they have recently, perhaps Sakic's hand could be forced. However, a selling Colorado team would undoubtedly command an enormous cost for renting Varlamov.
- Brad Treliving has acquired
Brian Elliott once before; who is to say that he couldn't do it again? Well, he
could do it, but he almost assuredly will not. Everyone remembers just how disastrous Elliott was for the Calgary Flames during the 2017 playoffs, and unless he wants an actual riot on his hands, Treliving will steer clear of repeating that goaltending experience. Besides, the Philadelphia Flyers are hardly a team to aspire towards when it comes to goaltending. And yes, that means "no" to
Michal Neuvirth and his .865 save-percentage, too.
- The Anaheim Ducks surely would not be eager to help out their divisional foes in Calgary, but they have a few intriguing options in net which could interest Treliving. Speaking of 2016-17 retreads, the Ducks have former Flame and pending UFA
Chad Johnson currently tending goal for them, and he had recorded a .911 save-percentage in his two games since leaving the awful St. Louis Blues (where he put up an .884). With Johnson looking like a stop-gap option for the Ducks in the absence of the injured
Ryan Miller, he could become available on waivers soon. Speaking of Miller, he too is a UFA at season's end, and he has posted sparkling numbers for Anaheim this year, including a .922 save-percentage. However, with Miller unlikely to hit waivers and the Ducks in a playoff spot, it's unlikely that they would be selling him at all, let alone to the Flames.
- As was the case last season with Jake Allen and Carter Hutton, the Penguins could be facing a sticky situation in net. While Matt Murray has won the team two Stanley Cups and has been anointed as the Penguins' goaltender of the future, he has been statistically overshadowed by backup
Casey DeSmith. The 27-year-old is a UFA after the season and has put up a .926 save-percentage in 25 games with Pittsburgh this year. However, with Crosby and Malkin's team always a Cup threat, it doesn't seem likely that GM Jim Rutherford would be looking to sell any assets this year unless the perfect deal came along. DeSmith likely makes more sense in the summer, especially if Rutherford chooses to go with Murray over his statistical superior.
Examining different options to replace Mike Smith
