Goalie situation for next year

[Beerfest]

Regular Season stats in the AHL

Irving - 34 games played - 2.76 GAA, 0.905 Save Percentage
Shantz - 33 games played - 2.75, 0.908 Save Percentage
Keetley - 23 games played - 2.56 GAA, 0.912 Save Percentage

Playoff Stats in the AHL

Irving - 1 game played - 12.97 GAA, 0.571 Save Percentage
Shantz - 13 games played - 2.68 GAA, 0.899 Save Percentage

(I did not include ECHL stats, I might add them later)

I belive Shantz is an upcoming UFA.
Keetley is a RFA.
Irving is signed for one more year, then is a RFA.
Ortio has not been signed by the Flames yet

Im not sold on either of these 4 being ready to backup Kiprusoff next year.

Do you think Shantz will be re-signed?
Will Keetley be re-signed?

So what do you think the goalie sitatuon will look like in the AHL/ECHL/Europe next year?

[Reggie Dunlop]

Shantz will probably consider Europe as an option. He can make more there than in the AHL.

[kirant]

I hope Shantz demands a 1-way contract, gets denied, leaves for Europe, then re-signs with the Flames as a developing quality player...what? It's happened once.

I think Keetley will be given another chance at AHL back-up.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Originally Posted by kirant

I hope Shantz demands a 1-way contract, gets denied, leaves for Europe, then re-signs with the Flames as a developing quality player...what? It's happened once.

Difference being David Shantz has never been Calgary Flames property having been signed to an AHL deal, Mark Giordano, on the other hand, was a RFA.

[kirant]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

Difference being David Shantz has never been Calgary Flames property having been signed to an AHL deal, Mark Giordano, on the other hand, was a RFA.

One can hope, right?

[FlamesAddiction]

Ortio is being developed by people known for developing goalies, so I don't expect him to come over yet.

[kekkone]

Ortio is expected to backup defending champions in the SM-Liiga next season. There's still few question marks around his team TPS since league's goalie of the year Atte Engren signed NHL contract with Nashville and it's still unsure where Preds want him to play next season. If Preds delay the decision TPS is forced to sign new goalie and later in autumn they will find out whether Engren stays with them for one more year or not. If they sign new goalie (or keep David Leggio from last year's team) and Engren returns it's worst case scenario for Ortio who becomes odd man out then.

Like previous poster said Ortio is being developed by people known for developing goalies and that is indeed true. I have hyped goalie coach Urpo Ylönen before for developing Kipper, Niittymäki and Panthers prospect Salak etc. but past season he did one of his biggest magic tricks in his long career. Engren/Leggio tandem was considered as one of the weakest in the league although potential one. Engren was said to be too young to carry the load and Leggio was wrote off for being ECHL product of which has never done well in SM-Liiga. Season progressed and so did both of these guys but they didn't set the world on fire until playoffs where TPS was 6th ranked team. The whole team worked their as*es off and goaltending they got was spectacular. They used revolutionary tactic copied from last year's champion and they alternated goalies from game to game no matter how good or bad their performance had previously been, and it was mostly good unless spectacular. Actually three of four final teams left used this tactic and it definitely had positive impact compared to those who used out-dated "lets exhaust our number one guy by using him in 95% of games" -tactic. Brent and Darryl, you read this, right? And actually the only team's goalie not being alternated was trained by Urpo Ylönen, heh.

Their playoff stats were:

Engren: 8 games, GAA 1,82 and 93,59%
Leggio: 7 games, GAA 1,57 and 94,24%

That was an amazing turnaround for both of these young goalies careers. Let's hope he can do same for Ortio too before he steps aside for well deserved retirement.

[JiriHrdina]

Fantastic insight Kekkone

[Flash Walken]

Agreed, excellent post.

[theExpendable]

i think the flames will sign a vertern back up for around a million biron ??

[Salt Water Cowboy #10]

1 million Birons... muahhahahaha