Mike Smith's... woes? He blows? Eating crows? Who knows! (Also David Rittich exists!)

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

I don't think that gets the deal done at all. Blues still need a #1 for next season. Smith and Frolik have arguably negative value. So the first is the only thing that matter.
You are likely adding Kylington, Andersson or Valimaki to any deal to get Schenn alone, let alone getting Jake added.

Not only that, but we're adding $1 million to next year's cap (assuming no salary retained), which places pressure on getting Tkachuk, Bennett and Rittich re-signed.

Schenn's a nice piece, but I think I'd remove him from the equation. Allen for Smith and a 2nd? That still leaves the Blues needing a starter next year, but they might feel confident in their ability to pick someone up.

[Karl]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

Can’t we bury Smith’s salary in the AHL or are we stick with it for as long as he remains our property?

Flames are basically stuck with that salary because teams can only bury around $950,000 of a player's salary in the minors.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by dammage79

Frolik doesn't have negative value. He's a good value asset on a team with little room to slot him in elsewhere. He's still a very good PK player. He's just been slotted out by a great PK thats scored 13 goal SH goals (he potted one of them the other day though)

But does he make sense or have value to a Blues team out of the playoffs?
I don't think he does.

[Classic_Sniper]

If the Flames waived or traded him with retention, I could see a desperate playoff team like the Canadiens taking a flyer on him. They have the cap space, they're in the hunt, Price is injury prone and Niemi hasn't been good. They might believe they can "fix" him.

[Shazam]

Hasn't Parsons been playing well recently?

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

But does he make sense or have value to a Blues team out of the playoffs?
I don't think he does.

They could flip him.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus

It's now or never for him at this point anyway. I'd say give him 2-3 starts and see what happens. He can't possibly do any worse than Smith and if he does much better, great. Bye Bye Smith.

Exactly. Why do we even have goalies in our development system if we don't allow them the chance to play at the NHL level in situations exactly like this?

It can't possibly be that the Flames are afraid of losing points if he falters because that has happened repeatedly with Smith anyhow.

Let's see what Gillies gives us.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Shazam

Hasn't Parsons been playing well recently?

His first two starts coming back from injury were excellent. His last game was not great:

22 Dec: 0.969 SP on 32 shots
29 Dec: 0.951 SP on 41 shots
31 Dec: 0.806 SP on 31 shots in 37:06

Tyler Parsons is only 21-years-old and should be focused on getting his career untracked after a somewhat disappointing rookie season. He needs to stay and learn to succeed in the AHL for now.

[Flames1217]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

His first two starts coming back from injury were excellent. His last game was not great:

22 Dec: 0.969 SP on 32 shots
29 Dec: 0.951 SP on 41 shots
31 Dec: 0.806 SP on 31 shots in 37:06

Tyler Parsons is only 21-years-old and should be focused on getting his career untracked after a somewhat disappointing rookie season. He needs to stay and learn to succeed in the AHL for now.

Other than Rittich only Schneider and MacDonald are playing well albeit in the ECHL.

Next year its going to be interesting to see who they chose to re-sign.

[Bingo]

Given the human side (well put Jiri) and the salary cap issues, I think fans may have to get their heads around the fact that Smith is the backup and will be for the rest of the season.

If the Flames were still trying to rehabilitate him to be a starter the all out rage would be more justified, but they are not.

He's started back to back games due to injury, and will now go back to the 1/4 start program for the rest of the season. Hopefully they can find enough teams to start him against that Gaudreau can put up four points on and all will be well.

Getting a vet was always a two year process of finding a younger starter, the biggest news this season is the fact that they may have found said starter. That didn't look to be the case coming out of camp.

Things could be much worse.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Given the human side (well put Jiri) and the salary cap issues, I think fans may have to get their heads around the fact that Smith is the backup and will be for the rest of the season.

If the Flames were still trying to rehabilitate him to be a starter the all out rage would be more justified, but they are not.

He's started back to back games due to injury, and will now go back to the 1/4 start program for the rest of the season. Hopefully they can find enough teams to start him against that Gaudreau can put up four points on and all will be well.

Getting a vet was always a two year process of finding a younger starter, the biggest news this season is the fact that they may have found said starter. That didn't look to be the case coming out of camp.

Things could be much worse.

Yeah if we step back I would say that
- Smith has been worse than I feared he would be. And I came into this season with concerns about him. It's gone more poorly than I though it would even with low expectations
- But Rittich has been WAY better than I thought he would be.

Net outcome is overall positive. The biggest thing is that if Rittich goes down you are f'd. But that's the case for a lot of teams. Arguably the Flames would be more f'd than most though I suppose.

[CliffFletcher]

Any non-playoff team willing to trade a goalie to the Flames will want youth and picks back. They aren't going to want Smith, Frolik, Stone, etc.

Assuming Treliving isn't desperate enough to trade away another 1st, that means something like a 2nd and a B-level prospect like Mangiapane for a proven starter like Howard, maybe a little less for someone like Kuemper.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Tyler Parsons is only 21-years-old and should be focused on getting his career untracked after a somewhat disappointing rookie season. He needs to stay and learn to succeed in the AHL for now.

On track vs. untracked. I always get confused on the usage of each.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word...d-phrase-usage

[flambers]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

The biggest thing is that if Rittich goes down you are f'd. But that's the case for a lot of teams.

Arguably the Flames would be more f'd than most though I suppose.

I agree, I guess my question is if Rittich gets hurt and or starts to struggle do they write off the year?

[sa226]

I think that is the the thing with Smith, there is this overarching narrative from some people that "Smith was never a very good goalie, just average." Ok great, given what we have seen, I'll take average thankyouverymuch.

Now that the season has evolved into Rittich taking the #1 spot, what can we ask of Smith? How can we adjust our expectations for a backup goalie? Given the drop in goalie stats this year, as pointed out elsewhere, I don't really care if his save% is sub 900 and his GAA is on the wrong side of 3.00. What the team needs him to do, is just give them a chance to win. Give up 4 goals to Boston for all I care, but make the damn saves when they count. That 5th goal was an absolute back-breaker, the textbook definition of NOT giving your team a chance to win. These exact same types of performances got Elliott a one way ticket out of town.

With not much on the horizon for alternatives, perhaps for the sake of our collective blood pressures, we can adjust our Smith expectations for the second half of the season. Just be a reliable backup that can keep Rittich fresh for the playoffs.

Instead of the first half expectations of be our starter that can take us to the promise land.

[Boreal]

In what fantasy world would Darryl Sutter have focused on rehabilitating Roman Turek after Kipper emerged?

Still... we should be thankful we’re not paying Smith’s full contract.

[skudr248]

Just trade him away for a used washing machine and be done with it

[VilleN]

Originally Posted by nobles_point

In what fantasy world would Darryl Sutter have focused on rehabilitating Roman Turek after Kipper emerged?

Still... we should be thankful we’re not paying Smith’s full contract.

What do you mean? Kipper displaced Turek and took over the No.1 job just as Rittich did to Smith. Very similar situations.

[jg13]

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

Rittich ‘fell apart’ like every goalie for the Flames once Gully was dead man walking. Due to odd man rushes and no commitment to team D. I watched every painful game.

Stockton’s top D are up here now as well.

There is more to life than sv%

Rittich's falling apart last year was basically two bad games in a week.

4 goals on 15 shots vs Florida on Feb 17 and 7 goals on 26 shots on Feb 21. He was average besides those two games.