Quote:
Originally Posted by djsFlames
Textcritic is right.
It's not about getting a better starter (Smith is probably top 10 when healthy anyhow...). What we need is for Smith to not go down with injury again.
Rittich was not just okay but actually good in a backup capacity. He's just not ready for the starter label. If Smith stays healthy and with the added offense, I don't see why they can't be playoff-good with the tandem they have, even with Smith being limited to 50 something games, so long as the kids don't have to run the show at any point.
Some people are almost assuming a Smith will pull something if he plays a certain amount, and that's not a guarantee whatsoever. Pretty freak incident that happened last spring that pretty much epitomized the entire season.
|
I don't see smith being in the top 10 or even close. Th truly is ridiculous and as stated above this he is getting older and has had one season with a save % over 916 in last 12 years.
don't look at him through rose coloured glasses, he's nowhere near the calibre of goalie this team needs. his career looks like a Curtis Joseph career, Pretty good, above average even, but not elite for any extended length of his career greater than 30 games and never in the conversation with the greats of the game like Brodeur, Belfour, Hasek, Roy.
He has made one "Deep" playoff run in his career and at his age, if our plan is to rely on him to play even 60 games, there will be absolutely nothing left in the tank if we do make playoffs.
Im not trying to rip the guy but we need more reliability and certainty from our goaltenders. I'm not saying the flames won't get in the playoffs necessarily, I just don't think did anything to improve the second biggest weakness we had last year which was goaltending and I think that it is just leaving a huge question mark and a huge risk for the way the season goes.
I agree that the flames have gotten better this offseason, but I do not think they've gotten better in one of the key areas that they should have been trying to. I don't think our goaltending situation ranks above 4 teams in the pacific (ANA, LA, SJ, VGK) and it is a question mark if it ends up better than EDM and ARI this year. Thats where we sit in terms of Goaltending talent currently. And we did nothing to get out of that grouping and improve to being in line with the top teams in the division let alone the conference.
Tre is probably going to look back on the 2017 offseason as one where he missed out on securing a franchise goalie who would stick with this core through our "window" and instead opted for an aging guy who while he performed admirably at times, didn't play well when we truly needed it down the stretch.
