I think if Treliving is looking at adding a goalie, it's not until the offseason. I think the Flames will be in the market for a longer term starter, someone who could conceivably be the #1 over the next 3-4 seasons while this group is together.
Potential candidates via UFA as things stand now would include Talbot, Lehner, and Mrazek in my mind. Throw the new signee in the pit with Rittich and Gillies next camp, battle royale style. Whoever emerges as the victor gets the prize.
]I think if Treliving is looking at adding a goalie, it's not until the offseason[/B]. I think the Flames will be in the market for a longer term starter, someone who could conceivably be the #1 over the next 3-4 seasons while this group is together.
Potential candidates via UFA as things stand now would include Talbot, Lehner, and Mrazek in my mind. Throw the new signee in the pit with Rittich and Gillies next camp, battle royale style. Whoever emerges as the victor gets the prize.
Everyone says this every year. It still has not happened. Dosent matter who he will get they will turn out bad.
The only thing left at this point is the goalie coach . Sigalet needs to go. He was never a great goalie. How he got promoted from the heat is a mystery. A ahl team that has yet to produce a NHL quility goaltender.
I hate to bring it up but he has some health issues that may or may not be affecting his job.
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Not Saros. I'm not sold on him. Really small for a goalie, and while he made one great save right off the bat tonight, he had horseshoes the rest of the time. I'm not sure he's a number one.
*watches Saros once, where he stops all the shots he faced*
*proclaims he's not a starter because he's 5'11" and a puck went through his legs and wide of the net*
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Saros is a pipe dream. He's being groomed to take over for Rinne. Poile is no fool.
Darling is possibly the worst "starting" goaltender in the league, and I use the word starting generously.
Grubauer is not a starter as far as I can see. Decent to good backup, but that's about it.
Korpisalo is likely the next starter for the Blue Jackets. I'm also less than certain that he can be a full time starter, so that would make me nervous as well.
Lehner is a head case. It's not his fault, but it causes massive swings in his play. Not someone you want as a starter until he shows much more consistency following proper treatment for his bipolar disorder.
Halak is the guy that is a great 1B goalie, meaning he can carry a starter's load for a while, but he's not consistent enough over the course of a season. He's always been that way. It's not going to change now. However, in combination with Mike Smith, that could be a pretty good tandem until a long term solution is found.
Kuemper is a backup through and through. No interest in him as a starter. Tristan Jarry is in the same category for me.
Anderson is a gamer, but he's just too old to consider as a long term solution.
Jimmy Howard is battling every night just trying to hold Detroit in games, but he's also on the old side.
Bobrovsky and Varlamov are both going to be UFAs next year. I'd happily take either on a 3-4 year deal, but that's in the off-season, and we might need something this season. A trade for either one of these guys only happens if their teams are out of the playoffs.
Schneider makes sense only if he's fully recovered from his surgery. The question is then acquisition cost and fitting the salary. We would probably have to send a roster player the other way. Brodie?
Basically, I don't see an option right now that is better than what we have. It's probably something that is addressed in the off-season, and paying for a UFA is expensive. It would be really great if just one of the goalies in our system looked ready to make the jump. That would be ideal in terms of long term planning and cost control, but it just hasn't happened.
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Originally Posted by ResAlien
If we can't fall in love with replaceable bottom 6 players then the terrorists have won.
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Can you imagine if every time a player plays a few bad games everyone lost their minds and called for a trade? Even though it will inevitably happen to every single player, multiple times per year?
An environment in which a person encounters only beliefs or opinions that coincide with their own, so that their existing views are reinforced and alternative ideas are not considered.
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The obvious solution is to go with Rittich for a stretch and see what the guy can do. What's the worst that can happen? We get sub .900 goaltending and lose the games? We're getting that with Smith. Hand the reigns to Rittich. If that fails, call up Gillies and give him a shot. If that fails, it doesn't matter. The Flames are not going anywhere with the goaltending they have in Mike Smith.
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Lundqvist. Rongos will be rebuilding and I could see him wanting out to chase a cup maybe. Plus he’s either cheaper or better than everyone else available. Cap would be an issue of course but cheap, good #1s are never traded.
Not an option at all. He has a NMC and has spoken publicly that he does not want to leave the Rangers regardless of the rebuild.
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I'm not interested in blaming goaltenders until they clean up the ten bell chance rates that they're currently putting on display.
15 more last night at five on five, 16 overall.
Last year the 15th best high danger goaltender stopped 83% of these chances over the course of a season which would be ... drumroll please ... 12 in a game where you give up 16, meaning four go in.
I can pretty much guarantee you Peters is looking at the 16 high danger chances and not his goaltender this morning.
The 10 best team in the league last year in high danger chance surrender gave up 955 over the season for 11.8 per game.
This year the Flames are ranked 28th in the NHL for high danger chances against per 60 minutes.
Smith isn't the issue. He could bail them out more sure as his high danger save rate is at 79.8%, but he's ranked 16th in that stat, and I have him as a middle NHL goaltender.
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I'm not interested in blaming goaltenders until they clean up the ten bell chance rates that they're currently putting on display.
15 more last night at five on five, 16 overall.
Last year the 15th best high danger goaltender stopped 83% of these chances over the course of a season which would be ... drumroll please ... 12 in a game where you give up 16, meaning four go in.
I can pretty much guarantee you Peters is looking at the 16 high danger chances and not his goaltender this morning.
The 10 best team in the league last year in high danger chance surrender gave up 955 over the season for 11.8 per game.
This year the Flames are ranked 28th in the NHL for high danger chances against per 60 minutes.
Smith isn't the issue. He could bail them out more sure as his high danger save rate is at 79.8%, but he's ranked 16th in that stat, and I have him as a middle NHL goaltender.
I was thinking the same thing. The Flames Defense is actually pretty bad. And I mean in terms of the whole group, the way they play. Forwards included. And they’ve been bad for awhile too... I’m not sure how Smith is supposed to be stopping all of these grade A chances every game.
For what he is, Smith is just fine or at least shouldn’t be the focus of the solution. Although I will admit when Rittich suited up in Colorado there was something to his game that gave a little more confidence (after the first).
Only other name not mentioned yet is Steve Mason... does he still have it in him to be an okay back-up that could carry more games off Smith than Rittich?
I was thinking the same thing. The Flames Defense is actually pretty bad. And I mean in terms of the whole group, the way they play. Forwards included. And they’ve been bad for awhile too... I’m not sure how Smith is supposed to be stopping all of these grade A chances every game.
For what he is, Smith is just fine or at least shouldn’t be the focus of the solution. Although I will admit when Rittich suited up in Colorado there was something to his game that gave a little more confidence (after the first).
Only other name not mentioned yet is Steve Mason... does he still have it in him to be an okay back-up that could carry more games off Smith than Rittich?
Interestingly enough that game in Denver was their best showing yet this season in what they gave up. 11 in the game in all situations, that's followed by the two Vancouver games at 11 and 12.
Smith actually has a higher high danger save percentage to date than Rittich (79.31 to 77.78)
I'm not interested in blaming goaltenders until they clean up the ten bell chance rates that they're currently putting on display.
15 more last night at five on five, 16 overall.
Last year the 15th best high danger goaltender stopped 83% of these chances over the course of a season which would be ... drumroll please ... 12 in a game where you give up 16, meaning four go in.
I can pretty much guarantee you Peters is looking at the 16 high danger chances and not his goaltender this morning.
The 10 best team in the league last year in high danger chance surrender gave up 955 over the season for 11.8 per game.
This year the Flames are ranked 28th in the NHL for high danger chances against per 60 minutes.
Smith isn't the issue. He could bail them out more sure as his high danger save rate is at 79.8%, but he's ranked 16th in that stat, and I have him as a middle NHL goaltender.
While Smith isn't the issue, he isn't the solution either. With great team defence, this team could definitely do some damage with Smith in net - but we don't have that defence yet. I'm really tired watching a team that can't make it because 'x' piece isn't there.
With that said, I wouldn't shred the team when the defence clearly has so much to improve. I'd hope to see Rittich in net with an opportunity to string games together right away and if we can only count on Smith behind this defence for one game in every 4... so be it. I'd really like to see if Rittich, Gillies or Parsons (the latter two absolutely haven't deserved a callup ) can carry a larger load before we start trading assets.
What I really hope is that we don't finish this season outside the playoffs, or staring at another early exit with a goalie that rarely made the save we needed.
It's true that it's a two pronged problem. However while I think this team needs to work on team defense, it's something that mostly likely can be improved upon with good coaching and development. On the other hand, I don't see the goaltending improving with Smith as the #1. Even when he's making he saves, he looks shaky out there this year. The numbers may point to something more stable, but he doesn't have the body language of someone who you can rely on. He's doing that Elliot / Hiller thing where you just don't know what you're going to get. Stability is one of the most important things in a #1.
I think we're in a similar situation like with Gulutzan last year. We can wait and preach patience...and watch this team under perform one more time. Or we can act. The reality is that the action needed to have been taken in the off season to truly remedy this, but action can still be taken now before another season is wasted. This time of the year, it probably means you have to overpay, but that's the reality the Flames find themselves in.
At the very least, it's time to start leaning on Rittich more. He may not be the #1, but perhaps he can be the #1B until a more permanent solution is found.
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It's true that it's a two pronged problem. However while I think this team needs to work on team defense, it's something that mostly likely can be improved upon with good coaching and development. On the other hand, I don't see the goaltending improving with Smith as the #1. Even when he's making he saves, he looks shaky out there this year. The numbers may point to something more stable, but he doesn't have the body language of someone who you can rely on. He's doing that Elliot / Hiller thing where you just don't know what you're going to get. Stability is one of the most important things in a #1.
I think we're in a similar situation like with Gulutzan last year. We can wait and preach patience...and watch this team under perform one more time. Or we can act. The reality is that the action needed to have been taken in the off season to truly remedy this, but action can still be taken now before another season is wasted. This time of the year, it probably means you have to overpay, but that's the reality the Flames find themselves in.
At the very least, it's time to start leaning on Rittich more. He may not be the #1, but perhaps he can be the #1B until a more permanent solution is found.
I agree with most of that, but then I think most fans that have an "average" goaltender would feel the same. When you think of how a goalie arrives at a .914 save percentage through a season (average) you're going to have a lot of bad games and certainly bad goals.
When he gets beat high short side it drives me nuts.
But the focus on Smith to me is somewhat misplaced until they get their team play in order. I'm sure Peters feels the same way.
But the focus on Smith to me is somewhat misplaced until they get their team play in order.
They need be able to focus on both at the same time, as I don't think better team defense will fix Smith's issues, just mitigate them. I think with your #1 goalie, stability is key. Even if that stability means a lower overall average, you're better off with a consistent product. With Smith, every night is a surprise. It's hard to create team strategy around that, and I assume also really erodes team morale after a while.
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) can carry a larger load before we start trading assets. 
