Todd Cordell
I think a few teams are worthy of serious consideration but I have to go with Columbus. There just isn't much hope or upside with their expected tandem of Joonas Korpisalo and Elvis Merzlikins.
Over the last three seasons, 67 goaltenders have logged at least 1,500 minutes of ice at 5v5. Korpisalo ranks 66th in save percentage. The lone name behind him, Chad Johnson, doesn't have an NHL job. You can legitimately argue Korpisalo is the worst goaltender in the league right now and he is the experienced option they have.
I do think Merzlikins can play in the NHL but he is 25 – theoretically in the prime of his career – and coming off a season where he finished 5th in the NLA in save percentage. Respectable, of course, but you have to think a .920 save percentage in Switzerland will be knocked down quite a few pegs against NHL players.
It's possible, if not likely, Merzlikins is only capable of being a backup and, again, Korpisalo might not even be that. I think the Blue Jackets could be in for a tough year and goaltending is the biggest reason why.
Sean Maloughney Goaltending is voodoo and it is difficult to pick who could be the worst in any given season. I'm going to take the Oilers approach though and state that Edmonton has the potential to have the worst tandem this season.
Mikko Koskinen had a stellar couple of months at the mid point in the season, but ironically it was after he started to crater that he was given his 3 year 4.5 million dollar contract. As the rest of the season progressed, Koskinen struggled with teams easily picking out his glove hand issues.
Mike Smith meanwhile was one of the worst options in free agency as far as his 5 on 5 numbers were concerned. In the playoffs he stepped up big but his bigger body of work showed that this was a player on the decline.
Should Koskinen continue to struggle and the fact that Smith is closer to 40 than 30 continues to take it's toll, the Edmonton Oilers could be in for a world of hurt.
Peter Tessier Certainly the tandem in Columbus has to raise some eyebrows with the departure of Bobrovsky. With a total of 90 NHL games experience and all from Korpisalo the tandem has a lot to prove. They are inexperienced so that attribute does not make them bad but there's not a much to suggest they will be good.
The honorable mention goes to San Jose with Jones and Dell. The Sharks had cap issues to manage with Karlsson and could not address goaltending that needed fixing. With 7.6 million spent compared to 2.024 for Columbus the Sharks certainly have the most money tied up in a spot they are weak at.
James Tanner The worst goaltending in the NHL is a difficult question, because 1) basically any goalie capable of making the NHL is capable of going on a season-long run that elevates their team to contender status and 2) Other than a small handful of goalies - maybe 10 or 12 - all the other goalies are pretty interchangeable if they aren't on current hot streaks. This pretty much means that you're almost always just going to be guessing wildly whenever someone asks you about goalies.
The Senators probably have terrible goaltending, and they're paying a hilarious amount of money for it, but they are just all-round terrible anyways. The worst team where the goaltending actually matters is the Sharks.
The Sharks should be one of the favorites to win the West but they seem to be continuing under the delusion that Martin Jones is good. I suppose like anyone else he could be, but he seems below average most of the time. A goalie they could count on would elevate the Sharks to one of the best in the NHL.
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