News broke this morning that the Oilers have come to terms on a three year extension with goaltender Cam Talbot.
The news first broke from Darren Dreger that the Oilers were closing in on a 3 year deal. The speculation was that the Oilers would pay an Annual Average Salary of 3.5 million dollars or somewhere thereabouts.
That is, however, not the case. Elliotte Friedman would report that the deal is 12.5M over 3 years, which averages out to 4.167M per season.
Andy Strickland reported that the Oilers have a No-Movement Clause on the deal for years 1 & 2 and a modified NTC in year 3.
While I was hoping for less money, the reality of the situation is that starting goaltenders get paid more than that. Per GeneralFanager, a 4.167M Cap hit would place Talbot at only the 24th highest on the NHL among goaltenders. Thus, if we believe that Talbot is a starter then this kind of money is at the low end of the scale.
The only concern is that Talbot hasn’t exactly established himself very firmly as a true starting goaltender. Early in the year he could not out-battle Anders Nilsson for the role. It’s only a recent development that the team has acted like Talbot was their starter. They hadn’t even actually come out and said it yet.
The Oilers are definitely hoping the Cam Talbot they signed is the goaltender who has been between the pipes the last 10 games. During that time he has had a .941 save percentage and held the Oilers in a lot of games. There’s no question that Talbot has really stepped his game up.
Of course, there’s at least 1 concern stat for the Oilers in light of this deal. Out of all the NHL goaltenders who have played at least 1000 minutes this year, Cam Talbot is 27th out of 27 in 5v5 save percentage. Anders Nilsson ranks above him in this regard (as does every other starting goalie in the NHL). Now, that same metric over the last 3 years ranks Talbot 20th. So, it is more than likely that his low rank this year (due to a poor start) is a blip on the radar more than an accurate reflection of his abilities.
Talbot’s standard career totals are as follows: 83GP, 41-28-8, .926 sv%, 2.18 GAA. These are not poor numbers, but most of it was established in New York playing behind Lundqvist.
Ultimately the Oilers are still taking a leap of faith with Talbot. This is a leap they’ve tried before and came up short (looking at you, Scrivens). He hasn’t been the starter for very long at all and his numbers this year are split between ultra terrible and ultra incredible. There hasn’t been much in the way of consistency yet. That doesn’t make this a bad deal. It just means there’s an associated risk with it. If he really is the answer in net then his deal along with those for Nilsson now and Brossoit in the future means the Oilers can have their goaltending situation managed completely for less than 6 million per year. That’s an integral position at reasonable money…If he proves to be a quality starter. Follow me on Twitter @Archaeologuy