Today we’ll look at the UFA options for goaltenders, tomorrow we’ll look at RFA’s via trade + other goaltenders potentially available via trade.
He’s a visual for 5v5 save percentages for seven UFA goaltenders – as well as Niemi for comparison – who have played a minimum of 2500 minutes. All goalies have at least played 60 games, which gives them numbers for the equivalent of a full goalie season, give or take. I left off UFA’s Ilya Bryzgalov, Martin Brodeur and Evgeni Nabokov - who all met the TOI criteria - for obvious reasons.
Devan Dubnyk (130 games)
Dubnyk is going to want to cash in off his savior season with the Minnesota Wild – both in term and in length. Up until this point Dubnyk had been tossed around the league in exchange for peanuts and free tickets. There’s no way that he takes a one/two year deal. He’s a very high risk signing with regards to both consistency and contract. I wouldn’t even bother calling Devan Dubnyk if I was Doug Wilson, because he isn’t going to like what he hears.
Even with his astronomical numbers for last season he still comes in barely above Antti Niemi. Risky.
Anders Lindback (73 games)
Lindback is awful. There’s no real way to get around it. Lindback’s agent is going to be the one trying to call all 30 teams looking for a chance to play in the AHL. There shouldn’t be too many suitors for him and San Jose should definitely steer clear.
Karri Ramo (74 games)
Hey, at least he’s better than Lindback!
Here’s another goaltender the Sharks should steer clear of. Ramo is a big downgrade from Antti Niemi – like all but three goaltenders on this list – and there’s no need to bring in a below average goaltender. Yet another gem from the 2015 goaltending free agent class that shouldn’t receive a phone call from Doug Wilson.
Ray Emery (80 games)
Emery is an interesting case. I honestly didn’t think he’d ever be back to the NHL when he left, but here he is. He’s below average as well.
Out of all the goaltenders on the list the easiest one to throw off their game would be Ray Emery. He’s a very emotional goatlender who isn’t very good at his job. That’s not really a great combination. Everyone can point to the 2012-2013 season by itself when Emery went 17-1 all they want, but Emery has a played parts of 11 seasons in the NHL and most of them feature underwhelming save percentages.
He’s also 32 to go with his below average play.
Jhonas Enroth (90 games)
Enroth was part of the Tim Murray tank experiment and was shipped away for being too good. Unfortunately, too good for Buffalo is still a step down from Antti Niemi.
He’s not far off of Niemi for the last three seasons so he has to be considered as an option if the Sharks can’t acquire a real goaltender via trade.
He’d definitely be considered a stop-gap goaltender for the Sharks – but if they can’t get “their guy… to move forward with then I hate to break to you, but the Sharks will need a guy on a 1-2 year deal while they wait out the market again.
Michal Neuvirth (60 games)
Neuvirth has the smallest sample size of them all and he’s the closest to Antti Niemi as it gets in this class. Is that ideal? Not really, but he’ll be cheaper than Antti Niemi and provide basically the same goaltending.
With a top four defender added to the blueline Neuvirth would be serviceable enough to get the Sharks to the playoffs. Like Enroth, only with a little more importance, Neuvirth should receive a call from Doug Wilson if he can’t hammer out a trade.
Viktor Fasth (63 games)
Viktor Fasth. Yet another failed backup experiment by the Edmonton Oilers. He was pretty good for about 25 games in Anaheim but has since been digging himself a hole in the back-up goalie graveyard outside of Rexall Place.
A big no to Fasth as well.
Summary
Overall, there are only two goaltenders (Neuvirth/Enroth) from the free agent class of 2015 that are worth calling – and both of them would only be to get you to the guy you want in a few years. The reason there are no records or GAA in the post is because I don’t really care about them. If a goalie played for Edmonton or Buffalo then we can assume that their record is terrible. If they played behind those same teams we can also assume their goals against average would be high. Neither is as good of an individual indicator of talent as save percentage in my opinion.
If the Sharks can acquire one of the goaltenders in tomorrow’s blog, that’s the best option. The 2015 goalie UFA class is ugly, but if it has to be used then so be it. There’s no need to trade for backup after backup only to fail each time. The work has to be put in to find the right goaltender for the Sharks – but they also need to pick up a top four defender to help them out.
It’s nice to want a certain goaltender, but if that trade doesn’t happen then the above goalies are your options. San Jose has Alex Stalock right now – that’s it. If there hasn’t been a trade for a goaltender at the NHL Draft then they can’t afford to wait until late July to sign a goaltender. They need to be active early to get one of Neuvirth or Enroth to minimize the damage on the 2015-2016 NHL Season.
Question: If you have to pick one of the above, who's your guy?
Thanks for reading.