A couple weeks back Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported GM Brad Treliving and the Calgary Flames may not be entirely happy with the team's goaltending situation.
Since that time the Flames have been linked to several goaltenders including Ottawa's Robin Lehner and New York's Cam Talbot.
With so many other teams looking for goaltenders - Edmonton, Buffalo and San Jose, among others - the asking prices aren't as low as they otherwise would be, which is part of the reason I don't think the Flames should trade for a goaltender.
The other part of it is that the Flames already have at worst an average starting goaltender in Jonas Hiller, who was 19th out of 54 eligible goaltenders (minimum 1,000 minutes) in 5 vs 5 save percentage last season.
Of the goaltenders Calgary is rumored to have interest in - Lehner, Talbot and maybe even Eddie Lack - Talbot is the only goaltender who had a higher 5 vs 5 save percentage than Hiller last season and he was playing behind a steady defense that allowed fewer scoring chances.
I think the Flames would be smart to let Hiller take the reigns for one more season and re-evaluate next summer. There will undoubtedly be other capable goaltenders available and Jon Gilles may also be ready for NHL duty at that point.
While I do like Hiller I will admit that he's not a guy that can go out and give 65-70 starts a season. If the Flames aren't in love with Joni Ortio - and I'm not sure they are - there are some capable options available in free agency who could come in and take some of the load off Hiller.
Michal Neuvirth is one of those options.
Neuvirth has posted a sub .910SV% just once since the 2009-10 season when he really broke into the league.
Since then he has primarily been a backup but has shown the ability to give a team quality starts over a larger workload.
In 2010-11 Neuvirth appeared in 48 games for the Caps and gave them solid but unspectacular goaltending by posting a .914SV%.
He's hardly a big name but over the last three seasons (minimum 2,500 5 v5 minutes) he is 22nd of 45 eligible goaltenders in 5 vs 5 SV% at .922.
That's ahead of the likes of Jonathan Quick, Antti Niemi, Jaroslav Halak, Ryan Miller and Kari Lehtonen to name a few.
Neuvirth is also ahead of Lehner and Lack - two names the Flames have been linked to - in that category.
Neuvirth is not a guy who will play every night and singlehandedly win games, but he's proven to be a good NHL goaltender and it surely wouldn't cost much to sign him.
If Treliving is set on making changes between the pipes I think he'd be smart to give Neuvirth a call rather than trading quality assets for unproven options.
Recent posts Where There's Smoke, There's Fire