Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek on the 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – A Goaltending Roller Coaster episode on the goaltending market. Who could be selling and who could be buying?
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Friedman: “So what I think we’ve got here, Jeff, is a little bit of a goaltending roller coaster. You know, we’ve got the teams with three goalies.
Detroit, it doesn’t sound like (Red Wings GM Steve) Yzerman is too interested in breaking up the three goalie routine right now. Of course. I’m always terrified to say that with Yzerman because he’s the kind of guy who like out of spite I would then trade one right after the podcast ended.
You know Buffalo’s got three goalies up there right now, but the thing about Eric Comrie is, let’s just assume he was the guy you’re gonna move. He’s at $1.8 (million), and I think that just again, just like (Antti) Raanta, it makes them very difficult to move.
I definitely think Montreal would do something if it made sense for them.
And I’ll tell you, the other team is Columbus here. Now, you know, I don’t think they’re going to do anything with (Daniil) Tarasov. He’s just getting back and they’ve got a lot invested in him. I mentioned Spencer Martin‘s name the other night. You know, like he’s he doesn’t make a ton of money, so he’d fit in some situations a little bit better.
But to be honest, I wonder if the opportunity was right if the Blue Jackets would do (Elvis) Merzlikins. I had a couple of people on Sunday say that they could see the possibility of that. That maybe both the Blue Jackets and Merzlikins feel it’s time for him to try somewhere else.
But again, in the middle of the season, that’s not an easy number for a lot of teams to absorb. So there’s a few things that might have to happen here.
I definitely think the goalie carousel is going. You know, I’d mentioned la they put Copley on LTIR. He’s out for a while. He got hurt in practice the other day. They’ve got Rittich up. I think LA is looking for a two, three. I don’t think they were against letting Rittich go with them for a while. They do need another goalie to play American Hockey League and that kind of two, three area. I think if they make their big move for a goalie, Jeff, I think it will be closer to the deadline but I don’t think they’re in a rush to get a big name right now.
But I do think the goalie carousel is, is running around a little bit. And the other team that’s going to have to make a decision sometime down the road is going to be Toronto. Although Martin Jones or as we say in French, Martin Jones, it looks like he has drunk from the fountain of youth.
Marek: “Yeah, he looked good on Saturday.”