The end of the NHL season is coming and that means that the offseason is almost here for all teams. There’s going to be a lot of activity during the offseason not only due to the draft and free agency, but because of the expansion draft for Vegas which is right before free agency.
One of the markets will be for goaltenders and we’ve already seen a few moves this offseason. The Hurricanes acquired Scott Darling from the Blackhawks a couple weeks ago and then signed him to a four year contract and it looks like he’s their starting goaltender. The Stars acquired Ben Bishop from the Los Angeles Kings and then signed him to a six year deal worth $4.9 million per year and will likely buy out one of Kari Lehtonen or Antti Niemi.
What other teams will be looking for a new goaltender this summer? Let’s take a look.
Calgary Flames
The Flames had a great season under first year head coach Glen Gulutzan as they made the playoffs for the second time in three years but they ended up getting swept in the first round by the Anaheim Ducks.
One of the biggest reasons why they lost was because of subpar goaltending as Brian Elliott let them down. He had a save percentage of .880 and his goals-against average was 3.89. That’s not going to win a team any games in the postseason and the Flames should be looking for a new starter since he also only had a .910 save percentage during the regular season as well.
The Flames will have plenty of options such as Antti Raanta who could very well be the next Cam Talbot since he had a great year, Marc-Andre Fleury who’s had a remarkable playoff run with the Penguins, or even Phillipp Grubauer who backs up Braden Holtby in Washington.
Winnipeg Jets
The Winnipeg Jets finished ninth in the Western Conference this year and could’ve potentially been a playoff team if they had some good goaltending. They were plagued by bad goaltending during this entire season as Connor Hellebuyck and Ondrej Pavelec just weren’t getting the job done for them. It must be noted though that Pavelec only appeared in eight games for the Jets but had a save percentage of .888 in those games.
Hellebuyck appeared in 56 games for the Jets this season winning 26 of them with a save percentage was .907 and a goals-against average of 2.89. Winnipeg usually doesn’t make a lot of noise during the offseason but they have got to go out and get a true number one goaltender this offseason as Hellebuyck didn’t handle the load of being a starting goaltender this season. For them, they would have the same options as a team like Calgary would or they could go for someone cheaper such as Steve Mason who’s a free agent out of Philadelphia. Other options would include Ryan Miller, or one of the Detroit Red Wings goaltenders.
Buffalo Sabres
The Sabres are coming off another down year as they missed the playoffs again. They have a lot of really good young talent in Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart and also a great player in Ryan O”Reilly but goaltending woes also plagued them this year.
Robin Lehner was the starter during the season and appeared in 58 games and had a save percentage of .920 which isn’t bad but won’t be good enough for the Sabres if they want to push for a playoff spot. They could go out and get a starting goaltender and then push Lehner to the back-up spot and they’d be set for goaltending next year. Buffalo will also look to fix their defensive issues that they had during the season. They don’t have a deep defensive core but goaltending should also be high on the list of things to tackle this offseason for them.
Jason Botterill was hired a couple weeks ago out of Pittsburgh and it would be really interesting if he potentially targets Marc-Andre Fleury out of Pittsburgh since he’s likely not going to be back for them next year due to the expansion draft. It would be a match made in heaven for him since he’s been in Pittsburgh for over ten years but there’s so many options for them. Buffalo isn’t that far off from being a playoff team so it’s going to be interesting to see what happens.