Around the NHL 2024-25 regular season

[Comparison Ford]

between blackwood and wedgewood we will never score against the Avs again

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

if Blackwood helps the Avs go deep in the playoffs, certain members of this board are going to be inconsolable lmao

 

[Incharge1976]

Colorado is officially the team I want to face least in the finals. We would get shut out 3 of the 4 games.

 

[TheBeerNerd]

If the Avs marketing team was anything like ours, they'd be making a shirt right now that has the numbers for Wood, Blackwood, and Wedgewood with the caption "Colorado Avalanche: We Got Wood."

if Blackwood helps the Avs go deep in the playoffs, certain members of this board are going to be inconsolable lmao

He was never going to work out with us. The team mishandled his injury, and he mishandled his brain.

 

[HBK27]

Have to imagine Georgiev gets flipped at some point

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Askarov szn in SJ?

 

[TrufleShufle]

 

[JrFischer54]

Ok - sure. Why not?

But, then so are:
- Location / weather
- Off-ice earning potential / market size
- History / O6 / "hockey market"
- Language

Smart teams will find ways to press their advantages.

all thats true and thats fine none of that changes the fact that some teams can squeeze more out of the cap then others with savings in taxes then others and that to me is an advantage.

 

[Bleedred]

Good riddance to Georgiev

One of the most overrated goalies in the league two years ago. One Avs fan claimed on the mainboard that the Rangers traded the wrong guy.

That was literally Georgiev's only particularly good season in the NHL. He had maybe one other solid season where he hardly played and wasn't called up until late in the year. And maybe one other okay season with the Rangers.

He was absolutely dreadful in the year Shesterkin win the Vezina and people claimed it was because he can't get in a rhythm and needs to play more games, like he's Marty Brodeur or something.

 

[TheBeerNerd]

all thats true and thats fine none of that changes the fact that some teams can squeeze more out of the cap then others with savings in taxes then others and that to me is an advantage.

To say that it is the end-all be-all advantage is reductive and stupid.

 

[Bleedred]

Have to imagine Georgiev gets flipped at some point

Maybe

But I don't think anyone wants him as rental unless they have depth/injury issues in net. Like I said, only one particularly good year in his career where he played a sizable number of games. His value is probably lower than ever now.

 

[TheBeerNerd]

It's pretty clear that the Sharks consider Askarov their starter of the very near future, if not immediately, and Georgiev and Vanacek are going to fight for the right to be his backup.

 

[JrFischer54]

To say that it is the end-all be-all advantage is reductive and stupid.

i mean math doesn't lie. i don't care if a player wants to play here or there or anywhere for whatever reason. point remains the same some areas/teams can give out contracts at lower cap hit and the player makes the same then other areas/teams who give out bigger cap hits

 

[Bleedred]

I actually think our chances of beating the Avs are better now that they have Blackwood, as we haven't really shown a constantly ability to come up short against him, as he's only played us for not even 4 combined periods in his career.

The Wedgewood stuff is just unbearable at this point. I think we've played him 6 times and it feels like he has more shutouts than Marty did in the 2003 playoffs.

 

[HBK27]

Maybe

But I don't think anyone wants him as rental unless they have depth/injury issues in net. Like I said, only one particularly good year in his career where he played a sizable number of games. His value is probably lower than ever now.

Sharks also don't have any retention spots, but thinking maybe if some team needs a backup at the deadline there might be interest.

Will be interested to see how San Jose handles the goaltending situation now though - Askarov looks like he's ready to get a larger role, but now you have two vets in Georgiev and Vanecek.

Wonder if Vanecek just gets put on waivers, as his stats are awful. Nice guy, but looks like it might be the end of the road for him in the NHL.

 

[Bleedred]

It's pretty clear that the Sharks consider Askarov their starter of the very near future, if not immediately, and Georgiev and Vanacek are going to fight for the right to be his backup.

Doubt that will happen this year unless Vitek keeps shitting himself.

Maybe later in the year, but it will probably be a Georgiev/Vanecek tandem for now.

 

[Bleedred]

I'm relieved that it was Colorado that traded for Blackwood and not Toronto. That would have been torturous if he was traded there and we had to play him tomorrow after the Wedgewood bullshit two nights before.

I actually joked about it in the GDT last night, asking what are the Leafs are gonna trade for him tomorrow to play us on Tuesday lol.

But like I keep saying, the ineptitude against Blackwood is not yet a trend for us. We've only had one decision against him and not even a full period in another game before he left injured.

 

[TheBeerNerd]

Colorado is officially the team I want to face least in the finals. We would get shut out 3 of the 4 games.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Yeah, SJ not having any retention slot is the big one. COL is 7M over the cap right now because of LTIR and they only added about 600k in this deal.

They NEEDED to make a goalie move and NEEDED to send Georgiev back to make this work, which is probably why Grier was able to squeeze them for a 2nd. Desperation.

 

[HBK27]

Looks like Colorado retained some salary on Georgiev, knocking down his AAV from $3.4M to $2.924 which makes him a little easier for the Sharks to flip.

 

[Brodeur]

Looks like Colorado retained some salary on Georgiev, knocking down his AAV from $3.4M to $2.924 which makes him a little easier for the Sharks to flip.

Barring a bunch of injuries, I can't imagine many teams would be interested in Georgiev even if San Jose took an equally ugly contract back.

Carolina may look for some insurance at some point if Andersen's ailments linger. But I'm not sure Georgiev would be there guy. Granted the potential backup goalie market is looking trashtastic: Husso, Vanecek, Forsberg, Reimer, Lyon.

Ballpark NHL duos:

ANA: Gibson - Dostal
CGY: Vladar - Wolf
EDM: Skinner - Pickard
LAK: Kuemper - Rittich
SEA: Daccord - Grubauer
SJS: Georgiev - Vanecek - Askarov
VAN: Demko - Lankinen - Silovs
VGK: Hill - Samsonov

ARZ: Ingram - Vejmelka
CHI: Mrazek - Brossoit (IR) - Soderblom
COL: Blackwood - Wedgewood
DAL: Oettinger - DeSmith
MIN: Gustavsson - Fleury
NSH: Saros - Annunen
STL: Binnington - Hofer
WPG: Hellebucyk - Comrie - Kahkonen

BOS: Swayman - Korpisalo
BUF: Luukkonen - Reimer - Levi
DET: Talbot - Lyon - Husso
FLO: Bobrovsky - Knight
MON: Montembeault - Primeau
OTT: Ullmark - Forsberg
TBL: Vasilevskiy - Johansson
TOR: Woll - Stolarz

CAR: Andersen - Kochetkov - Martin
CLB: Merzlikins - Tarasov
NJD: Markstrom - Allen
NYI: Sorokin - Varlamov
NYR: Shesterkin - Quick
PHI: Ersson - Fedotov
PIT: Jarry - Nedeljkovic
WSH: Lindgren - Thompson

 

[Oneiro]

I wouldn’t anchor to the regular season.

Hopefully we are lucky enough to see the Avs in the final because I think we could win.

 

[HBK27]

Wow...dodged that bullet...

 

[Richer's Ghost]

Thanks Novo... that doesn't sting at all.

 

[Bleedred]

I wouldn’t anchor to the regular season.

Hopefully we are lucky enough to see the Avs in the final because I think we could win.

I think we would have the advantage.

When was the last cup finals we saw a Wedgewood or even a Blackwood type of goalie as the starting goalie for a cup finalist? I'm not talking about when an otherwise decent to solid goalie had a poor playoffs en route to the finals like Kuemper 2 years ago or the Fleury cup that he was the starter for.

The last Wedgewood caliber goalies as a starter on a cup finals team was probably Michael Leighton with the Flyers in 2010.

And Leighton didn't even get them all the way there. They started out with a washed up Boucher, but they were both Wedgewood caliber.

Here's every cup finals starting goalie since 2010. I'm doing this off memory, so I could have one or two of these wrong.

Bobrovsky x2, Skinner, Hill, Kuemper, Vasilevskiy x3, Price, Khudobin, Binnington, Rask x2, Holtby, Fleury, Murray x2, Rinne, Jones, Crawford x2, Bishop, Quick x2, Lundqvist, Brodeur, Thomas, Luongo, Niemi, Leighton.

Of that bunch Khudobin is pretty meh. He played well in those playoffs, but he's probably close to on par with Wedgewood, it's close. Leighton is definitely a Wedgewood.

Skinner, Hill and Jones are probably Blackwood-ish caliber goalies. Only one of the Blackwood or Wedgewood caliber goalies won the cup as the starter.

If you go the 15 years before 2010 the ''Small time'' names are even fewer for a while there. Fleury x2, Osgood x3, Giguere x2, Emery, Ward, Roloson, Khabibulin, Kiprusoff, Brodeur x4, Hasek x2, Irbe, Roy x2, Belfour x2, Kolzig, Hextall?, Vanbiesbrouck, Vernon.

Now that's a STACKED list of cup finals goalies. Many are in the hall of fame, many Vezina winners, a bunch of them are Conn Smythe winners, many of them repeat visits to the finals. MOST of them were elite at least at one point.

Emery and Irbe are two guys that stick out as being nobodies. Ward didn't have an outsanding career, but even he won the Conn Smythe in his cup finals year. Roloson and Khabibulin were never really elite, but were solid for a stretch in their careers.