Don't forget that we also have Lindgren. Of course, he wouldn't be valued nearly as much as Hofer. But, his recent NHL play hasn't hurt him in the eyes of other GMs. Maybe he'll get some more NHL exposure this season, before the deadline. At least, it appears that he's good enough to be a better than average NHL back-up. A fair amount of goalies breakout in the 25-27 age group.
I'm less concerned about this because of 2 numbers, his expected +/- is -7.8 and his PDO is 90%. Both of those indicate very bad puck luck. Like I've said before, I have no problem writing this season and last season off as outliers. When we look back on his career, I think it's more likely than not that these will be outliers for him.
I thought about this, and maybe if Mikkola had more games under his belt, but to me, he's too unproven and old to be a real consideration. I've been trying to figure out the Setoguchi equivalent and we really don't have one. We have the exact opposite in Barbashev. Seto gave me Stewart vibes, someone who peaked early, Seto did it with the benefit of linemates, but their overall games weren't strong enough to sustain good production and they flamed out. There was a period where teams valued them a bit more highly thinking lightning would strike twice, but quickly teams realized it wouldn't and their careers flamed out.
We don't have a Setoguchi equivalent which is why when the Burns comp was floated and our stalwart Arizona fan rt suggested this comp should make Blues fans feel good I replied that I won't feel good until the Blues acquire the player.
Agreed. Ducks and Kings have too much talent in their prospect pool, where they can say **** it, we want Chychrun and we are going to pay up to get him. Even if we offer our best prospects, we are just at best competitive with them. It's not like Bouwmeester or O'Reilly where I wanted the player and we were in the driver's seat to acquire the player. We were the only team willing to offer a 1st for Bouwmeester, something Detroit passed on, and we were the most serious team for O'Reilly. You could throw Miller in, but I didn't want him, so I never smiled, especially with those obnoxious Buffalo fans.
Yeah the Hofer nugget is a good nugget. A lot of this is timing – Bill Armstrong clearly has a plan built around the readiness and emergence of the star players he is going to draft the next two years. That window is delayed enough that they believe it's smarter to not try to keep Chychrun for it. Even if we question the wisdom of that, it's very clear to me that BA has spent lots of time planning what should be a fascinating experiment. If they draft a goalie now he's still going to take longer to be ready to complement the impact prospects they are about to draft. So Hofer could fit the blueprint in terms of timing and if BA is convinced Hofer is a future #1 then in his mind the Blues offer has an appeal for his blueprint. IF that's the case the trade almost automatically has to be Scandella, Neighbors, Hofer, 1st. I could also see this being the trade on the table that Bill Armstrong turns to others and says beat this offer or you don't get the player and they know he's not bluffing.
If Husso continues playing well enough to be the potential next starter, then we can't afford to sign him. He is a UFA in the summer and will be due a rather large raise if his play continues. Husso is probably gone after this year.
Husso is going to be interesting this summer. Do we find a way to create space to bring him back. Does a team offer him a decent amount to be in a bigger role, something more closely resembling a 50/50 tandem. Or are teams sort of scared off because he still won't have a huge sample size of good play.
He has a full NTC that becomes a 15 team no trade list in 2025.
It all depends how he looks over the next 50 games. If he keeps putting up a .920+ through another 12-20 games, then teams absolutely won't be scared off. Teams aren't going to need to offer 3+ year term to beat our offers. Any 2 year deal on a market value contract for a tope end backup or 1B is going to exceed what we can spend on our goaltending. The backup/tandem UFA goalie market is $2-$4M depending on the quality of the guy you get. I don't see us willing or able to tie up $8-$9M+ in net.
Yeah, I could see him getting a 2 year, 2.5ish/year deal if he finishes with at least 20 starts with numbers close to where he is currently producing. Sort of like Halak in Boston or Khudobin in Dallas. The part of me that thinks we would invest this amount in him and the backup position is I think we've learned from Chad Johnson and last year's version of Husso of how important a quality backup is. If Barbashev along with Kyrou, Buchnevich, and Thomas all performing like they are, maybe along with a Tarasenko, maybe Perron isn't brought back, and suddenly we have the cap for a LHD upgrade and a quality backup.
I could see that offer getting us in to the Husso marketplace. But unlike Halak and Khudobin, he is still working to be a starter rather than accepting that he is best suited as a 1B. If the moeny is comparable between us and a team with a murkier crease, I'd see him going to the team that gives him the best chance to start. With as much as this organization insists on finding a 60-65+ start workhorse, I'm not sure they want to invest that kind of money in a backup for their $6M guy. I've hated our goalie workload management for years now, but I don't have any reason to believe that the desire for a workhorse changed after giving Binner a workhorse contract.
