Possibly. I think it would mostly be about the bumper position on PP1 and then fitting him in wherever else he earns.
The dude can’t stay healthy. Second time with a no contact injury. That is a problem if this is a guy you are relying on.
No argument there, but I was pleasantly surprised to see he might not be out for an extended period of time this time.
Totally and I hope he is back ASAP. Going down the stretch though this is worrying to say the least.
He was day to day last time and missed a month.
If he’s back before February I’ll be very surprised.
How can your takeaway from a "day to day" status be that he'll miss 5 to 6 weeks?
Because its the Capitals. We have seen this before.How can your takeaway from a "day to day" status be that he'll miss 5 to 6 weeks?
Because he pulled up lame with no contact and couldn’t take a stride to get off the ice. He has some type of groin or abdomen injury and those take a while. And because injury designations mean nothing in hockey.How can your takeaway from a "day to day" status be that he'll miss 5 to 6 weeks?
Always a career backup. Played a couple of NHL games and was strong in the AHL And he played there on a 1-way contract. We were focused on Samsonov and Vanechek. Was an UFA this year and we have a lot of goalies in the system.
He had an okay season (not exceptional) as an NHL back-up in 2018-19, but he's a pretty unremarkable goalie in general. His biggest attribute is his size. He's probably best served as part of an AHL tandem that can be called up to spot start if a different goalie gets hurt (which is exactly what he's doing for y'all now). He left the organization because the Capitals didn't offer him a contract. Heck, even his previous 3-year one-way contract was puzzling from the day it was signed. He was the back-up in 2018-19, but then (predictably) lost that role to Samsonov the following year (2019-20). In 2020-21 he was passed again, as Vanecek took the #2 role in Washington after Lundqvist's heart condition came to light. Even in Hershey he gradually lost the reigns of the net, increasingly losing time to a variety of younger, higher upside keepers who performed as well or better than he did (first Vanecek, then Fucale, then Hunter Shepard). There simply wasn't an organizational need to re-sign him after paying him NHL #2 money for 3 years for him to be the 4th goalie on our depth chart.
Five and a half seasons so plenty of familiarity. He's not as physical as those guys. Not as much of a PKer or defensive player. But he's somewhat crafty offensively and put up some strong underlying numbers over the years. He may not be as fast as he used to be but he's a 5-time 20-goal scorer right shot and the right shot is really the key here. He may not be a top six lock at this stage but he could be a decent PP1 bumper option minus 77/43 and allow them to maybe not rush them back. He's probably more of a 3RW depth scoring piece, which may overlap too much with a healthy Oshie but if he is to be sidelined for a while it makes a lot of sense.
