19 for president
Registered User
- Apr 28, 2002
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Of course! I was always interested in how much goalies really did hamper a team's ability to build the rest of the core. And league wide, the numbers between your average goalie tandems and elite goalie tandems comes out to around that $3-4 million mark.
I think there's some incredible contract values with goalies, such as Ben Bishop, Connor Hellebuyck, and Semyon Varlamov. When people talk about getting an above average guy without breaking the bank, I think these are the types of names they think of. Grabbing a guy like that in the $5-6 range is a massive get. But I can really only find a handful of these guys. They are less common than one might think. So if you do end up with consistent, great goaltending - it's worth paying the extra if you can spare it.
It's important to note that it's absolutely vital if you're going to pay a goalie $10 million that it is someone truly elite like Price, Lundqvist, or Vasilevskiy. I was never a big fan of the Bob contract, although I do believe he will bounce back ultimately.
So in conclusion, if you can snag a Connor Hellebuyck for $6 million, that's damn great. But if you find yourself with an elite guy, don't go hunting for Hellebuyck to save a few million bucks, because it could be another decade or more before you find anyone as good.
It's an interesting argument. At the same time I think one can argue that the only times in the past 15 years that one could argue a top 3 goalie won the cup is maybe Quick and Thomas. If TB wins this year I think you could add Vasilevskiy to that list. I think the happy spot is somewhere in the top 10-15. If you want to go the goalie route I think you can but you have to build like Boston did. If you don't support the elite goalie with an elite dman or two you get Luongo, Price, and Lundqvist.