Show me the last Vezina finalist on a bad hockey team?
@mar2kbos is 100% correct. Sure, a great goalie can steal you an odd game now and then, but he isn't going to carry a bad team. Henrik Lundqvist is the perfect example. Now, the Rangers are repeating the mistake with Shesterkin. The ONE exception might be Jonathan Quick on that 2012 Kings team.
Any goalie is only gonna play 50-55 games for you anyway, and the difference between a top tier guy making $8+mil, and a middle of the pack guy making $4-5mil is about 1 goal every 5-7 games. That doesn't move the needle enough to justify the salary. You're better off with a mid-tier goalie and using that money to strengthen the lineup in front of him.
Overpaying for so-called elite goaltending is one of the biggest mistakes a club can make. You'd have thought that teams would have learned after Carey Price......nope.
We were so spoiled lately with Thomas, Rask and Ullmark/Swayman tandem that we did forget what it is like to have average and bad goaltending.
Do you believe a rebuild can be effective without top goaltending? You consider that a top goaltender or tandem will not be important in the success of a team? Last year Boston was a consequence in my opinion of the excellence of the goalkeepers. The impact on a group with great goaltending can also be mental IMO! Flyers had been struggling with bad goaltending for years.... I ask the question, would Boston still have beaten Toronto through their last confrontation if the goalkeepers had been swapped!!!!
Winning teams Examples are Tampa, Boston, LA, Chicago to name those since 2011 (SC). Last year president winner Ranger! Hellebuyck and the Jets. Price as you brought it in the discussion still brought a more than ordinary team to the SC final. And Price did maintain a not so good team above the water level and was a great Mtl ticket seller. Price was a star!
Concerning the salary, I always considered risky to pay
any player on length and high amount (minus a few exception). In Sway case, IMO nothing was proved to negotiate this year contract and I was all on a brigde deal. I did not beleive by definition that Sway had proven anything. He was part of a great tandem, but playing alone number One is a different animal. We will see how it will age and before screaming Sweeny is dumb, I will wait how it ages Maybe at the end of this deal, some will say finally he was a genius. Also, players negotiation are useably based on past numbers and expectation future potentiel. It is risky especially in the case of goaltending to project in the futur! But it is how it works.
You can refer to the chicken or egg that comes first as you wish but I maintain my pov, a winning team needs at least one good top Keeper, one good top center and one good top defensemen performance. Boston this year don't have any players playing at a top level with consistency (Pasta being the exception for some stretch).
My response was to a poster pretending that keepers can not win w/o a supporting group. But that is right for everyone/players in hockey, that is why it is a TEAM sport. NO best players in the world CAN win without a minimum supporting group (Oilers Drai and McDavid up to now, Mathews and Marner and Tavares and and and in Leafs case current example) if the only évaluation is based on winning the SC. Pretending this is only applicable to goalkeepers related to bad contracts is IMO dumb and I disagree with that opinion.
If their is one position IMO that can be a difference maker on a specific game, or PO series and on PO run, it is in net!