Confirmed with Link: Petr Mrazek signed 1 year, 1.5M

[What the Faulk]

Mrazek's career high in games started in a season is 49. He's a career backup who was given the opportunity to prove himself as starter, and failed. Cam Ward, has been a 10 year starting goalie in the NHL, the majority of which he played 60+ games per season behind an atrocious defense.

Our 1-2 goaltending tandem this year are 2 players who only have 3 seasons combined between them in any given year where their total games started equals a full 82 games and both of them have proven themselves unable to shoulder the burden of being a starting goaltender in this league. But yeah, lets focus on those career stats while playing 30 games a season.

So did Khudobin, Lack and Darling.

Of course, you can look at that and say "Well, his numbers were good when Detroit was good." Once Detroit started to be more on Carolina's typical level of play, Mrazek's numbers take a drastic drop off.

So I guess we're hoping this isn't another Khudobin situation, where the team in front of him had a drastic effect on his numbers?

It's fair to wonder if Mrazek can hold up for a full year, but let's not go acting like those Red Wings teams are the Red Wings teams of old. In his 49-start season (2015-16), the Wings finished with 93 points while Mrazek had a 0.921 save percentage. The Wings had a defensive group of Kyle Quincey, Mike Green, Alexey Marchenko, Niklas Kronwall, Jonathan Ericsson, Danny Dekeyser, and Brendan Smith for most of the season. Sure, they had an older Datsyuk and Zetterberg, but they still gave up 30 shots a game, which ranked right in the middle of the NHL.

Mrazek might fail. He might not. But again, it's not as if there were many options out there that made more sense. Ward/Mrazek might have been more palatable, but that requires buying out Darling or spending assets to move him. You can be mad about that, but it doesn't look like either of those things were on the table. With the direction they chose to head, Mrazek makes sense even if I don't love it. I've said a few times that I didn't know what the answer was to the goaltending situation because there just wasn't anyone available that could be of obvious help. At least this is something different than Ward/XXX again.

And let's not rule out Darling getting his shit together and becoming that 60-game starter that's at least league average that's the baseline of what they hoped he could be.

 

[CandyCanes]

Guys calm down. Remember Don Waddell was the guy who wore his lucky sweater and won us Svechnikov. Let’s hope he was wearing that lucky sweater when signing Mrazek. We have just found a top goalie for us going forward.

 

[Svechhammer]

I'm still of the opinion that Gru would have been more of the same. Career backup that you think can be a starter?

Its nice to experiment with these kind of players when you already have a middling starter established, but to consistently roll through these guys to be the end all be all solution?

 

[What the Faulk]

If they pull off something like that, I’ll shut up about it. At least that’s showing some initiative, shooting every shot to find a solution come hell or high water. At least it suggests an actual plan.



Actually, this fanbase has earned the right to do exactly that. We are contending for the most thoroughly shat-upon group of fans in the league (thank god we’re still enjoying ourselves more than Arizona, Ottawa, and maybe the Islanders). “Be patient” is no longer an acceptable response. “There are no goalies on the table” isn’t acceptable either. We’ve swallowed those lines too many times in a row. We are absolutely justified in pushing back and demanding better.

We are basically at Cleveland Browns QB levels of organizational incompetence here. There is no way to get worse at what we’re doing. There is no downhill from here. Literally anything would be better than making the same obviously stupid mistakes over and over, while claiming we don’t know how to do it any other way.

It sucks. There's no question about it. But you can't make someone trade you a goaltender if they don't want to. Everyone wants good goaltending. Even an overpayment probably doesn't get many of these deals done.

 

[StormCast]

I will also say that I was an adamant Darling hater after he got off on the wrong foot. I wanted him bought out and gone and I hate that it contributes to Cam leaving but after reading others opinions and seeing the goalie market before the draft, I began to have a change of thought. The dude seems like a nice guy and he may have had some issues in his life but I still take issue with getting that type of contract and then coming in completely unprepared.

After seeing what he’s doing to rectify the situation this year, I wish him all the best and genuinely hope he pulls it around. If he could turn it around and remain constantly steady especially with three years remain, that would be one of the best things that could have happened outside of another Svechnikov pick and gives us some luxury with time.

At this point hope is the only strategy, as it's clear this is the G tandem. Darling was utterly horrific last year but his issues clearly extended beyond just being out of shape, which was inexcusable. He was incredibly mentally fragile and seemed lost in all phases of his game. I've never seen anything like it at the NHL level.

I've read the transition and lack of a support system played a part with Darling and I'm a bit more compassionate about that aspect of his live given his personal history. I don't know if it's been mentioned here and I'm not trying to read into it, but it makes you wonder if Ferland's inclusion in the deal with Calgary goes beyond the grit he brings on the ice. His history could make for a good in-house support system for Darling.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Dundon has a bunch of people weighing in on this stuff now, so it's more Dundon's fault than anyone else's.

That’s true as well. A lot of this is driven by Dundon simply not spending money. He cheaped out in the GM search, he cheaped out in the coach search, he cheaped out on Lindholm and Hanifin (which thankfully may turn in our favor), he cheaped out in continuing to retain Darling’s dead weight, and now he’s cheaping out in UFA. No surprise that he cheaped out on the goalie market.

I like a lot about what Dundon’s trying to do here, but his biggest refrain is accountability. In the span of time he has been in charge, he could have overseen at least an improvement to this situation. Ultimately it rests at his feet more than anyone else’s.

 

[StormCast]

That’s true as well. A lot of this is driven by Dundon simply not spending money. He cheaped out in the GM search, he cheaped out in the coach search, he cheaped out on Lindholm and Hanifin (which thankfully may turn in our favor), he cheaped out in continuing to retain Darling’s dead weight, and now he’s cheaping out in UFA. No surprise that he cheaped out on the goalie market.

I like a lot about what Dundon’s trying to do here, but his biggest refrain is accountability. In the span of time he has been in charge, he could have overseen at least an improvement to this situation. Ultimately it rests at his feet more than anyone else’s.

Makes one harken back to the good old relative "free-spending" days of Petey K. Too soon?

 

[tarheelhockey]

Makes one harken back to the good old relative "free-spending" days of Petey K. Too soon?

It smells strongly of “this is the exact same set of talking points we heard as PK/JR drove the franchise off a cliff”.

 

[Svechhammer]

It smells strongly of “this is the exact same set of talking points we heard as PK/JR drove the franchise off a cliff”.

The difference is that I trust Dundon to fix this. Everything he says comes across as a guy who has enough pride that he wants to actually win. It makes him actually give a shit when things go wrong, which is something that PK never did. Eventually I think that pride will lead us in the right direction.

 

[StormCast]

It smells strongly of “this is the exact same set of talking points we heard as PK/JR drove the franchise off a cliff”.

Yep just ironic that cash-strapped millionaire PK spent like a drunken sailor compared to billionaire TD so far.

 

[DaveG]

Yeah, I like the idea of signing Lehner as well.....but I have heard that guy is a total weirdo.

I hadn't thought of the Browns QB-Canes Goalie comparison, but its not far off. The difference being that at least the Browns tried to find new QB's....we just stuck with Brady Quinn for 10 years

Nah, Cam at least had a prime. This is more like if the Panthers had, instead of moving on from Jake Delhomme after 2009, kept turning to him until he was Tom Brady's age.

The difference is that I trust Dundon to fix this. Everything he says comes across as a guy who has enough pride that he wants to actually win. It makes him actually give a **** when things go wrong, which is something that PK never did. Eventually I think that pride will lead us in the right direction.

I'll believe it when we bring in a 3rd goalie, even if it's on another cheap 1 year deal, to have ACTUAL competition in net this coming season. Until then it's all talk because I don't believe any of the 21-22 year olds with between 0 and 2 seasons of pro experience are ready for a shot at it yet. Especially when our GM tells us "don't worry about Darling" at the prospect camp and in the press. I mean that's the #1 thing that everyone should be worried about going in to the season with how it torpedoed us last season.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

Yeah, like Buffalo, Ottawa, the Islanders, Chicago, Detroit, Edmonton, Montreal, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Vancouver. That's a third of the league with potentially worse goaltending than us.



This is patently ridiculous. You just blamed Waddell for Ron Francis's mistakes.

To be fair I think he'a also blaming Waddell for Rutherford's mistakes as he did mention picking a goalie in the last decade and a half. Well, let's look at that a bit more To me one of the most maddening choices made in that span of time is that for a period of 3 consecutive drafts (2005-2007) and in two more drafts (2009 and 2013) the Canes didn't use a single pick on a goaltender. Not a one. As the saying goes, you have to play to win. That's fully a third of the span that Tarheel identifies where the Canes just didn't try. Yes, we can use hindsight to identify who the Canes should have drafted (e.g. using the 3rd round pick we spent in 2005 on Joe Barnes when Jonathan Quick was on the board) but just not picking anybody for that 3-year span baffles me.

I love this.... Point out that the goaltending situation sucks and the immediate reply is "what would you do to fix it, either tell us or shut up"

Nah, not sitting around for that BS. Its not our job to fix this. And unless your name is Doug Waddell and you are currently employed by Tom Dundon to work in the Carolina Hurricanes organization, its not your job to fix it, either. You can see that a situation has reached crisis point without needing to come with a researched plan to fix it. Its not unreasonable at all to be sitting here now looking at the roster, especially at the goaltending spot, and have the opinion we royally ****ed up without a solution in hand.

Its valid to say we still have the same fundamental issues we've had for 3 seasons and the organization has miserably failed in addressing both Center depth and goaltending acumen. Demanding that someone either come with a solution or shut up is a bull**** tactic to silence anyone you're debating with. You can acknowledge that we screwed the pooch in the past, and have refused to dismount since without knowing the solution. Its not our job to solve this. If it was, we'd be the ones making 6 or 7 figures working in the front office.

Translation: "I have no idea what moves should/could have been made, I like to be angry, and I don't want to risk getting called out so I'll just sit on the sidelines and shout instead of put my neck out and make a suggestion."

I get that Darling/Mrazek isn't the ideal tandem but if (and it's a big if) that one or both of them have a rebound season we'll be in good shape. Mrazek has shown signs of brilliance and after watching some of his highlight reels I like his intensity. If this season ends up being a wash, fine. We get a better shot at Hughes, Mrazek's off the books, Darling's buyout goes down from $8M to $4.7M, and next year's goalie UFA class looks more promising than this year's.

 

[tarheelhockey]

The difference is that I trust Dundon to fix this. Everything he says comes across as a guy who has enough pride that he wants to actually win. It makes him actually give a **** when things go wrong, which is something that PK never did. Eventually I think that pride will lead us in the right direction.

I do agree with that. Dundon says the right things and has a coherent philosophy. I just want to see him walk the walk. Not $10,000 at a time with fan-friendly gimmicks, but $1,000,000 at a time by making this team better now.

Under ordinary circumstances I’d be willing to give him a pass for 2, maybe even 3 seasons to get used to the league, assemble a new leadership team, and start building the organization for the long haul. But we’re in a situation now where we’ve completely missed on the Skinner/Faulk/Staal generation of young talent coming through our pipeline, we’ve botched the early years of the Aho/Slavin/Hanifin/Lindholm phase, and the clock starts ticking on Svechnikov/Necas this fall. He doesn’t get the luxury of messing around with these guys for 3 years and losing them for pittance the way we’re about to lose Skinner and Faulk. If we burn through another round of talent like that, for the sake of one guy “feeling out” what it’s like to be a pro sports owner, it’ll be a generation before the franchise recovers.

This is a season where a significant forward stride needs to happen. Banking it on Darling/Mrazek is just... Browns-ish.

 

[CandyCanes]

Nah, Cam at least had a prime. This is more like if the Panthers had, instead of moving on from Jake Delhomme after 2009, kept turning to him until he was Tom Brady's age.

Holy crap Ward is Jake Delhomme. That's like the perfect comparison.

 

[The Stranger]

If Darling were a free agent, what would his market value be? Would he even have been given a 1-way deal? What is the current combined market value of Darling and Mrazek...$2mish?

There's a reason why CHI gave Cam $3M and a NTC, it's because he was better than both Darling and Mrazek last season...comments of Darling and Mrazek having more upside than Cam but all three have the same down-side is just fans coping/rationalizing a bad situation.

I'm still not sure what Dundon/Waddell are thinking here....is the goal the playoffs next season? If so, the should've brought Cam back to ensure at least a respectable level of play...and they should've brought Mrazek in, and then had a legit 3 way competition between Ward, Mrazek, and Darling.

If Darling gets his shit together, fantastic...the financial commitment to Ward and Mrazek on 1 year deals is small...it would be workable.

If one bombs out, you have the other two.

If all three play well, trade one or worst case scenario, send one down to the AHL (Charlotte or loan elsewhere).

 

[Svechhammer]

To be fair I think he'a also blaming Waddell for Rutherford's mistakes as he did mention picking a goalie in the last decade and a half. Well, let's look at that a bit more To me one of the most maddening choices made in that span of time is that for a period of 3 consecutive drafts (2005-2007) and in two more drafts (2009 and 2013) the Canes didn't use a single pick on a goaltender. Not a one. As the saying goes, you have to play to win. That's fully a third of the span that Tarheel identifies where the Canes just didn't try. Yes, we can use hindsight to identify who the Canes should have drafted (e.g. using the 3rd round pick we spent in 2005 on Joe Barnes when Jonathan Quick was on the board) but just not picking anybody for that 3-year span baffles me.





Translation: "I have no idea what moves should/could have been made, I like to be angry, and I don't want to risk getting called out so I'll just sit on the sidelines and shout instead of put my neck out and make a suggestion."

I get that Darling/Mrazek isn't the ideal tandem but if (and it's a big if) that one or both of them have a rebound season we'll be in good shape. Mrazek has shown signs of brilliance and after watching some of his highlight reels I like his intensity. If this season ends up being a wash, fine. We get a better shot at Hughes, Mrazek's off the books, Darling's buyout goes down from $8M to $4.7M, and next year's goalie UFA class looks more promising than this year's.

I would have done whatever it took to sign Lehner and bring him in as the starter rather than roll the dice with Mrazek. I get wanting Darling to see if the can work through his issues, but we don't need him to be doing that while also trying to be our starting goalie. Bring in a guy who has proven himself at the starter level (.915 Sv % over 108 games started the last 2 seasons behind a bad Buffalo defense) and let Darling figure it out. Bringing in Mrazek, who has to deal with the exact same issues as Darling, is trying to put out a fire with Kerosene.

 

[CanesFanBudMan]

Holy crap Ward is Jake Delhomme. That's like the perfect comparison.

If ward is Jake Delhome we wont get our Cam Newton until the 20/21 season

 

[StormCast]

The difference is that I trust Dundon to fix this. Everything he says comes across as a guy who has enough pride that he wants to actually win. It makes him actually give a **** when things go wrong, which is something that PK never did. Eventually I think that pride will lead us in the right direction.

Where TD struck the wrong chord with me was when he essentially stated that if a UFA wasn't wanted by his current team, why would the Canes be interested. So many things so wrong with such a myopic comment like that.

 

[DaveG]

If Darling were a free agent, what would his market value be? Would he even have been given a 1-way deal? What is the current combined market value of Darling and Mrazek...$2mish?

There's a reason why CHI gave Cam $3M and a NTC, it's because he was better than both Darling and Mrazek last season...comments of Darling and Mrazek having more upside than Cam but all three have the same down-side is just fans coping/rationalizing a bad situation.

I'm still not sure what Dundon/Waddell are thinking here....is the goal the playoffs next season? If so, the should've brought Cam back to ensure at least a respectable level of play...and they should've brought Mrazek in, and then had a legit 3 way competition between Ward, Mrazek, and Darling.

If Darling gets his **** together, fantastic...the financial commitment to Ward and Mrazek on 1 year deals is small...it would be workable.

If one bombs out, you have the other two.

If all three play well, trade one or worst case scenario, send one down to the AHL (Charlotte or loan elsewhere).

Doesn't even have to be Ward to me. But it has to be someone that we can make a run at having a real competition with. The only options still out there are Lehner, Lehtonen, Mason, Pavelec (oh. god. no), and McCollum at this point in regards to that. It's frustration and anger that we flat out struck out on any and all potential options from Europe this offseason, and that we apparently have no intention of a real competition, that we won't even really consider burying Darling in the AHL then buying him out in the offseason if he's still not working out. Just 1 "not Darling" option to me doesn't say accountability at all to me, and this is an organization that is trying to build up accountability as a cornerstone.

 

[Moosetache]

Numbers aside, I think its interesting we are talking about wanting the goalie from the worst team in the league who wasn't even offered a contract by his current team.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

I would have done whatever it took to sign Lehner and bring him in as the starter rather than roll the dice with Mrazek. I get wanting Darling to see if the can work through his issues, but we don't need him to be doing that while also trying to be our starting goalie. Bring in a guy who has proven himself at the starter level (.915 Sv % over 108 games started the last 2 seasons behind a bad Buffalo defense) and let Darling figure it out. Bringing in Mrazek, who has to deal with the exact same issues as Darling, is trying to put out a fire with Kerosene.

I appreciate and respect you for putting that out there, lurkerbee. I personally see Lehner and Mrazek as being six of one, half dozen of the other in terms of having some baggage. After the Grubauer trade fell through, my hope was that we'd be able to hold onto Cam another year and then run with Ward-Lehner or Ward-Mrazek. I'm cautiously optimistic about Mrazek. He looked good in his first 3-4 games with Philly (until that game they lost to us 4-1) so I hope that he can capture on that (maybe by seizing on not being tendered a qualifying offer) to get that spark back.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Numbers aside, I think its interesting we are talking about wanting the goalie from the worst team in the league who wasn't even offered a contract by his current team.

Literally ANY goalie added to the mix would be an improvement over not adding any more goalies to the mix. At this point we cannot realistically make our situation worse.

 

[the halleJOKEL]

watch mrazek come in and put up a .935 save percentage all season against all the odds

 

[the halleJOKEL]

Literally ANY goalie added to the mix would be an improvement over not adding any more goalies to the mix. At this point we cannot realistically make our situation worse.

we could have rolled with a helvig, booth, ned goaltending by committee approach

 

[tarheelhockey]

we could have rolled with a helvig, booth, ned goaltending by committee approach

At least we’d have money left over for that big TVR extension!