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

[Svechhammer]

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.

Oh don't get me wrong, Lehner would not have been an ideal guy at all, and he absolutely would have come with baggage. But over the last 2 years he showed he can handle being the starter and do at least serviceable well with it. The problem with Mrazek is that, after that game against us, he was just as horrible for Philly as Darling was for us. Our floor with these 2 is horrifyingly low. The ceiling might be a bit higher, but we need to focus on the foundation before we worry about a potential glass enclosed 40th floor balcony. Lehner would have at least given us a guy we could throw out for 50+ games and we knew we could have at least been in games. We didn't need a goalie who could win us a game on his own, we needed a goalie who wouldn't lose us a game on his own, and I believe Lehner would have been that guy.

 

[Chrispy]

I think DaveG sums up where I am: give us some sort of indication there are ramifications if Darling isn't in shape again this fall or shows his issues aren't just conditioning. That's my hope with a less expensive one year deal for Mrazek: sign someone else to get a 3-man competition. Keep the third in the press box and let Ned play in Charlotte. Put the third person in Charlotte. Even grab some waiver fodder at the start of the season to put in the press box for a while.

But don't effectively guarantee that Darling is getting at least half the starts this year and expect us to be optimistic.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Again, this is the excuse every. Single. Year. Somehow in our little Canes bubble, there’s never a goalie available. Other teams manage to pick up guys like Schneider and Fleury and Bishop and Luongo and Bobrovsky. Somehow we manage to convince ourselves that “the deals weren’t there”, literally 10 years in a row. There comes a point where it’s not about the market, it’s about consistent failure to find opportunity.

This team, in its current configuration, has been on the job for three months, and they're dealing with constraints from the previous administration. I know you don't like hearing that story, but it's the truth.

In isolation, I get that in the course of 48 hours a spectacular opportunity might not be available. But I t’s freaking JULY. The season doesn’t start till October. Why in the world are we jumping all over the first dope who’s willing to play for peanuts?

As you say: it's freaking JULY. And we signed a likely replacement-level goaltender to a 1-year deal. That could be The Plan, or it could be insurance while we work on other deals. We have literally no idea. You can get Super Mad about it if you want, but it's not like there was an obvious move that we missed out on, except for one -- and the Caps weren't sending Grubauer here.

Like it or not, cheap bets are probably the way to go right now. Goalies are voodoo. Keep going through them until you find one that has good chemistry with the team. Lower the cost of failure by signing cheap one-year deals.

Taking this move on its face, and without wallowing in our decade of goaltender misery, it's a cheap bet, pure and simple.

(Of course, I understand that wallowing in misery is kind of what we do here.)

 

[StormCast]

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

Soooo...you think he'll be sent to Charlotte?

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

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.

I certainly hope we don’t burn through another round of talent, and based on the last 9 years I get the fear, truly.

But leaving this here in case there’s any question about the window of this team:

 

[StormCast]

Oh don't get me wrong, Lehner would not have been an ideal guy at all, and he absolutely would have come with baggage. But over the last 2 years he showed he can handle being the starter and do at least serviceable well with it. The problem with Mrazek is that, after that game against us, he was just as horrible for Philly as Darling was for us. Our floor with these 2 is horrifyingly low. The ceiling might be a bit higher, but we need to focus on the foundation before we worry about a potential glass enclosed 40th floor balcony. Lehner would have at least given us a guy we could throw out for 50+ games and we knew we could have at least been in games. We didn't need a goalie who could win us a game on his own, we needed a goalie who wouldn't lose us a game on his own, and I believe Lehner would have been that guy.

But that also presupposes Lehner can recapture his old form and would have been willing to sign here within the Canes parameters. I highly doubt he was up for a one-year deal.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

I do think there's a chance Darling rebounds, if we chalk up last season to being out of shape and the loss of confidence due to shitty play (because of the aforementioned out of shape).

However, there's also a chance that he doesn't, and our backup plan if that happens is... another goalie we need to pray has a rebound year.

Seems unnecessarily risky. At least last year, when Darling didn't work out as planned, we had Ward, who we knew we could rely on for at least a backup role.

 

[Buenos Necas]

Oh don't get me wrong, Lehner would not have been an ideal guy at all, and he absolutely would have come with baggage. But over the last 2 years he showed he can handle being the starter and do at least serviceable well with it. The problem with Mrazek is that, after that game against us, he was just as horrible for Philly as Darling was for us. Our floor with these 2 is horrifyingly low. The ceiling might be a bit higher, but we need to focus on the foundation before we worry about a potential glass enclosed 40th floor balcony. Lehner would have at least given us a guy we could throw out for 50+ games and we knew we could have at least been in games. We didn't need a goalie who could win us a game on his own, we needed a goalie who wouldn't lose us a game on his own, and I believe Lehner would have been that guy.

I was hoping for Lehner too, but let's not kid ourselves that he would fit that description. Lehner/Darling would have been the ultimate boom/bust duo.

 

[tarheelhockey]

This team, in its current configuration, has been on the job for three months, and they're dealing with constraints from the previous administration. I know you don't like hearing that story, but it's the truth.

What constraint from the previous administration? The Darling contract? How has that kept us from aggressively pursuing a goalie since Dundon bought the team in December? Anyone paying even the most remote attention to this team knew it was our #1 issue, even larger than the need for a center. In the interim period we managed to get worse in net.

As you say: it's freaking JULY. And we signed a likely replacement-level goaltender to a 1-year deal. That could be The Plan, or it could be insurance while we work on other deals. We have literally no idea.

Waddell has already effectively stated that the competition for our crease this fall is between Darling and Mrazek. I’d love to find out that he’s smokescreening and has more moves lined up, but all signals point to... nope, that’s it. That’s our 2018-19 season.

 

[StiffSquid]

Maybe they will surprise us. "Darling and Mrazek , the best goalie tandem in the world!"
"Hurricanes strikes gold with Mrazek"
"Mrazek & Darling to share Conn Smythe"

 

[GoldiFox]

Every person is a certain level of shitty and it takes varying degrees of shittiness to do various shitty things. It takes a high degree of shittiness to blatantly, knowingly, and tangibly betray the trust of a person or organization. Accepting a $16 million contract, kicking your feet up, and eating away an offseason is a massive betrayal of trust for a professional athlete. Albert Haynesworth bad. For an organization striving to build a positive culture these types are toxic. If your boyfriend or girlfriend cheats on you, you can accept them back and put cameras on them 24/7 to track their behavior but at the of the day you still have yourself a shitty person and it probably won’t work out.

 

[the halleJOKEL]

"svechnikov scores fifth goal, his 77th on the season, breaking 26 year rookie goal scoring record"

 

[StiffSquid]

"svechnikov scores fifth goal, his 77th on the season, breaking 26 year rookie goal scoring record"

And all the Finns will commit a suicide. It's Teemu's record to keep

 

[WreckingCrew]

Maybe they will surprise us. "Darling and Mrazek , the best goalie tandem in the world!"
"Hurricanes strikes gold with Mrazek"
"Mrazek & Darling to share Conn Smythe"

I want some of what you're having!

 

[the halleJOKEL]

I want some of what you're having!

it's called optimism and it is a drug

 

[WreckingCrew]

it's called optimism and it is a drug

Where can I find some of this "optimism"? Is it expensive?

 

[Jerkob Slavin]

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.

FIVE figures. This is Carolina and Dundon’s the boss, remember?

 

[the halleJOKEL]

Where can I find some of this "optimism"? Is it expensive?

it's actually free, but you have to marry yourself to the game

 

[A Star is Burns]

Every person is a certain level of ****ty and it takes varying degrees of ****tiness to do various ****ty things. It takes a high degree of ****tiness to blatantly, knowingly, and tangibly betray the trust of a person or organization. Accepting a $16 million contract, kicking your feet up, and eating away an offseason is a massive betrayal of trust for a professional athlete. Albert Haynesworth bad. For an organization striving to build a positive culture these types are toxic. If your boyfriend or girlfriend cheats on you, you can accept them back and put cameras on them 24/7 to track their behavior but at the of the day you still have yourself a ****ty person and it probably won’t work out.

That's certainly one way to look at it. I think there are other possibilities to making bad decisions than just being a bad person.

 

[Ole Gil]

What constraint from the previous administration? The Darling contract? How has that kept us from aggressively pursuing a goalie since Dundon bought the team in December? Anyone paying even the most remote attention to this team knew it was our #1 issue, even larger than the need for a center. In the interim period we managed to get worse in net.

They got worse in net. Unless they got better in net.

 

[GoldiFox]

That's certainly one way to look at it. I think there are other possibilities to making bad decisions than just being a bad person.

That’s a daily decision for 100+ days as a professional athlete to let oneself fall catastrophically out of shape. This after signing a 4 year, $16 million commitment to be the leader of a professional sports team in a critical position.

I’m all ears for a reasonable explanation if you got one. “I really missed my sister which is why I got fat” isn’t reasonable for me.

 

[jiitu]

This team lacks a superstar center. It's Waddell's job to go get one. But he didn't, because there's a limited supply of viable options. You can't just snap your fingers and have one appear and then get mad when one doesn't. You have to get creative. Move a winger over. Bring in a guy and hope he fits in really well here and maybe puts up numbers like he did at the beginning of his career. They took a shot and people are whining because he didn't get the guy THEY wanted. So it's a valid question to ask. If you don't like what they did, what would you do differently?

We cannot know how the negotiations went, BUT if we can suggest any reasonable solution, here's mine. I said it once already and say it again: Harri Säteril Cap hit 750 k o cheaper and I can guarantee that he would be at least decent if not great. And he has experience to be no 1 and start night after night. He's one of those guys who for many reasons by luck has not (yet) got a real chance in NHL, but probably upcoming season will show new page.

I am also sure that in europe there are many good goalies who's rights could be bought with fair price.

 

[Joe McGrath]

Mrazek is going to have a SV% this season higher than Cam Ward has had since 2011-2012.

 

[A Star is Burns]

I have no idea what the guy is going through or went through. I believe that mental health for any number of reasons can lead to people making poor decisions without just being an awful person. I don't know enough about his mental health situation or much of anything else in his life, other than mostly hearsay or stories, to say one way or another. Sometimes people don't handle getting loads of money for the first time the best way, or maybe some things in his personal life didn't help. I don't know. If he was as bad of a person as you think he is, I'm not sure why he'd even be trying to get in shape now, and just collect his paycheck instead. You're obviously free to look at it the way you are if you like. I don't think it's that black and white.

 

[DaveG]

We cannot know how the negotiations went, BUT if we can suggest any reasonable solution, here's mine. I said it once already and say it again: Harri Säteril Cap hit 750 k o cheaper and I can guarantee that he would be at least decent if not great. And he has experience to be no 1 and start night after night. He's one of those guys who for many reasons by luck has not (yet) got a real chance in NHL, but probably upcoming season will show new page.

I am also sure that in europe there are many good goalies who's rights could be bought with fair price.

Looks like Sateri signed with the Wings on July 1st. Probably why McCollum is a free agent.