GDT: Trade deadline 2021

[kicksavedave]

Tim Thomas, holy shit. Forgot how insanely good he was.

True, but I also see a .910, a .911 and a .914 winning a Cup in the last 10 years, with Holtby's .922 being 4th worst among all 10 years shown. Which says, its not absolutely required to have a goalie stand on his head all playoffs long to win a Cup.

But it is 100% absolutely required to have a goalie make a dozen or more really timely saves at key times, to win a Cup, and in every case hidden behind those 10 percentages, that's the real story.

Holtby was not "spectacular" all playoffs long, but he made "the save" and he came up super large when down 3 games to 2 vs TB in the ECF. Turns out that was all we needed from him.

 

[kicksavedave]

I would love to see absolutely nothing happen today. It would tell the players that its up to them, there isn't some savior coming in at the last minute to bail them all out. It would tell them they aren't 1 player away, they are 20 players away, and if all 20 do their part that's all they need.


Its worked before.

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

I def would not trade for a goalie to spilt starts w the kids. Ride or Die w them

 

[um]

I hope we didn’t trade Siegenthaler for nothing. That would be dumb.

 

[twabby]

His last two seasons haven’t been impressive but damn if this doesn’t intrigue me!

Edit: dang he has 4 years left at $5.95M. Not quite as interested now, unless Dillon and Panik are going the other way.

 

[HeyMattyB]

His last two seasons haven’t been impressive but damn if this doesn’t intrigue me!

Doesn't he play LD? Didn't we just trade away a LD because we have a logjam of LDs (between the current roster and Fehervary/Alexeyev in Hershey?

 

[crab]

His last two seasons haven’t been impressive but damn if this doesn’t intrigue me!

Edit: dang he has 4 years left at $5.95M. Not quite as interested now, unless Dillon and Panik are going the other way.

Benning is that dumb too

 

[twabby]

Doesn't he play LD? Didn't we just trade away a LD because we have a logjam of LDs (between the current roster and Fehervary/Alexeyev in Hershey?

Maybe the Caps can lose Schmidt to expansion again!

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

His last two seasons haven’t been impressive but damn if this doesn’t intrigue me!

Edit: dang he has 4 years left at $5.95M. Not quite as interested now, unless Dillon and Panik are going the other way.

I don't see them doing anything at LD. They obviously feel pretty comfortable with Dillon, Orlov, and Chara or they wouldn't have traded Siegs.

Depth forward who can play center or wing will be it and they'll call it a day.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Maybe the Caps can lose Schmidt to expansion again!

This would honestly be hilarious, and it would have to be a first in NHL history, right? The same team losing the same player to two different expansion teams?

 

[HeyMattyB]

Maybe the Caps can lose Schmidt to expansion again!

I can't go through that heartbreak again.

 

[txpd]

I don't think we need a goaltender because Vanecek isn't fine in the starting role, but because depth wins Cups and I don't see Samsonov and Anderson as being strong enough should anything happen to Vitek.

Vitek has let in 3 or more goals in 16 of 28 games he's played in, and has been at or below .900 in 13 games this season. I'm not pinning the blame for that squarely on him, and he's been magnificent overall. But when goalscoring gets tougher in the playoffs, I'm nervous about whether a combination of Vanecek and this D-corps can consistently keep the GA down. If he isn't – like Grubauer wasn't in 2018 – it would be nice to have someone with a little more consistency to turn to than Samsonov or Anderson.

Alas, we don't. And there's no-one available. But that doesn't change the fact that I'd upgrade on Samsonov for this season if we could. The best we can do is bring in a responsible winger capable of meaningful depth offense to help give the middle-six the best shot at staying above water.

Cup winning with any significant contribution from the 2nd goalie is rare

 

[twabby]

I don't see them doing anything at LD. They obviously feel pretty comfortable with Dillon, Orlov, and Chara or they wouldn't have traded Siegs.

Depth forward who can play center or wing will be it and they'll call it a day.

Unfortunately I think I agree with you, but I’m not convinced they don’t have an opening at 2LD beside Carlson. Dillon and Chara both seem like third pairing dudes at this point.

 

[HeyMattyB]

Cup winning with any significant contribution from the 2nd goalie is rare

Didn't we win the Cup by playing our backup after our starter dropped the first two games of the postseason?

 

[g00n]

Reminder of why giving up assets to get a goalie seems unwise IMO:

Why Goaltending is Basically Random and Will Always Make You Look Stupid (In 5 Graphs)

Spoiler: Regular season -> Postseason Save Percentage above Expected is basically Random

Even if a goalie is doing pretty well now, there's no repeatability in their performances outside of very few exceptions! And Jonathan Bernier/Chris Drieger/David Rittich/whoever else likely aren't these exceptions!

Just roll with who you have, and upgrade the skaters.

Counter point might be Huet who led the Caps to the playoffs when Kolzig was fading. I don't know that a Huet is out there.

But as I said in the gdt last night I think VV is 1A, and some kind of split down the stretch to keep competition levels high while preserving fitness is probably ideal.

 

[TheLegendOfPatPeake]

So, let's say Caps stay put. A center goes down in the playoffs. Who plays center?

 

[txpd]

Didn't we win the Cup by playing our backup after our starter dropped the first two games of the postseason?

Grubauer had never been a #1 in his career at that point. He was the back up. He wasnt the vezina trophy/nhl record for wins in a season goalie.

 

[HeyMattyB]

Grubauer had never been a #1 in his career at that point. He was the back up. He wasnt the vezina trophy/nhl record for wins in a season goalie.

 

[LesDiablesRouges]

Maybe the Caps can lose Schmidt to expansion again!

Can you imagine that scenario?? LMAO.

 

[SpinningEdge]

Didn't we win the Cup by playing our backup after our starter dropped the first two games of the postseason?

Technically we won the cup when our backup dropped the first two games of playoffs and the starter came in... but yeah.... they went with grubs bc holtby was off. Worked out perfectly.

 

[Hivemind]

His last two seasons haven’t been impressive but damn if this doesn’t intrigue me!

Edit: dang he has 4 years left at $5.95M. Not quite as interested now, unless Dillon and Panik are going the other way.

I'd still take him back pretty easily, if it wasn't for the COVID scenario. Pretty much everything in Vancouver is coming with a gigantic question mark thanks to their widespread COVID infections and significant time off.

 

[HeyMattyB]

I mean, come on you all. Seriously, there was a winky at the end and everything.

 

[ToddBrew]

ME WANT TRADES!!!!

 

[TheLegendOfPatPeake]

ME WANT TRADES!!!!

Mac lost his phone.

 

[PSUhockey34]

Pick up Glendening for depth and call it a day.