i'm not disagreeing with you that there are "warning signs", but I think that there are a lot riskier moves to make at the position than signing his kind of track record. i personally think that a Gibson + Allen combo for the next two years would do quite well for us, but then what? McDrai have another 9 years, do we trust management to take gambles on bargain duos every x years for the remainder of our window?
we all talk about how the cap is going up. contracts signed early are steals, and contracts signed later will all skyrocket. if we sign a new duo every few years, will that really provide us with significant savings relative to a steady long term 7.75 Saros or 8.25 Sorokin?
There is a thread on the mains rn discussing exactly this, high paid starters vs cheap tandems. IIRC, most prefer the cheaper tandem route. It makes me question how many of these monster deals we will see for goalies in the future, if maybe GM's see things similar as fans do. Like Bobrovsky has only once been top 10 in Vezina voting during his big deal, and ya he has a cup, by the skin of his teeth over 2.6m Skinner. Could be a possibility that even with a rising cap, we don't see the same level of salary inflation with goalies as we do players, so Saros deal never really looks better even with improved play.
I think with our roster makeup, it only makes sense to run cheap tandems for now. This team is so deep and talented, that when they are "on" they can control play for large stretches against anyone. We could have a random HF poster in net and it wouldn't make a difference. Saros isn't making anymore saves than Stu did last night. On the flipside, some of the goals against these playoffs from defensive breakdowns, even Hasek isn't stopping.
Maybe when McDrai are aging and their play starts to diminish, it will be more of a need to get a goalie who can win you more games on their own, but for now we just need decent, being great would be a massive bonus but we dont need to pay for it. That's why I would like to have at least 1 young guy coming up who looks like they could be a starter one day, Wallstedt for Bourgault annoyed me so much. At the very least, a backup/AHL guy in the 24-28 age range (like the previously mentioned Stauber/Soderblom) who if all went right, could be a part of the solution for 7+ years.
Look how beneficial it has been to us to have a guy like Kane (5m) on the 3rd line, or the depth of Walman (3.4) to cover the loss of Ekholm. With Saros, we don't have one of those guys at least. So even if he plays great, the team is worse. And if he plays bad? Well there goes any chance at a cup, imo.
ETA- I also don't mind the idea of trading Nurse's contract for someone like Jarry. Similar to the Dubois for Kuemper deal maybe. I've liked Nurse more this year than last, but it's just such a bad contract.
