September 21, 2007
Rangers, Capitals, Devils Goalie Situations Bear Watching
I think, at least here in the Eastern Conference, there are three really interesting stories developing in the goalie department this season, and all are going to bear a lot of close watching by fans and managers alike as they look forwards to how their teams will be built in the future. The three teams involved are the Rangers, the Capitals, and the Devils; I think each of them are going to tell us this season a little about how to build the goalie position within a franchise in the coming years, as old legends retire and young upstarts take their place.
For the Capitals, venerable starter Olaf Kolzig will, once again, take his place as primary netminder. He’s still a top-tier NHL goalie, but his age combined with injury concerns lingering from last season have me far more concerned about the position than I have been in the past. ‘Zilla may have a new uniform, and even a new mask to match, but he’s still going to be carrying the same old burden of indispensable leader and backstop to an improving Capitals team. The fact is that the team simply plays much better in front of Olie than they do in front of backup Brent Johnson (who started 28 times last year, and 23 the year before); his leadership presence is undeniable. The Caps look to have every chance of keeping Johnson on the bench this season. While Johnson is a serviceable backup goalie, he’s no backup ‘Zilla.
However, it’s tough to see any alternatives to the current situation. With the lack of any seriously viable backup candidates in the system (I don’t think Cassivi is what we’re looking for, and promising prospect Michael Neuvirth is still a ways off from readiness), the Caps would have to go the free agent or trade route to pick up a new backup ‘tender. While they’re holding the available prospects to trade (see my earlier posts on their depth this season), those trades would still be better served enhancing the team’s defense to give a better chance at wins every night. The upshot is that, in a risky situation, the Caps have elected to maximize their exposure to a goalie injury in exchange for building other parts of the team (all of which, admittedly, needed work this offseason).
The Rangers have elected to go another route - with a ‘win-now’ mentality brought on by a combination of pushing the salary cap limit, the ever-increasing age of veterans like Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan, and the addition of key components like Sean Avery (whose unhappy experience in arbitration makes me doubt that he’ll stick with the team much longer), they elected to spend money on other things than retaining backup goalie Kevin Weekes.
Their primary, of course, is steady young franchise ‘tender Henrik Lundqvist, an instant fan favorite in the Garden; whether that’s more due to his early success with the Rangers and his gold-medal performance for Sweden in the Olympics, or his rock-star personality (no, really; guitarist for a Swedish rock band once upon a time) that meshes well on Broadway I’m not sure. Still, he’s been steady for them even as he plays a ton of games, and this article in the NY Daily News makes me think he has the drive to continue to be an every-night goalie.
However, their pain point is also backup goaltending; with Weekes walking, they have to turn to Stephen Valiquette, who has up to now been a serviceable minor league journeyman with extremely limited NHL duties. If ‘King Henrik’ gets hurt, which is admittedly far less likely right now than Olie getting hurt, he’ll be much more of a question mark than the Caps’ younger but more NHL-tempered Brent Johnson, who has at least been on NHL backup duty for a lot of games (even if it hasn’t been a lot of years).
While both the Caps and the Rangers have elected to go with high-risk routes emphasizing one goaltender, the Devils looked this offseason to mitigate risk at the position. Of course, they still feature Martin Brodeur (both the man and the legend for one low price) as their primary, but with the signing of Kevin Weekes as his backup, they obviously have sought to mitigate much more risk. Brodeur still gave every indication with his record-breaking season in 2006-07 that he can be a solid and dependable goalie even at a sprightly 35 years old (to Kolzig’s 37), which makes it all the more surprising to me that the Devils elected to spend the money to bring in Weekes, who could have been perfectly serviceable as a lower-tier starter for a rebuilding team elsewhere.
Still, the Devils got hit hard in free agency this off-season, and maybe they’re banking on Weekes and Brodeur being able to keep each other rested and give the team solid backstopping for 82 straight games. The X-factor here is that we simply haven’t seen many nights where the Devils take the ice without Brodeur; how much of his leadership Weekes will be able to replace on game nights is certainly a question mark, since it’s not something he became known for in his time on the Rangers.
These three teams are going to bear close watching this season. Will Olie hold up and play enough games to backstop the Caps into the playoffs again? Will the Rangers expensive win-now mentality be sabotaged if Henrik is disappointing or hurt this season? Can Weekes keep Brodeur rested and relieved solidly enough to make up for offseason losses? Only time will tell, but I can guarantee you that the GMs are going to be watching these three goalie pairings as closely as us fans.
Filed under: Hockey
September 22nd, 2007 at 6:48 pm
[...] Flyers also might have an interesting story to add to my goaltending thoughts from a couple of days ago; Martin Biron looked solid for two periods, but Nittymaki was just [...]