Confirmed Trade: [CGY/ARI]Mike Smith (25%) for Chad Johnson, Brandon Hickey & 2018 2nd or 3rd rnd pick

[Go Wings]

Mike Smith is a solid starting goalie.

Flames win this deal imo. They didn't really give anything up. A forever backup, a busted prospect, and a 2nd in one of the weakest drafts we've ever seen. And they don't even have to take on his full cap hit.

Busted prospect, says who?

The draft pick is for 2018 which is going to be a strong draft.

Get your facts straight.

 

[Lunatik]

Busted prospect, says who?

The draft pick is for 2018 which is going to be a strong draft.

Get your facts straight.

He's to posting what Joe Sakic is to GMing

 

[rt]

Busted prospect, says who?

The draft pick is for 2018 which is going to be a strong draft.

Get your facts straight.

He's a great prospect who I don't have any faith would have signed with Calgary nor do I have any faith will sign with Arizona.

 

[Lunatik]

He's a great prospect who I don't have any faith would have signed with Calgary nor do I have any faith will sign with Arizona.

After drafting him, we drafted Kylington, Andersson and Fox, then signed Healey as a NCAA free agent. He may have felt he wasn't going to get opportunities in Calgary. Or he grew up just outside Edmonton and didn't want to be a Flame

 

[InfinityIggy]

He's a great prospect who I don't have any faith would have signed with Calgary nor do I have any faith will sign with Arizona.

Hickey wasn't going to sign in Calgary, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him go FA.

 

[DJJones]

Hickey seems like he'd turn into another wotherspoon in Calgary.

Kulak and Anderson were in front of him and kylington will pass him soon. Probably smart to go to a weaker team

 

[tmurfin]

How exactly is this obvious with this move?

They moved on to the next target. Flames have been rumoured to be after MAF for a long time now, and with rumours coming out that MAF will be Vegas bound and staying there, and the Flames pulling the trigger on Smith, makes this obvious to me?

 

[syc]

Good deal flames.

More evidence that the Jets gm is totally incompetent as a gm. Demote him to head of scouting and bring in a real gm. Or just keep tanking like you do year after year after year. Good laughs for the rest of us.

 

[Lunatik]

They moved on to the next target. Flames have been rumoured to be after MAF for a long time now, and with rumours coming out that MAF will be Vegas bound and staying there, and the Flames pulling the trigger on Smith, makes this obvious to me?

It's been nothing but pure speculation, Fleury himself said he knew since the deadline he was waiving for Vegas and the Flames have been on his no trade list.

 

[BurnEmUp]

So many people like to flap their lips (tickle their keyboards?) on the internet without having a clue what they are talking about.

One quick look at the stats..."0.914 sv%??! LOLZ the Flames hahaha! what a terrible deal!"

Yet if they took a moment, looked deeper, they'd realize that Smith was above league average last season in High Danger, Medium Danger and Low danger save %. The only reason is overall save % was as low as it was is because he faced more high danger shots than any other starting goalie and despite being above average at it, it still dragged down his overall save %. He's like the "anti-Lehner" in that regard.

His even strength save % has also been just fine. He's not a world beater, but 0.925% over the last 5-6 years is more than adequate. Put a better team in front of him, and give the guy a chance to win again, and we will probably see a whole lot of crow being dished out next season.

Of course it might now work out. There is always that possibility. But that could be the case no matter what goalie the Flames realistically brought in for next season. Nothing out there right now but a bunch of question marks. At least now for the first time since Kipper shut it down we have a goalie who's proven capable of handling a starters workload at the NHL level, and despite being on a perennial bottom feeder has actually done pretty well with it, if you aren't lazy and look a little deeper.

 

[tmurfin]

It's been nothing but pure speculation, Fleury himself said he knew since the deadline he was waiving for Vegas and the Flames have been on his no trade list.

Doesn't mean he wasn't the Flames first target. But, I know about as much as you do on the situation, we got Smith, leave it at that

 

[Go Wings]

He's to posting what Joe Sakic is to GMing

Ouch lmao

 

[rt]

Hickey wasn't going to sign in Calgary, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him go FA.

Is this an echo?

 

[rt]

The Flames will like the addition of Smith. The Coyotes will like the subtraction of Smith.

 

[Lunatik]

The Flames will like the addition of Smith. The Coyotes will like the subtraction of Smith.

I'm enjoying the meltdowns of the fans all pissed off because he's not young

 

[yvrtojfk]

A bit of an overpayment but a good deal for the flames. I think Smith has a couple good years left in him.

 

[Martinez]

Ew Calgary. Why you do that?

 

[Bleedred]

Hahaha I love it. Another overrated systems goalie to defensive disaster flames.

Tippett hasn't had a system in about 8 years. Dude is living off a reputation from the ancient Dallas days, which was eons ago at this point.

I can't believe he hasn't completely shook the BS ''Defensive maestro and stifling trapping system'' reputation yet. Even if it's just a small percentage of people that are buying it, it's still a small percentage too many.

 

[53or8]

Can't believe they just traded for a 35 year old goalie bad Brad strikes again.all the advanced stats won't save Brad's butt.im sure he'll get a job as gm of a Boston pizza next.

 

[ManofSteel55]

But was he much better, if at all? No. It is not a clear upgrade. The price is pretty fair, maybe a tad bit much from CGY but hard to complain.

As a flames fan I am not happy that we acquired Smith. I understand that the better options (Fleury, Ranta, Grubbier, etc) would have cost more but the Flames needed to upgrade and they simply did not do that. Some say he is a stop gap for the goalies of the future but in 2 years if they come in they will still be rookies and will take some seasoning in the NHL to be quality starters. So what this acquisition says to me is, we (the Flames) are not committed to being serious contenders for another 4 or so years which bothers me as we have 3 great D and some young forwards who are in their prime. We will be wasting Gio's prime and Tkachuk's ELC.

Yes, Smith was better than Elliot last year. By a fair margin.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

is Chad Johnson expected yo re sign in Arizona?

 

[Bleedred]

Yes, Smith was better than Elliot last year. By a fair margin.

.914 to .910 overall, .924 to .919 at even strength. This is really not that fair a margin. It's the difference between an average NHL starter and a below average one. When I think of fair margin, I think of the difference between a good NHL starter and a below average one.

Over the past several years, Elliott has been better than Smith. Now I usually don't believe in the idea of system goaltenders, like 85% of the hockey fan community seems to believe, but if there's one goalie that can make me think twice about the possibility of it being such a thing, it's definitely Brian Elliott. As he's stunk pre and post Hitchcock, over his NHL career.

I think there's a reasonable chance that Elliott bounces back this season. I don't really expect Smith to be any better than a .915 goalie, give or take a few save percentage points. Over the past 6 years, he's generally been in the .915 range, with an extreme high of .930 in 11-12 and an extreme low of .904 in 14-15. Both are probably the exception at either end.

I think Calgary might have taken a chance on re-signing Elliott, as he looked to be returning to his 2011-2016 form towards the end of the season, but the playoff meltdown was probably the nail in his coffin.

 

[kurt]

Does anyone remember when the Deepwater Horizon incident occurred, how the plan was to fire garbage at the leak? I think it was called "operation junk shot" or something.

 

[rt]

is Chad Johnson expected yo re sign in Arizona?

I sure hope he does. But I don't think that's the plan.

 

[XX]

.914 to .910 overall, .924 to .919 at even strength. This is really not that fair a margin. It's the difference between an average NHL starter and a below average one. When I think of fair margin, I think of the difference between a good NHL starter and a below average one.

Calgary was a competitive team, the Coyotes were a dumpster fire that gave up a ton of high quality chances. If you actually watched the games, Smith was one of the few reasons the season wasn't uglier.