StreetHawk
Registered User
- Sep 30, 2017
- 26,255
- 9,787
The Panthers were going to lose Luongo to retirement, and had nothing in the pipeline. They needed to make a big move. They had just missed the playoffs due to their bad goaltending. It was obvious what was to come.
That's the big failure. Luongo turned 40 in 2019. When the Panthers acquired him in 2014, he was already 35. He was never going to play out his contract until he was 43. I mean, once your goalie hits 30, you need to think about the next guy because it takes time to develop that kid, in addition to how the hit rate is on goalies. Just because you take a kid when your guy is 30, it doesn't mean that when your #1 guy is 35, that the now 23 year old is going to be an NHL goalie.
So, Panthers clearly late on identifying a future goalie. Sam M. was drafted in round 3 in 2015, but in 2019, best you can expect from him is a backup to be groomed behind Lu if he came back for his $1.6 mill salary.
Look around at the teams with goalies in their late 30's? Rangers have Geogeoriev, along with Shestoskin in the A, plus they drafted a Swedish goalie in round 2 in 2018. Predators have Sarros. Smith is backing up Koskinen in Edmonton.