Confirmed with Link: Canes Acquire Scott Darling for a 3rd, signed 4.15 x4

[Penaltykiller17]

Maybe, maybe not. Posted it in another thread, but in half the games last year, we scored 2 or less goals. Which meant the goaltender in net (whoever that was) would have needed to only allow 1 or less to get a win. That's a much higher demand than league average.

Darling will hopefully give us more of those 1 or less games than Ward/Lack did, but I don't think "league average goaltending" will be the difference, assuming we don't make any other major moves.

League average goaltending also includes a save percentage greater than .909. We needed what we got, and we got it. Every goaltender set to hit the market (Darling, Grubauer, Bishop, Fleury) comes with some kind of question mark, so there may not have been a definitive answer in net, but we couldn't go into next season with the same two people for the 3rd straight year and expect different results.

 

[Vagrant]

People on the main board are saying this is too much money but in the next thread over are praising the hell out of the Vegas Knights for signing a 30 year old forward who hasn't made his NHL debut for more.

 

[sheriff bart]

People on the main board are saying this is too much money but in the next thread over are praising the hell out of the Vegas Knights for signing a 30 year old forward who hasn't made his NHL debut for more.

I've seen a lot of comments on different board that it was too much or too long. It was a UFA signing that RF got a jump on. Don't people think that he would have gotten something similar to that if he waited and tested the waters? Yes, it's a chance, but isn't everything?

 

[Cardiac Jerks]

People on the main board are saying this is too much money but in the next thread over are praising the hell out of the Vegas Knights for signing a 30 year old forward who hasn't made his NHL debut for more.

People are already penciling Vegas into a playoff spot when they currently have two players under contract.

Main board is gonna main board.

 

[Puckerz]

You guys are gonna love him, imo.

Very athletic for his size, follows the puck very well and is probably a top 5 Goaltender playing the puck outside the crease. Add in his personal story of recovery from being an alcoholic which shows commitment and mental strength and he will quickly become a favourite. His past also gave him less playing time so he has less mileage than his age would suggest.

 

[DougieSmash]

You guys are gonna love him, imo.

Very athletic for his size, follows the puck very well and is probably a top 5 Goaltender playing the puck outside the crease. Add in his personal story of recovery from being an alcoholic which shows commitment and mental strength and he will quickly become a favourite. His past also gave him less playing time so he has less mileage than his age would suggest.

I don't remember where i read it but someone tell that Darling is pretty vocal leader and fearless competitor.

 

[LastWordArmy]

Stop me if you’ve seen this before in recent NHL history. A goaltender that wasn’t the bonafide number one or was the pure back-up gets his rights traded and signs an extension, and all of a sudden the team is in the playoffs after a long drought with a big part having to do with his strong play between the pipes.

Can Darling have the success of Freddy Andersen and Cam Talbot?

http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/05...estment-will-pay-off-for-carolina-hurricanes/

 

[WreckingCrew]

Stop me if you’ve seen this before in recent NHL history. A goaltender that wasn’t the bonafide number one or was the pure back-up gets his rights traded and signs an extension, and all of a sudden the team is in the playoffs after a long drought with a big part having to do with his strong play between the pipes.

Can Darling have the success of Freddy Andersen and Cam Talbot?

http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/05...estment-will-pay-off-for-carolina-hurricanes/

So we're skipping the '17-'18 season and jumping straight into '18-'19?

 

[Cardiac Jerks]

Stop me if you’ve seen this before in recent NHL history. A goaltender that wasn’t the bonafide number one or was the pure back-up gets his rights traded and signs an extension, and all of a sudden the team is in the playoffs after a long drought with a big part having to do with his strong play between the pipes.

Can Darling have the success of Freddy Andersen and Cam Talbot?

http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/05...estment-will-pay-off-for-carolina-hurricanes/

You should have just stopped yourself before you wrote what I assume is another poor article.

Won't be clicking.

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

Stop me if you’ve seen this before in recent NHL history. A goaltender that wasn’t the bonafide number one or was the pure back-up gets his rights traded and signs an extension, and all of a sudden the team is in the playoffs after a long drought with a big part having to do with his strong play between the pipes.

Can Darling have the success of Freddy Andersen and Cam Talbot?

http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/05...estment-will-pay-off-for-carolina-hurricanes/

not even going to click

your previous work precedes by distances you probably can only fathom

i will give you a tiny for at least spelling andersen's name right

that is a rarity on this web zone

 

[Cardiac Jerks]

Just learned the Darling contract was a bad deal because we could've signed proven starters such as Bernier and Elliott for less.

 

[A Star is Burns]

There's a few starters or potential starters I wouldn't have minded targeting, but they were all either paid even more, would have cost more to get in assets or money, and/or were about as equally unproven. And when it comes to some of the guys that are "proven", I definitely don't want the kind of proven you get from Mason, Bernier, or our own goalies even. I'm still pretty happy with the way things went down.

 

[Roboturner913]

I love those guys incredulous at the very idea of a backup goalie taking on a starting role. It's practically unprecedented in the sport's history.

 

[Dishface]

Main Board- worth the risk if he signs similar to Talbot

*Darling signs contract similar to Talbot

-overpaid, dude only played 73 games.

 

[BB88]

I'm happy for you, hoping Darling helps Canes to make the playoffs next season.

Last season your defense became a favourite of mine and with Darling it's going to be even more fun to watch next year.

 

[Roboturner913]

Main Board- worth the risk if he signs similar to Talbot

*Darling signs contract similar to Talbot

-overpaid, dude only played 73 games.

People on the internet like to pooh-pooh everything. They think it makes them look smarter. Meh.

 

[Vagrant]

Just learned the Darling contract was a bad deal because we could've signed proven starters such as Bernier and Elliott for less.

Making a move like that would have been so typical Hurricanes that I am flat out shocked it didn't happen. This organization has been squeezing oranges out back of the juice factory for as long as I have been a fan of the team. The type of proactive approach and creativity that it took to make this move was just so incredibly refreshing to see. The comparisons to the Lack situation aren't entirely without merit, but nobody is giving away starting goaltenders in today's climate. You either draft and develop one, which has historically been impossible for this franchise, or you find a target worth elevating to starter. To me, Darling's story makes him potentially more attractive instead of less. It takes some serious, serious mental strength to come all the way back from the setbacks that Darling has faced. Guys less committed to the game would have retired without a second thought. There are two factors that I think prevented Cam Ward from fulfilling his ultimate potential of being a top flight goaltender, despite Tripp's ramblings to the contrary. Ward played only as hard as the team played in front of him. If we went down early in a game, chances are pretty good that Ward would check out entirely. That kind of mental weakness seems to indicate a lack of competitive drive and also explains why Ward was only really at his best in the postseason when everyone in the lineup was giving everything. The second was his inability or unwillingness to address the weakness in his glove hand. With Darling, there's no form of on-ice adversity that will seem as insurmountable as what he has faced off the ice. I would imagine that his confidence right now is about as high as it ever will be.

Eddie also seems to suffer from similar mental question marks. I think a lot that happened over his time as a Hurricane was a result of peaks and valleys in his confidence. He's not an ideal backup for that reason. He's not really a scrapper and when he's not on top of his game, it's .....it's really bad. The disparity between good Lack and bad Lack is about as extreme as I have seen in recent memory. That makes spot starting him a tricky proposition.

 

[Roboturner913]

I don't see much of a comparison to Lack with Darling. If I had to make a comparison, it would be more like Martin Gerber, just in terms of the roundabout way he got to the NHL. Nothing against Lack, but he didn't exactly have to fight tooth-and-nail to get into the league. He got the gravy-train treatment signing with the Canucks and going right into the NHL through one organization.

 

[CandyCanes]

So my thoughts on the move. I honestly think it's a risky move to commit to a guy slightly unproven like Darling for 4 years, but it's a risk I am totally okay with. This deal might hurt, but this deal could 100% payoff as well. I am a lot happier that we made this move versus sticking with the same two problems we've had the last two seasons. This means we have a chance to get out of a hole that we've been stuck in for a while. So maybe we do end up in the failure end of the deal, but at least we tried to address the problem. Darling does have some good stats in his 78 NHL games, maybe that translates over to a full season, and we are in really good shape.

I'm excited! Now let's go get that top 6F this offseason, and I'll be even more excited!

 

[Stickpucker]

I'm happy for you, hoping Darling helps Canes to make the playoffs next season.

Last season your defense became a favourite of mine and with Darling it's going to be even more fun to watch next year.

Thanks chap

 

[Highest Boss]

Ex-Blackhawks goalie Darling says former teammates convinced him Carolina was good fit

 

[Ole Gil]

The Darling deal is risky. But every goalie deal is risky. Lack, Darling, or Bishop...all three types of deals can go sideways in a hurry. Hopefully it pans out.

 

[geehaad]

every goalie deal is risky. Lack, Darling, or Bishop...all three types of deals can go sideways in a hurry.

MAF is another example. Apparently he's had a playoff resurgence, but he seems like just a single-increment better version of Cam Ward...meh in the regular season, good in the playoffs. Maybe others don't share that opinion, but to me, the risk of trading for him is it could be more of the same for Hurricanes goaltending, at the increased price of $5.75M for 2 years (and a NMC).

 

[Navin R Slavin]

There's an argument to keep Ward instead of Lack next year. If we should ever make the playoffs again, having Ward's playoff experience could be useful.

 

[Vagrant]

Ex-Blackhawks goalie Darling says former teammates convinced him Carolina was good fit

I think this goes well with something I remember discussing about this team a while back. When you're not the most attractive destination for free agents, how you treat your players becomes ten times more important. It would be ignorant to think these guys that know each other don't reach out and get a lay of the land before making any kind of major commitment to the team. The first class way that Carolina handled Bickell's situation was really cool from a fan perspective and it's awesome to see that it meant enough to Bryan to consider this a place worthy of recommendation. I don't know if this story develops the same way in other locations where he likely would have been placed on the LTIR or some other move to open up cap space for the entirety of the season. It's really cool to be a fan of a team that tries to do the right thing at times at their own expense simply because it's the right thing to do. I can't really remember a player we screwed over and that's an attractive aspect of selecting a team for free agents.