Rumor: Carolina to Buy Out Scott Darling

[StormCast]

He will get a contract easily because while he can't be a starter and that's been proven his numbers as a backup are spectacular I'd have no issue at all with Scott Darling as Fredrik Andersen's backup

Congrats on your successful time travel. Now check your flux capacitor and get back to the future.

 

[StormCast]

There are a lot of people with compelling stories who would love to be an NHL goaltender. What he did kind of seems like a betrayal of an organization that believed in you.

In isolation, it was a betrayal but it's a question of whether it was a witting or unwitting one. He could, and I stress could, have given back in to his demons and that led to him coming in so out of shape. He doesn't seem to be the entitled type a la Pavel Brendl.

 

[serp]

Good move. Just a terrible contract. Glad the Stars dodged that bullet .

It's another one of those times where an older backup on a great team is signed to be a starter somewhere else and turns out he's not actually that good to begin with . It's just allways a big risk. I think more often it didn't work out than the times it did .

 

[StreetHawk]

Goalies who are backups to legit starters are a question mark when they hit free agency.

They only play around 25 games or less a season. And the ufa age is 27 and goalies come into the league between 22-24 normally. So talking a small sample size.

Carolina rolled the dice and lost. There were other teams interested but Carolina gave term which sealed the deal for them.

There are fan bases that don’t want their teams using high draft picks in goalies. I think anything in the 20’s is more than fine to use on a goalie especially if your starter is 30 and you don’t have an heir apparent within the organization. You are looking at 5 to 6 years down the road before the guy is ready to become the starter.

Ward for Carolina, his play was dropping for a couple of years when they signed Darling and Nedeljkovic was not close to being ready.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

This was only a bad contract in hindsight. It was a middle of the road starting salary for goalies given to a player that was seemingly the best backup the prior couple of years other than possibly Raanta. The Canes took a calculated risk that sadly did not payoff.

Shame. I hope Darling can turn it around eventually and get another crack at the NHL, but he's probably AHL-bound or heading to Europe for the long haul now. He just hasn't shown any promise since he left the Hawks organization.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Congrats on your successful time travel. Now check your flux capacitor and get back to the future.

When a guy has 3 seasons of good-Great play and one season of admittedly shit play I focus on the overall body of work and in this case the overall body of work is good some of it good.

I'd give him a shot on the Leafs they are a top 10 team that needs an upgrade to the backup goalie position because Garett Sparks is a dis, he is arguably the worst backup in the NHL his play arguably cost Toronto a chance to have game 7 at home.

I'd say if Toronto had even an OK not even good, an OK backup they are a 110 point team Garett Sparks being arguably the worst backup in the NHL cost them about 10 points .

So yes O'd give Scott Darling a shot based on his overall body of work at the NHL level

 

[Chrispy]

When a guy has 3 seasons of good-Great play and one season of admittedly **** play I focus on the overall body of work and in this case the overall body of work is good some of it good.

I'd give him a shot on the Leafs they are a top 10 team that needs an upgrade to the backup goalie position because Garett Sparks is a dis, he is arguably the worst backup in the NHL his play arguably cost Toronto a chance to have game 7 at home.

I'd say if Toronto had even an OK not even good, an OK backup they are a 110 point team Garett Sparks being arguably the worst backup in the NHL cost them about 10 points .

So yes O'd give Scott Darling a shot based on his overall body of work at the NHL level

Stats for 18-19:
Sparks: 3.15 GAA, .902 SV% (34 starts)

Darling:
3.33 GAA, .884 SV% in 8 games in Raleigh.
3.4 GAA, .882 SV% in 14 games in Charlotte.

I'm not going to dispute Toronto may want to upgrade from Sparks, but I don't see any reason to think Darling is a good way to do that. Darling's stats in both Raleigh and Charlotte were worse than Sparks's NHL stats.

I can see the argument for letting him go home to Chicago and see if he can rebound in a more comfortable environment. Toronto would also not be a more comfortable environment for him.

 

[Esq]

This was only a bad contract in hindsight. It was a middle of the road starting salary for goalies given to a player that was seemingly the best backup the prior couple of years other than possibly Raanta. The Canes took a calculated risk that sadly did not payoff.

Shame. I hope Darling can turn it around eventually and get another crack at the NHL, but he's probably AHL-bound or heading to Europe for the long haul now. He just hasn't shown any promise since he left the Hawks organization.

Yeah, not sure about that one. 4 year deal for a never-starter is just not a good bet.

Agreed with the rest, though. He's a great story, and I hope he bounces back.

 

[StormCast]

When a guy has 3 seasons of good-Great play and one season of admittedly **** play I focus on the overall body of work and in this case the overall body of work is good some of it good.

I'd give him a shot on the Leafs they are a top 10 team that needs an upgrade to the backup goalie position because Garett Sparks is a dis, he is arguably the worst backup in the NHL his play arguably cost Toronto a chance to have game 7 at home.

I'd say if Toronto had even an OK not even good, an OK backup they are a 110 point team Garett Sparks being arguably the worst backup in the NHL cost them about 10 points .

So yes O'd give Scott Darling a shot based on his overall body of work at the NHL level

I admire your vice-like grip on a losing argument.

 

[BHD]

In 17-18, the Canes won at a ~98 point pace with Cam Ward as the starter and just a ~68 point pace with Scott Darling in net.

There have been worse contracts handed out over the years, but when you consider the impact a player has had on a team, Darling is in the conversation for the very worst signing post-lockout.

It's a shame it didn't work out for either side. He deserved a break like that. Meanwhile, the Canes thought they were finally getting their guy.

 

[StreetHawk]

Yeah, not sure about that one. 4 year deal for a never-starter is just not a good bet.

Agreed with the rest, though. He's a great story, and I hope he bounces back.

Term was the deciding factor for Darling. When you are in his position you take the longest term contract if the dollars are pretty close. Guaranteed contracts.

He will walk away with $14.2 of the $16.6 million he signed for.

 

[MinJaBen]

When a guy has 3 seasons of good-Great play and one season of admittedly **** play I focus on the overall body of work and in this case the overall body of work is good some of it good.

I'd give him a shot on the Leafs they are a top 10 team that needs an upgrade to the backup goalie position because Garett Sparks is a dis, he is arguably the worst backup in the NHL his play arguably cost Toronto a chance to have game 7 at home.

I'd say if Toronto had even an OK not even good, an OK backup they are a 110 point team Garett Sparks being arguably the worst backup in the NHL cost them about 10 points .

So yes O'd give Scott Darling a shot based on his overall body of work at the NHL level

I now see where you went wrong....out of the two seasons he played for Carolina, which did you think was good?

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

I now see where you went wrong....out of the two seasons he played for Carolina, which did you think was good?

He played 8 games in Carolina this year that's not a season that's not even close.

His last real season was 17-18 which was admittedly shit

 

[MinJaBen]

He played 8 games in Carolina this year that's not a season that's not even close.

His last real season was 17-18 which was admittedly ****

He didn't play more due to an injury...and then being really bad. So he was sent to Charlotte. And was really bad there...to the point he couldn't keep a backup position in the AHL. So, I'm going to guess that he'd be bad in the NHL for a full season this year.

 

[Cardiac Jerks]

I don’t think anyone will give him a shot in the nhl next year. His conduct his first year in Carolina was very unprofessional. You don’t come in way overweight after someone puts their faith in you and gives you a big deal.

To his credit he admitted this and worked his ass off last summer but it didn’t matter. He was terrible again and then somehow managed to be even worse after getting sent down to the best team in the ahl.

His personal issues have definitely flared back up. The way things played out couldn’t have been easy on him. I just think he’d be too big of a distraction on any team right now and the risk would outweigh the potential reward.

Hopefully he can figure things out and get back to being happy.

 

[Cardiac Jerks]

He didn't play more due to an injury...and then being really bad. So he was sent to Charlotte. And was really bad there...to the point he couldn't keep a backup position in the AHL. So, I'm going to guess that he'd be bad in the NHL for a full season this year.

He was even worse statistically in the ahl while facing easier shooters. It definitely would have gotten incredibly ugly had he stayed with the canes and there’s no way we make the playoffs with him still around (as sad as that is to say).

The most telling thing to me is looking at the stats of the two main goalies in Carolina as well as in Charlotte. All 4 managed to have a good season with the exception of Darling.

 

[tarheelhockey]

In isolation, it was a betrayal but it's a question of whether it was a witting or unwitting one. He could, and I stress could, have given back in to his demons and that led to him coming in so out of shape. He doesn't seem to be the entitled type a la Pavel Brendl.

My read on him, based on press coverage, is that he felt he had finally "made it" with the 4-year contract. He maybe relaxed a bit that summer, lost the battler's edge.

That was unfortunate, because he was going from a Cup-winning team in Chicago to a rebuilding team in Carolina. Not only did he lose his edge, but he went from a pretty ideal situation to one which was going to require some serious work (think Mrazek and McElhinney fighting for their careers this season).

I don't want to speculate and will couch this in euphemistic terms, but it seems pretty obvious that when he came out flat and the pressure started piling up on him, his off ice habits shifted from inadequate to counterproductive.

From what I can tell, he legitimately did prepare himself to compete this season. He lost 25 pounds in 4 months, which only happens with a pretty extreme amount of exercise and "diet" change. To some extent it was pure bad luck that he got hurt when he did, then McE came along and took his NHL job, and he never seemed quite right after that. Seems to me he might do well to take that buyout and get away from hockey for a while, start over with something else while he has a nest egg to take some risks.

 

[DaveG]

I mean simply put, the guy needs to see a psychologist, whether it's a sports psychologist or not. The past two years have had to be incredibly rough on him especially playing such a confidence based position. Going through what he has can't be easy on anyone and Scott seems like a genuinely decent dude. He's the kind of guy you want to see things go right for going forward, even if it's entirely away from hockey and a psychologist could go a long way in helping that.

 

[Ciao]

Was it really a "bonehead move" to chase the money? In his situation I would have done the same. He made sure him and his family are set for life. Sure, potentially winning a SC is great but he made the right decision.

If I were Scott Darling's father, I would have been very disappointed if he turned down the Carolina offer.

NHL careers are very short, and every player's career is fraught with risk of injury, lack of opportunity or poor performance.

Who knows if he would have played better elsewhere?

Everything except the contract terms is pure speculation.

 

[StormCast]

My read on him, based on press coverage, is that he felt he had finally "made it" with the 4-year contract. He maybe relaxed a bit that summer, lost the battler's edge.

That was unfortunate, because he was going from a Cup-winning team in Chicago to a rebuilding team in Carolina. Not only did he lose his edge, but he went from a pretty ideal situation to one which was going to require some serious work (think Mrazek and McElhinney fighting for their careers this season).

I don't want to speculate and will couch this in euphemistic terms, but it seems pretty obvious that when he came out flat and the pressure started piling up on him, his off ice habits shifted from inadequate to counterproductive.

From what I can tell, he legitimately did prepare himself to compete this season. He lost 25 pounds in 4 months, which only happens with a pretty extreme amount of exercise and "diet" change. To some extent it was pure bad luck that he got hurt when he did, then McE came along and took his NHL job, and he never seemed quite right after that. Seems to me he might do well to take that buyout and get away from hockey for a while, start over with something else while he has a nest egg to take some risks.

Quite possibly, although he said all the right things at the time as I recall. At this point, it's clear his mental state has been fragile for some time so who knows what really led to him being out of shape. I remember him citing being totally isolated in year one.

On a side note, a friend of mine lives in the neighborhood Darling bought his house in. Pretty nice but pretty modest by NHL standards. He's known for a little while he'd be bought out it would seem, as his house has been on the market for the last 1 1/2 weeks or so.

 

[SaskCanesFan]

He played 8 games in Carolina this year that's not a season that's not even close.

His last real season was 17-18 which was admittedly ****

He played only 8 games this year because he was f***ing terrible and it would have been irresponsible to let him play anymore than that and torpedo another season.

Then he went to the best team in the AHL and was even worse somehow, putting up a 882SV% on he same team Dustin Tokarski has a 956, and took a leave of absence.

For the sake of the other Atlantic teams, I really hope Dubas thinks the same as you.

 

[elitepete]

Ward wasn’t even that good. For all the talk of why carolina got better this year, it’s because they finally had average goaltending to do something.

And a competent coach.

 

[super6646]

And a competent coach.

Gonna step around this minefield...

 

[Funk21]

If the canes are smart they send him to Robidas Island and they trade that contract. A team that is nowhere near they Cap does not need him on there for the next 4 years.

I am sure they would like the additional roster spot but I am sure they can weather another few seasons.

 

[CF84]

If Bill Peters likes Darling then I think he will sign with the flames.

I do really like how that's worked out so far though, so I'd have no problem hoping for a turnaround season. Darling was a favorite of mine when he played for the Hawks. Hopefully he can pull it back together.