I've been vocal that the Blues did not screw over Binner by keeping him in the AHL as long as they did, because he wasn't all that impressive in his early 20s. But it is not true that he came out of nowhere. He posted a .926 over a 15 month stretch in the AHL with 2 different AHL teams. He performed as you would expect an NHL-ready goalie to perform in the AHL for an extended period of time and then got his NHL chance. Where he then continued to put up elite numbers for another 60+ games in his first year.
He also hasn't been the worst goalie in the NHL over the last 6 weeks. He has a better SV% than 10 other guys in that stretch (including Holtby, Hart, Hutton, Howard and Dubnyk). At 5 on 5, he has a better GSAA than Freddy Andersen, Holtby, Howard, Quick, Hart and Koskinen. He hasn't been good enough, but he also hasn't been worst in the league.
I'd be starting Allen more than we are currently starting him right now, because why spend the money on a high end backup to not use him when your starter struggles? But I'm also not concerned about Binner long term. He doesn't have it right now, which is a thing that happens to the vast majority of guys in the first hundred or so games of their career. He's started 95 NHL games in the last 13 months and 7 days (playoffs and regular season combined). The next highest in the league is 85. He's played almost 12% more games in the last 13 months than the 2nd highest workload in the league. Ease his workload and let him work on his game in practice. It was obvious last night that he is overthinking and isn't playing playing based on instinct. The worst thing we can do is keep throwing him out there when he is struggling to find confidence and likely gassed. Use your $4.35M backup with a season-long .925 to let your starter find his game.