montreal
Go Habs Go
Fair enough if there were injury concerns, it's not that I think Lindgren is (or could have reasonably been predicted to be) a great backup or anything, but I don't think there was any reason to think of Kinkaid as appreciably better than a healthy Lindgren or a generic replacement-level goalie. I feel like you could have just gone into the year with Lindgren penciled in as the backup and grabbed any arbitrary replacement scrub if he doesn't work.
I guess what I'm saying is I just don't think there should have been any reason to think a 30 year old coming off an .891 was going to be a "premium" backup and solidify that role. If Kinkaid is the veteran you're bringing in you may as well just pencil in Lindgren as the backup to start the year and get a waiver guy if he isn't ready. If they went out and got a premium backup like McElhinney or somebody like that with recent success it would be one thing, but I don't think Kinkaid should have been expected to offer much insurance of being better than any arbitrary waiver guy or 5th rounder goalie trade target.
for sure they could have looked for someone better then Kinkaid but who knows what their thinking was since he was coming off a bad year.