I don't blame the team for moving on from Brossoit. Over his 5 years with the org he was only tracking to be a good (but not great) AHL goalie and in his one big audition to shore the netminding last year when the team really needed someone to make a save, his .883 sv% did nothing to inspire confidence from his teammates and his mental toughness was very questionable...as soon as one bad goal went in on him he would just fall apart.
He talked a good game, but that was about it.
That said, goalies are voodoo and you never know which nondescript goalie will find lightning in a bottle and turn himself into an NHL star...the big difference between the goalie position and every other positional player on a team is that the margin of error between mediocrity and stardom is so slim. The difference between an .900 and .920 sv% is less than 1 save per game if you face 30 shots. Compare that to a forward or dman who could make numerous mistakes in a game and it wouldn't end up costing the team.
LB couldn't get rid of that 1 mistake per game, and the team has other goalie prospects looking for that precious AHL icetime. You can't hold onto guys forever, they have their brief window to make their mark and they'd damn well better not screw it up. He failed.
If he becomes another Dubnyk, good on him but I won't blame the Oilers for it. Sometimes players just need to get to a 2nd or 3rd team before it all clicks.
Certainly this is commonly thought now but I don't know that the right parameters for accessing goalies are all there. Its a very complicated position, confounded by multiple styles existing. Even within goalies and goalie coaching circles its a confusing craft and not without some advice that starts to resemble superstition. Indeed its a position that selects for superstition because some shots you just won't save without some luck. So that goalies are told such things as don't open your body up, keep arm tightly against side, seal post etc, to the degree that they become rigid cardboard cutouts (Dubnyk here) and stop making reaction stops and glove stops for fear of opening up their form.
No position in the sports world is subject to more happenchance than goaltending. 2-3 deflections and puck goes in? better to just forget about it, but it gets in heads. Make 6 stops in a row on pucks you know you didn't see, you expect luck is going to run out..The goalie position basically creates superstition, creates subjective mindsets, and strategems that arguably counter each other. I think goalies getting hot is a result of finding the right form that works for them for awhile and combined with confidence that the puck is hitting them. Its classic "In the zone" thinking. What it also does is being hot stops their being too much processing. Goalies that are hot make innate stops. They track puck well, it becomes a basketball, and they see everything. They routinely make stops that at other times would feel like difficult stops. They become fearless, for awhile. It stops as soon as it starts.
This is why in goalie analysis I don't look at just the stats. I like to look at form. how the goalie plays, their technique. Not what is working in it but what can work in it. Do they seal post well, can they handle puck well. What does glove hand reaction look like, what does mechanical mobility across crease look like. When moving across how well do they seal 5 hole and then seal near post?
I think coaching should be about a certain type of mechanics like above. But all too often I feel that goalie coaching can also counter what the goalie was good at in the first place. If I'm in the business of speaking with goalies I would have them get back to their baseline when struggling. Even get them to keep diaries and video of when they are doing well. To look at what has changed.
Goaltending looks like voodoo because I think there is still lots to substantiate in the position and lots that is confusion or even superstitious to those even involved. Sorry for writing a book here.
At least I have a frame of reference named Brossoit/Montoya... it's a pretty low baseline.
