Confirmed with Link: Petr Mrazek signed 1 year, 1.5M

[The Faulker 27]

My hope in a different approach from last year is not so much centered on the fact that one has to earn it over the other, is that if neither is earning it, that the team is more proactive early to try and find someone who can (Ned, Booth, trade, waivers...)

Yeah, that's my hope too. If they take a different approach than last season, it will be fixing it before it f***s our chances at the playoffs.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Yeah, that's my hope too. If they take a different approach than last season, it will be fixing it before it ****s our chances at the playoffs.

Assuming there is a "fix" available.

 

[MinJaBen]

Assuming there is a "fix" available.

True, but with one of them being very cheap, if we are floundering in goal, I sure as hell expect that there will be attempts even if the chances of success are low. There will be no justification to just sit with what we have if there is a waiver eligible goalie sent down that could be tried.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Oh, no doubt I would hope they "attempt" a fix if it's not working, I'm just saying there's very likely not a fix. Won't know for sure until they try, but there isn't anything that is very evident, at least right now.

 

[sheriff bart]

Darling came to camp last year with the crease being given to him. This year we’ll have two guys looking to fight for it, with equal shots. Both guys shit the bed last season, but both have also been starter worthy in the past. We can only hope

 

[DaveG]

Darling came to camp last year with the crease being given to him. This year we’ll have two guys looking to fight for it, with equal shots. Both guys **** the bed last season, but both have also been starter worthy in the past. We can only hope

I'm just hoping it's a legitimate fight between the two. Last thing we need is someone being simply handed the starting spot because of contract situation if they're being outplayed.

 

[Chrispy]

It would be second best case for us, to see if he does flame out that it's in the pre-season. There will be more then enough solid options that hit waivers after training camp that we'll be able to pluck one for nothing in that case. Honestly I still think we should look at doing just that in case stuff doesn't work out.

Completely agree with this. And I hope Waddell makes it clear to Darling and Mrazek he's looking at this idea. Carry 3 goalies at least early in the season in case someone melts down. If Darling or Mrazek messes up completely, send one down to Charlotte to get their head straight and give the 3rd goalie some starts.

I don't think there's a huge need to carry 7 D and 14 F early in the season if there's a goalie worth taking a flier on. Doesn't sound like it will be Anton Forsberg, as I think Chicago has the same idea of carrying 3 goalies to start.

 

[DaveG]

Completely agree with this. And I hope Waddell makes it clear to Darling and Mrazek he's looking at this idea. Carry 3 goalies at least early in the season in case someone melts down. If Darling or Mrazek messes up completely, send one down to Charlotte to get their head straight and give the 3rd goalie some starts.

I don't think there's a huge need to carry 7 D and 14 F early in the season if there's a goalie worth taking a flier on. Doesn't sound like it will be Anton Forsberg, as I think Chicago has the same idea of carrying 3 goalies to start.

Yep. Though there's still at least half a dozen guys on the market that would have to clear that I'd look in to for sure:
Sparks and Pickard from Toronto
Lyon and Stolarz from Philly
Dansk from Vegas
Hutchinson from Florida
Sateri from Detroit
DeSmith from Pittsburgh

obviously not all of those are going to become available due to some teams actually carrying 3 goalies, or in the case of DeSmith another prospect having to beat him out, but probably half a dozen from that list will hit waivers and would be worth snagging as our #3.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

I would take Dansk so quick. The man found his smile last year.

 

[DaveG]

I would take Dansk so quick. The man found his smile last year.

He's #3 on my list behind DeSmith and Lyon in that order, of course the only one of those that seems likely to end up on waivers is Lyon.

 

[Stickpucker]

One interesting thing about this signing is the Canes have two very different goalies for the shooters to practice against.

 

[Stickpucker]

The year before last I had low expectations.

Last year I had high expectations.

This year I have no expectations.

Of the three, "no expectations" is the happiest place to be.

Yeah it's interesting how much turnover we've had....makes it hard to know what to expect. Almost like being sick and starting 10 new meds intead of tweaking things one at a time.

Some teams take a long time to build chemistry with that many changes so we could start slow and put it together as the season progresses.

 

[WreckingCrew]

Yeah it's interesting how much turnover we've had....makes it hard to know what to expect. Almost like being sick and starting 10 new meds intead of tweaking things one at a time.

Some teams take a long time to build chemistry with that many changes so we could start slow and put it together as the season progresses.

And then there's Vegas who was 100% new, minimal chemistry between a few guys who were formerly teammates, and they went to the Stanley Cup Finals

 

[DaveG]

Odd to say but the expansion draft rules actually REALLY benefited Vegas a LOT, as did some absolutely baffling decisions by other GMs (looking square at Florida for that one). They basically, at worst, had 2nd/3rd line forwards or #4 defensemen to pick from on most teams, and on some they had some players that were even further up in the pecking order (Methot, Neal, Fleury) and were given REALLY good assets just to take bad contracts off the hands of other teams (CBJ 1st, Karlsson, WPG 1st, Theodore) or not pick certain players.

But goalies are definitely frigin voodoo. We've just been cursed with bad voodoo since 06 outside of Ward, and of course there was the stupidity of JR only 1 f***ing goalie between the time we picked PeteDawg in 04 and Frederic "f*** you Ritch Winter" Andersen in 2010. 1 goalie in 6 f***ing years.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Odd to say but the expansion draft rules actually REALLY benefited Vegas a LOT, as did some absolutely baffling decisions by other GMs (looking square at Florida for that one). They basically, at worst, had 2nd/3rd line forwards or #4 defensemen to pick from on most teams, and on some they had some players that were even further up in the pecking order (Methot, Neal, Fleury) and were given REALLY good assets just to take bad contracts off the hands of other teams (CBJ 1st, Karlsson, WPG 1st, Theodore) or not pick certain players.

I’m not singling you out on this, because this is a common take, but hearing this is one of my least favorite things from this last season.

Prior to the expansion draft: league-wide consensus was that Vegas would end up with a decent goalie, below average but passable defensemen, and the worst forward group in the league. Vegas only succeeds in the expansion draft if they use it as an opportunity to play defenseman and goalie broker for the rest of the league, picking up futures for their service, as well as getting picks to take on less desirable players from other teams.

(A select few pre-draft: there will be enough quality defensemen available, and the Pacific is weak enough, that if Fleury plays lights out this team may barely squeak into the playoffs.)

During the draft: what are they doing? Passing on Mrazek for Nosek? Alex Tuch isn’t enough incentive to stay away from Matt Dumba. With all the great goalies out there, that’s who you ended up with after Fleury???

(The same select few after the draft: yeah this team isn’t making the playoffs I’m not sure what I was thinking.)

(Me, an intellectual, post-draft: gosh I love what they did. No point in getting the best players to push to finish ~20th in the league, pick up draft picks everywhere you can, and fill your prospect cupboard within a year or two so you’re up to par with the other guys. And in doing so, set your team up to get Dahlin. Bravo Mr. McPhee, way to keep the long game in sight.)

Preseason: Vegas is understandably positioned to be the worst team in the league, they’re an expansion team.



The general point being: if the rules were rigged to get Vegas to have the season they had (or even to compete for a playoff spot), there would have been some indication on paper prior to the season that they could do so. There was absolutely none. The rules may have been more lax than previous expansion teams more than 15 years ago, but Vegas absolutely should not have done what they did last year and it’s still an absolute miracle that they did. One of the most impressive things in NHL history, and absolutely due in major part to the chemistry/culture they were able to build in a brief period of time.

 

[DaveG]

Oh I don't disagree with you at all in that, they defied absolutely all odds to be even close to as good as they were. But they were set up from the get go to be MUCH more competitive then any of the expansion teams following the WHA merger had been.

 

[GoldiFox]

Odd to say but the expansion draft rules actually REALLY benefited Vegas a LOT, as did some absolutely baffling decisions by other GMs (looking square at Florida for that one). They basically, at worst, had 2nd/3rd line forwards or #4 defensemen to pick from on most teams, and on some they had some players that were even further up in the pecking order (Methot, Neal, Fleury) and were given REALLY good assets just to take bad contracts off the hands of other teams (CBJ 1st, Karlsson, WPG 1st, Theodore) or not pick certain players.

But goalies are definitely frigin voodoo. We've just been cursed with bad voodoo since 06 outside of Ward, and of course there was the stupidity of JR only 1 ****ing goalie between the time we picked PeteDawg in 04 and Frederic "**** you Ritch Winter" Andersen in 2010. 1 goalie in 6 ****ing years.

Thank God the new regime is finally changing that by bringing in zero of the available young European goalies and drafting one goalie in the 7th round. We'll have a starter in no time. Or, at no time will we have a starter. One of those.

 

[WreckingCrew]

Thank God the new regime is finally changing that by bringing in zero of the available young European goalies and drafting one goalie in the 7th round. We'll have a starter in no time. Or, at no time will we have a starter. One of those.

 

[DaveG]

Thank God the new regime is finally changing that by bringing in zero of the available young European goalies and drafting one goalie in the 7th round. We'll have a starter in no time. Or, at no time will we have a starter. One of those.

Yeah. I'd have liked to have taken a goalie much earlier as well. But again, voodoo man, I'm not going to judge waiting to take a goalie that late because at least we threw a dart at the board. Andersen, Primeau, Sparks, and Forsberg are all among goalies taken in the 7th semi-recently so I can't judge Kucharski until the guy develops. Could actually be a good goalie stuck behind a shit team and he's going to a REALLY good NCAA program. The only real criticism I have over our drafting a goalie this past year is that we didn't use our 6th on Veini as well and chance taking Selgren in the 7th. Have to keep throwing darts at the board, at some point maybe one of Kooch, Ned, Booth, Helvig, or Eetu2.0 might stick. But JR going full War Games with "the only winning move is not to play" when it comes to goalie voodoo bit us in the ass REALLY f***ing hard over the last decade.

 

[sheriff bart]

My wish would still be for Darling to start the year in Charlotte and force his way back to Raleigh. That would mean the acquisition of another NHL caliber(ish) goalie to round out the three headed goalie monster.

I was hoping for a better answer than Mrazek, but from what they had to choose from, I'm looking back differently. At least they avoided a multi year fiasco and he has a "show me" deal. What the real pisser is why didn't they make the trade last season that Philly did at the trade deadline and bring him in for a look see and possibly a run at the playoffs when the team still had a chance?

 

[StormCast]

I was hoping for a better answer than Mrazek, but from what they had to choose from, I'm looking back differently. At least they avoided a multi year fiasco and he has a "show me" deal. What the real pisser is why didn't they make the trade last season that Philly did at the trade deadline and bring him in for a look see and possibly a run at the playoffs when the team still had a chance?

One potential "method to the madness" aspect of going for Mrazek (vs. Lehner) is that his athletic style is much more similar to Matt Murray, with whom Bales obviously had great success.

 

[A Star is Burns]

My wish would still be for Darling to start the year in Charlotte and force his way back to Raleigh. That would mean the acquisition of another NHL caliber(ish) goalie to round out the three headed goalie monster.

I was hoping for a better answer than Mrazek, but from what they had to choose from, I'm looking back differently. At least they avoided a multi year fiasco and he has a "show me" deal. What the real pisser is why didn't they make the trade last season that Philly did at the trade deadline and bring him in for a look see and possibly a run at the playoffs when the team still had a chance?

The obvious answer is the GM at that point versus now.

Another answer is if he did come in and play well, how do we handle the contract? We could have not qualified him and tried to sign him at a lesser rate (might not work), or we could have qualified him and had to way overpay him compared to where we got him now. Probably the main reason we got a cheap, no worries contract is how things played out.

 

[CandyCanes]

One potential "method to the madness" aspect of going for Mrazek (vs. Lehner) is that his athletic style is much more similar to Matt Murray, with whom Bales obviously had great success.

I thought Bales had more to do with Fleury vs Murray and that’s why they moved on from him.

 

[Bunch of Jurcos]

This is a futuristic scenario that I would like to see played out if either goalie doesn't come in to camp in shape, doesn't make a save, shows up late to practice, only shows up on time to practice (less than maximum effort), and isn't on pace to win a Veznia behind this defense.



I also nominate we rename PNC the Winchester because apparently we don't know how to do anything better as a team either.

 

[Bunch of Jurcos]

Also the beatings will continue until morale and save percentages improve.