OK, obviously I'm not dazzled by this, but there was literally nothing dazzling available. And I don't get the "money" argument. This is not a problem that can be solved by throwing money at it. A couple of people hit on the key above, and that's the term. We simply couldn't afford to sign a multi-year deal with a goalie who was not a sure thing. Worst-case coming out of all this would be having Hutton/Lehner/Halak *and* Darling signed through 2020-21 and still having sub .900 goaltending.
Even if we *had* gotten Grubauer and immediately signed him to the same deal Colorado gave him, now he's signed as long as Darling, and if he's not the solution, we're screwed. He's never been a No. 1 at the NHL level and tanked in the playoffs, so it's not like he came with any sort of guarantee.
We took a shot on a guy with NHL skills and NHL experience on a one-year "prove it" contract. IMO, it's the best we could have hoped for coming into today. Any better goalie would have required more term. And that's not something we should do right now.
I'm completely weirded out that we didn't take a shot at any of the European free agent goalies, so that's hard to understand from Canes management. But we could do worse than having two goalies who have had success at the NHL level, both feeling that they have something to prove after terrible seasons. Both these guys are decent people, who can't feel great about the way last season went. I'm willing to give them a shot to get themselves back on track.
As for Mrazek individually, if he sucks, we can easily waive his $1.5 million, one-year deal or bury him in the AHL and try to make a deal for Varlamov, Schneider or any other starter-turned-backup around the league. I don't get the feeling that we're tanking the season. There's upside here. And it's not like this is all set in stone. Things can change. If they're both 1-4 after 10 games, I have more confidence that this group with do something about it than the previous regime.
