What a weird take.
#1 Hart is on the list... but I wouldn't even include him in the successes here, he really struggled badly last season and if he doesn't get his head right soon, he'll be the next headstone in the notorious Flyers goalie graveyard.
#2 writing off Oettinger when he's just beginning and looking okay with room to grow.
#3 calling the rest flameouts when Blackwood is a decent starter (on a bad team), Nedeljkovic literally just beat the Preds in the first round and has impressed Yzerman enough to swing big on him, then there's Thatcher Demko who just earned the starters spot and looks like one of the best young goalies in the league. Samsonov is a #1 with room to grow, and Jarry is an okay starter (25-9-3 .909)
So you look at the list and decide there are only two successes there, when in reality there are only four failures and those are all 8+ years ago and Askarov was scouted as being better than all of them. But I'm certain that despite any success Askarov has with the Preds you will be around to tell us why he's a bust and will never win a Cup.
"And I'd say only Knight and Vasilevskiy, perhaps Oettinger had anything close to the hype that Askarov had." These were your words. And you think Hart has not had just as much hype?????
And yes Those you mention are OK starters but when was the last time the Preds excelled with a ok starter? Saros is a ok starter he has started 10 playoff games and won 3 he has played in 17 playoff games. Just because players are younger most give them far too much upside
Blackwood is 3 years in but still has a GAG of 2.83
Oettinger played in 29 games starting 24 of them and won but 11 games yes his GAA was good but his save% .911 is not what the Stars needed to get them over the hump.
Demko won almost half his games but Vancouver has still went out and got Spencer Knight
Jarry is a average goaltender on a team that has older forwards and a D that are not as good as they were two or three years ago.
The point is teams can not compete for the Cup withouta top 5 goalie look at the history
21 Vasi- Price
20 Vasi- Kuhdobin
19 Binnington- Rask
18 Holtby-MAF
17 MAF-Murry-Peekka
16 Murry- Jones
Binnington is the weakest of the bunch and got hot one year just like Johnathan Quick did. But the rest of those goalies listed have been better than average goaltenders even Murry. I do not accept average any more that has been the Predators problem for years Great goaltending great defense and average forwards. Now they are average to below across the board. This is not going to be a fun year to be a Pred fan heck the next few years are going to be a struggle. The central at one time was the best division in the league and now Colorado, Dallas, Jets are the top three by a good margin and the rest is a toss up The Yotes will be the weak sister followed by the Wild then there are the Hawks, Blues and Preds putting us third from the bottom in the division.
Goaltending is critical in Nashville and just like those average goaltenders mentioned before we have no proof Saro's will be more than average. he was less than average the first half of last year and ran into a streak of the weakest teams in the division and brough the team back to playoff contention. That will not happen with the schedule this year you can not expect to drub on Detroit, Chicage and Dallas to make a comeback this time. Saros better have his big boy drawers on.
