WhalerTurnedBruin55
Fading out, thanks for the times.
- Oct 31, 2008
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I'm actually a little surprised to not see Rask's name more often, I remember him being better.I think you are right in that goaltending is a crapshoot, even for the best guys. I think overall you want a guy who is consistently a top 10 goalie (obviously top 5 is ideal but it's extremely rare to find year after year). At worst you want your starter to be consistently in the top half of the league for starters.
Consistency is tough to find ESPECIALLY for goalies. I took a look back at the past 10 years to see how consistently guys are in the top 3 of Vezina voting just for my own curiosity.
It's very rare for a guy to show up in consecutive years. Holtby, Rinne and Lundvqist did it. Only Thomas and Bobrovsky have won it more than once. Rinne shows up the most, but only once in consecutive years. A top guy like Quick had a 3 year break before being top 3 again and another top guy in Bobrovsky had a 3 year break before getting his 2nd win.
2018 Vezina finalists: Rinne, Hellebuyck, Vaselevski
2017: Bobrovsky, Holtby, Price
2016: Holtby, Bishop, Quick
2015: Price, Rinne, Dubnyk
2014: Rask, Varlamov, Bishop
2013: Bobrovsky, Lundqvist, Niemi
2012: Lundqvist, Quick, Rinne
2011: Thomas, Rinne, Lou
2010: Miller, Bryzgalov, Broduer
2009: Thomas, Mason Backstrom
I stopped at 2009 because Brodeur was dominant before then, kind of ruining the theory that it's a crapshoot.
Consistency year to year for goalies isn't just a Rask issue. Lots of things affect this like defensemen regressing, systems changing and goalies simply getting worse as they age.
If someone or myself has more time I'd be curious to see what the top 5 looks like for voting as well.
My point in regards to your post? All of these guys make close to what Rask make. So you trade his 7 mil and spend it elsewhere. You aren't going to get a goalie of the caliber of the guys on the above list (maybe Bobrovsky, who has atrocious playoff stats, what people rag on Rask for), so you risk having an even streakier goalie from year to year. I'm not against a trade if we get the right pieces, but we need a better plan than Halak as our starter.
That said... he's still one of the top paid tenders in the league regardless.
There are expectations that come with that.