Comments on: Washington's New View in Net, Take 2

By: OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki)

OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:30:26 +0000

More from GMGM on NHL.com:
“You have to be careful when signing goalies,” McPhee said. “If you sign a player to play on your first line and you pay him a lot of money and it’s not working out, sometimes you can get away with dropping him down to the third or fourth line. But if you make mistakes on goalies, you can’t play them, so they’re sitting on the bench and then you’re not getting anything out of them.
“If you’ve got a top-five goalie and are willing to do a long-term deal for big money, that probably makes sense, but any of the other goalies you must be sharp and prudent and try and construct short-term deals. This way, if it’s not working out, you can get out of it and if it is working out, you can always renew the contract.”
http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?articleid=367540&page=NewsPage&service=page

By: Muddapucker

Muddapucker — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:07:20 +0000

I agree… Bartlett, Huet’s agent was quoted as saying in response to what it would take to sign Huet that “… you don’t know until you open the Christmas presents on Christmas morning” or something to that effect.
Clearly, it was their intent to go to the marketplace. He got his “Christmas” present and they ran with it. I think the writing was on the wall all along. They were going to the highest bidder that Huet could be comfortable with.
Looking at what TSN says Fleury signed with the Pens for, 7 yrs, $35M, I don’t think that Chicago got much of a deal paying Huet $5.6 annually for 4 years.

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:09:45 +0000

People are naive or just dumb if they think that offering Huet 3 years at $5mil per from the start would have changed anything. EVERYTHING Huet and his agent have been saying proved to be untrue. He said when he got here and throughout that he wanted to be a clear-cut #1 goalie, then he goes and signs in Chicago. I really hope khabibulin plays lights out and forces them to play him, since Chicago is in a win now mode. That would really put them in a bind with him being a UFA next year, and it would be Karma if Huet was right back on the bench after thumbing his nose at the Caps offer.

By: Victor

Victor — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:11:16 +0000

Well stated, Muddapucker. Theodore is a Cap now; we owe him a fair chance.

By: Muddapucker

Muddapucker — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:30:26 +0000

One thing that is overlooked in all of this is the job GMGM did when he found out Huet was bolting for Chicago. GMGM responded. McPhee didn’t sabotage the negotiations, on the contrary, he took action, damage control. He came up with Theodore. Would Conklin have been better? Maybe Emery? How about getting Kolzig back? None of those would have been better than Theodore. On the contrary, some would have been disasters.
Give the man credit for making the best of a bad situation. Quite frankly, there is the distinct possibility that things might actually work out better. Who knows? It could turn out worse too… The point is nothing is for certain. You just make the best decisions you can.
I, for one, think GMGM made the right choice under the circumstances.

By: Shirl

Shirl — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:39:24 +0000

I am eager to see what Gabby can do for Theodore. Look at how many other players on the team have blossomed under his guidance.

By: Grant Beery

Grant Beery — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:45:52 +0000

While I’m sad to see Theo go from Colorado, I applaud him for grabbing a better contract. Francois Giguere, the Avalanche GM, was quoted as saying he “won’t overpay” for a player.
I have to wonder if that was really a better idea for Theo, though. He’s a goaltender that has spent the past few seasons struggling. He’s shown huge growth after moving to Colorado, but I think one more move will end up hindering any progress he’s making in his play.

By: b.orr4

b.orr4 — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:55:10 +0000

Well, Semin will still be restricted at the end of his current contract in 2010, so they do have some flexibility. I could see them going either way with him in terms of signing him or trading him. The good thing is that knowing he’s got a potentially big payday coming, he should put up some big numbers in the next two seasons.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:43:38 +0000

Huet has never really been able to make it through a whole season. Top year for GP was 42. Whereas Theodore has played up to 67 some years. His stats seem to point to the fact that the more he plays the stronger he gets. I’ll take durability hands down.

By: OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki)

OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:40:04 +0000

@ gozling:
That’s a very important question with potentially huge impact on the team’s future. While Semin’s performance this season will impact any decision, my take is that at this point you do not consider trading/losing that kind of talent. The team will try to maintain flexibility under the cap so keeping Semin can remain part of their plan.
Nothing’s set in stone, of course, and it’s hard to say if the picture will look the same a year from now. Certainly it’s a situation that warrants ongoing attention. But for now I think the plan is to keep the team’s 1-2 punch at LW and force teams to defend two lines’ worth of scoring threat.