Crystal Lake Hoffy wrote:
Niemi was an average goalie on an incredible team. How many times did he only have to make 10-20 saves in a game? A whole lot. Not sure people were that up in arms about losing him. I remember my concern being that we were left with Huet and Crawford at the time if memory serves me right, neither were proven winners.
I'll give you that Crawford had a heck of a strong run this season. He should have won the Conn Smythe. That said, he still has poor mechanics and can tend to get deep in his net and let up soft goals. The "glove thing" isn't a sign of weakness to me. As I have said in the past, Belfour rode his so-so glove all the way to the Hall of Fame. I always assumed Crawfords' mechanics worsened from fatigue and all I am saying is that I want to see him have that same mental toughness this full season as he had from the cup run last season before I feel comfortable with a long term deal.
This makes sense and I agree to an extent. I see it differently, I guess. Here's the top 20
http://www.sportscity.com/nhl-salaries- ... 012/11/17/I look at the list and think okay goalie salaries are higher now than they were a few years ago. Maybe worth it for Rinne, Lundqvist, or Ward. That's some bad money for Luongo or Fluery and some others. I'm happy it's for less time and money than Rask's 8 years/$56 million but I was hoping for 5M/3-4 years. 6 years for a goalie is too much. I think I like Niemi at 4M over Crawford at 6M.
I agree he should have gotten the Conn Smythe, but man does he give up some bad ones. You are probably going to lose some of the defense too because of this. I think it's odd that you are paying a guy you weren't sure was a starter this season 6M/6years. Emery had almost the same stats. Kane and Toews are up this year and I thought they were going to go with the pay for what's in front of the goalie not so much for the goalie theory.
I'm not clear on why they didn't wait. I don't think his stock is going to go up. Let half this season or the whole year play out.
He's not always my favorite but I do like him. His teammates like him. It will be nice to have a goalie long term, I guess. It's been a ? since I've started watching.