It's the final installment before I pick a winner in the Best Bang for the Buck - Goaltending series. Part 1 and Part 2 are still available on the homepage.
Ottawa Senators - $6.9M
Ray Emery was rewarded with a 3-year, $9.5M contract over the summer after cementing himself as the #1 in Ottawa. With Martin Gerber making nearly $4M per year, you can bet the Senators will be looking to move him at the right price. As long as Emery continues to improve, and all indications are that he will, the Senators need to find a backup who can play about 15 games over the season while being light on the pocket book.
Philadelphia Flyers - $4.7M
Martin Biron was brought in at the trade deadline to become the Flyers #1 goaltender for the remainder of the year. He was then signed to a two-year extension and is expected to be the #1 this year as well. However Antero Niitymaki, also signed to a two-year extension, will look to challenge him for that title. Niitymaki is coming off of a poor season where he posted 9-29-9 record, 3.38 goals-against average and .894 save percentage in 52 games. This duo has potential and, with an improved defensive corps, could live up to it.
Pittsburgh Penguins - $1.9M
Marc-Andre Fleury is still working on his game but he's shown obvious improvements every year. I still feel the sting of his unfortunate mishap during the '04 World Juniors but I forgive him. At a cap hit of just $1.3M, he looks to be a bargain this year. Dany Sabourin and Ty Conklin were brought in to battle it out for the backup position and should provide reasonable results. Conklin is on a two-way contract while Sabourin, poached off of waivers by the Canucks last year, is one-way. Those two pieces of information could play into who gets the backup job.
Phoenix Coyotes - $1.4M
The Coyotes have a logjam in the crease and they're still under the league minimum salary by a fair amount. They signed David Aebischer to a dirt cheap $600,000 contract but based on his play in Montreal, that might not be too out of whack. Mikael Tellqvist is still on board and the Coyotes added Alex Auld recently. With prospect David Leneveau in the background, it will make for quite a battle in training camp. Aebischer and Auld have everything to prove and everything to lose at this point but can either handle the pressure?
San Jose Sharks - 5.4M
Evgeni Nabokov is in as the undisputed #1 after Vesa Toskala was traded to Toronto. The writing was on the wall for Toskala long ago and finally Doug Wilson found an appropriate trading partner. Nabokov played well in the regular season and playoffs and is quite capable of stealing games when necessary. The new backup, Dimitri Patzold, comes in on the heels of a couple slight fallback seasons in the AHL after previously showing continuous improvement. He likely won't be called upon too much as Nabokov will likely gobble up 65+ starts with Toskala out of the picture.
St. Louis Blues - $2.7M
Manny Legace put up decent numbers with the Blues last season as he split duties with Curtis Sanford and Jason Bacashihua. Sanford is gone and Hannu Toivonen is in to challenge Bacashihua for the backup position/#1b position. Not an enviable crew by any means but they do have Marek Schwarz being groomed in the background.
Tampa Bay Lightning - $3.9M
The goaltending duo of Marc Denis and Johan Holmqvist returns to give John Tortorella more fits than he can shake a stick at. Denis and Holmqvist combined to produce a league worst goals to shots ratio and often left Tortorella frothing at the mouth after their performances. Note to Tortorella: sometimes screaming doesn't help.
Toronto Maple Leafs - $4.1M
The Leafs made their goaltending situation interesting after acquiring Vesa Toskala from the Sharks. Andrew Raycroft, brought in last year to be the #1 in exchange for top prospect Tuuka Raask, fizzled out and never performed up to the lofty expectations set upon a Calder winning goaltender. If Raycroft isn't dealt before the season begins, there will be a battle for the #1 spot which I believe will be won by Vesa Toskala. The Leafs also have Scott Clemmenson in the fold who would become the backup if/when Raycroft is dealt.
Vancouver Canucks - $7.4M
What can be said about Roberto Luongo. Like him or love him, he's one of the best in the world and anybody who thinks otherwise is deluding him or herself. The Canucks have brought in Curtis Sanford who should prepare himself to start about half a dozen games this season. Luongo has slowly increased his amount of starts each year but I've got to believe he won't start more than 76 games. If he does, I'll start to question whether he's a robot sent back in time and not an actual living, breathing human.
Washington Capitals - $6.3M
Olaf Kolzig continues to fly under the radar as one of the better goaltenders in the league. Of course a lot of that has to do with his choice to stay with the Washington Capitals for so long. His numbers have declined slightly, in accordance with Washington's declines, and at 37 years old is likely not going be a game breaker anymore. However he's a great mentor for Brent Johnson who will back up Kolzig again this year.
And so ends the review of all 30 teams in the league. I will let this all sink in for everyone, including myself, and post up the winners sometime over the weekend.
