Washington Capitals: 3 possible destinations for Braden Holtby
By CJ Witt
Calgary Flames
The Flames seem to be one of those teams that are just one piece away from being a true threat. Maybe having an elite goaltender can be that one piece?
The Flames have nearly $17 million in cap space. They don’t really have a great goalie at the same time. They don’t have bad goalies, but an upgrade in this position has to be towards the top of their list.
This season David Rittich had a 2.97 GAA and a .907 save percentage. He played in 48 of the teams games this year. Cam Talbot, also a pending free agent, had a 2.67 GAA and a .919 save percentage. Talbot doesn’t seem to be a star starting goaltender and that would likely mean he is gone this off-season. He did however have better playoff stats than his partner Rittich.
In the playoffs Talbot had a 2.42 GAA and a .924 save percentage. In the one game that Rittich played in he had a 10.85 GAA and a .667 save percentage. He played just 16:34. Talbot got the all the time in the playoffs playing 595:33.
Would you rather pay Talbot, or Holtby? Going forward, who would you be more comfortable with as your starting goalie? If your team has long runs and Stanley Cups in mind I’m thinking most would pick Holtby here.
Calgary also isn’t far from Holtby’s hometown of Llyodminster, AB Canada. If Holtby wanted to play close to home there is only one other option…