Please Say No To Bryzgalov's Contract

Ilya Bryzgalov is a great goalie, but let’s face facts, players who spent last season in the AHL cannot and will not replicate the production of any and all players rumored to be on the trading block and/or definitely will not return if Bryzgalov gets his wish. These players: Coburn, Carle, Carter, Hartnell, Leino, and/or Zherdev, etc. The only two players on this list who I would not mind not being on the Flyers next season are Hartnell and Leino. Leino wants a lot of money and his production can be replaced easily for cheap, and call me biased but I have never been a Scott Hartnell fan.

After the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup, many articles went up saying that Thomas proves you still need good goaltending to win the Cup. Tim Thomas is the exception to this rule, not the rule itself. Of the 6 Cup winning goalies in the post lockout era, only 2 are above average (J.S. Giguere and Tim Thomas) and Tim Thomas’s past season was damn near super human. He had a .947 ESS% in the season, and .949 ESS% in the playoffs. Given that league average (depending on who you count and do not count) is between .917 and .921, I doubt that what Tim Thomas did will ever be replicated by someone not named Tim Thomas. The other 4 goalies to win the Stanley Cup (Cam Ward, Marc-Andre Fleury, Chris Osgood, and Antti Niemi) are average to below average NHL goaltenders. Their career ESS% at the moment they won the cup: Ward .898, Osgood .915, Fleury .919, Niemi .914. Of course, J.S. Giguere won the Cup and at the time he had a .926 ESS% for his career. As mentioned, him and Tim Thomas are the only ones thus far to have above average career numbers and win the Stanley Cup.

Bryzgalov wants over $5M a year for 6 to 8 years. On the other hand, Tomas Vokoun, an alternative who not only is marginally better than Bryzgalov, but cheaper and not looking for as many years, may end up settling for around the $4M range. I still would not be completely giddy about spending $4M on one goaltender, but if it means avoiding Ilya Bryzgalov's contract while getting a great goaltender on the relative cheap side, I think I'd be able to bite my tongue on that one, provided of course Homer does not follow it up with an unnecessary salary dump that makes the team worse than it was last year, which is a very real possibility if the Flyers decide to go for the big name goalie, even if that goalie is the better and cheaper Vokoun.