Carolina Hurricanes: Exploring the Goalie Market
It is no secret the Carolina Hurricanes have one vital weakness, and that is between the pipes. Just what can they do to fix it?
The Carolina Hurricanes need a goalie. Urgently.
Petr Mrazek has been known to underperform, and James Reimer has shown himself to be shaky. Don’t let the back to back shutouts over Arizona and Los Angeles fool you.
Mrazek has a .907 save percentage, and Reimer let 3 bad goals in against Philly, yet the Canes still won. This group of skaters has been bailing the goalies out again and again.
So what are the possible trade partners for Carolina to fix their goaltender issues? There’s not a lot of possible goalies on the market since there are only roughly 62 goalies in the NHL at any one time, so the realistic possibility of getting a goalie like this is slim to none, so please take it with a grain of salt. All of these targets are either pending UFAs or stuck on bad teams.
Alexandar Georgiev
You’d better be appreciative of how many attempts it took me to spell the name of Alexandar Georgiev. Only 23 years of age, the young Bulgarian has put up a .914 save percentage in 64 career games with a rebuilding New York Rangers team. With Igor Shesterkin coming through, it seems like Georgiev is surplus to requirements.
Carolina should be sniffing around here because the Rangers have been actively shopping Georgiev to try and get full value for the young Bulgarian.
Teams understand the emergence of Shesterkin, and with Henrik Lundqvist still performing like the goaltender he’s always been, Georgiev is quickly becoming a spare piece.
This would be a nice move here, because of his age; Carolina could have cost controlled goaltending for the next 3 years while Georgiev is a restricted free agent. It leans perfectly in time for either Alex Nedeljkovic or Pytor Kochetkov to come in and take over. However, with the Rangers being in the division, I cannot see it happening.
Jaroslav Halak
Jaroslav Halak is someone that will fly under a lot of radars. He is the Boston Bruins’ backup. Any analytical stat will show you that Halak is one of the more superior goaltenders in this unrestricted free agent class.
More from Cardiac Cane
- 2023 Southeast Rookie Showcase: Takeaways from the Canes’ Strong Showing in Florida
- Week Two Coverage Of College Hockey In NC
- Derek Stepan Ends His On Ice Career As A Hurricane
- The Southeast Rookie Showcase Will Be a Good Look at Carolina’s Future
- Noesen Ready To Provide Depth For Canes
Halak is currently a backup, but has started games for Montreal, St. Louis, and on Long Island. He’s been a starter, who’s just chasing a ring.
In 2012-13 with the St. Louis Blues, he shared the Jennings trophy for the fewest goals against in the league. He’s clearly good at stopping pucks; the issue with Halak is finding a package that will encourage Boston to part with the Czech-born goalie.
Boston, as all Carolina Hurricanes fans know, want to capture Lord Stanley’s cup. To part ways with Jaroslav Halak, they would need an upgrade at the goaltender position, and Carolina cannot offer that to the Bruins. Hence, finding a package that Boston would entertain is going to be incredibly difficult.
This one is going to be a shock to a lot of people, but Montreal have been rumoured to be wanting to start a rebuild. This means everyone could go, including former Vezina and Hart trophy winner Carey Price. This 32 year-old goaltender has established himself as a great goalie during his time in the NHL, and could solve Carolina’s goalie issues for a while.
However, Price has a cap hit of $10,500,000 for the next 7 years. At the age of 32, there are immediate questions about Price’s durability.
It’s not a secret that Carey Price has suffered with injury issues throughout his career. Making that much money with those health concerns and reliability issues is a cause for concern.
A package for Price is going to cost an absolute bomb. A shedload of picks and prospects would have to go the other way, and there are very few scenarios where I can think of a trade that will get Montreal the picks and prospects they want, with the cap hit and long term regression of Carey Price. I just don’t think there’s a possible trade here.
So, this one is basically unthinkable. It’s never going to happen. This would require hell freezing over to make this happen, right? Surely, Carolina could not take Braden Holtby from Washington? This is basically like expecting the planets to align perfectly in such a way that the hockey gods themselves come down to the earth and force this to happen.
Holtby is a pending UFA, and with Ilya Samsonov playing out of his mind at this point in time, and with the paycheck that Holtby is going to want, it’s in Washington’s best interests to move him. There is reason to believe a Holtby trade is possible as Samsonov has the starting job now, and Holtby is just becoming the most expensive backup in the league. Moving him frees up cap room for Washington at the deadline.
Obviously, Washington would likely need a bomb of a return in order to ship out the Canadian netminder, and it is incredibly unlikely that they will ship him out in the division to someone who’s competing for a playoff spot in their division, and someone they may face in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. But we can dream, right?
Will the Canes be Buyers or Sellers at the Trade Deadline?. light. Related Story