JTech780

I believe in one of Ramo's exit interviews he said something to the effect that his priority is to stay in the NHL. I think he recognizes his situation, goaltending jobs in the NHL are hard to come by and even harder to hold onto. There are a number of options on the UFA market. I have Niemi as the top UFA goalie, and then there a bunch of guys that are all pretty even with Ramo in that bunch with Neuvirth, Enroth, Greiss and a few others.

Just to clarify it is an AAV of $1.35mill for Hammond. Hammond is younger, but he has a smaller sample size compared to Ramo, but Hammond's stats through 25 games are unreal; 0.89 GAA and .975sv%. With Ramo he is what he is, at 29 years old I don't think we will see much more progression in his game. I am OK if we sign him and I am OK if he walks, either way I see him as a short term solution so if we do sign him it better be to a short term deal.

There is no way I would give Ramo a 5 year contract. I would go 2 years max and around $2.5 mill. To me he still hasn't proved that he is a number 1 goalie, he is more of a 1B/backup goalie. I wouldn't feel too comfortable going into next season with Ramo as the number 1 option.

I think there isn't too many teams that would be interested in Hiller, Buffalo, Edmonton, San Jose and maybe Toronto depending on what they do with Bernier. I don't see any of those teams giving up very much to acquire Hiller, 3rd pick at most. The other issue is there are a few other options out there that might look better than Hiller. Niemi is a UFA, he's won a cup and puts up solid numbers similar to Hiller. Niemi would only cost a contract. Martin Jones could be available if LA wants to try and acquire another defenseman. Jones is young and has put up some solid numbers, so a rebuilding team like Edmonton or Buffalo could be looking at him. If Toronto decides to move on from Bernier, I am sure there will be a few suitors for him. Ottawa has 3 goalies, with any of Anderson, Lehner, or the Hamburgler being available. Detroit might want to try and move Jimmy Howard with Mrazek stepping up. I am not saying that Hiller can't be moved, I just don't think we will get as much as we would like, and it won't be easy. I think it mist likely come down to waiting to see if a team has an injury in training camp. On a side note, what about targeting Robin Lehner from Ottawa and letting him and Ortio fight it out for the back up job. Lehner still has a ton of upside. I was a big fan of his when he first came up.

I meant he is slowing down skating wise. I see Wideman as a liability defensively and I think being paired with Russell covered a lot of his short comings on that side of things. Wideman is very good offensively there is no doubt about that, he also stepped it up in that department after Gio went down, so I get why people would hesitant to trade him. I think we have the guys that can produce offensively to cover for the loss of Wideman if he was traded.

There are a lot of questions on our back end going into next season. The guarantee's are Giordano, Brodie and Russell. Giordano has shown that he us an elite defenseman at both ends of the ice. He has also become one of the best leaders and captains in the game. Brodie took a big leap forward this year bother offensively and defensively. The scary thing is that he still has room to grow and he has the skills to get there. If he can cut down on forcing plays that just aren't there on the break outs and in the offensive zone, while also playing the body just a little more instead of just relying on his stick, Brodie can take the next step to becoming and elite defenseman. Russell might be one if the most underrated defenseman in the league. I have him as our 3rd best defenseman year. He makes a good first pass, he can skate the puck out of the zone, he finds ways to the puck through from the point, he is one the best defenseman at poistining himself in the defensive zone. If Russell was 6'3" 215lbs we would be talking about a 1st pairing defenseman. Wideman has great offensive instincts. The same can't be said defensively. He is also slowing down. I think we should look at trading him while his value is at an all time Hugh and before he loses another step. Engelland looked better and better as the season went on. Does his contract suck, kind of yeah and I don't see us getting too many takers for his services so in the meantime he will serve as solid 6th defenseman. Smid looked terrible this year. Injuries probably had a huge part to play in that. Those injuries will also be huge question marks going into next year. Will he ever play again? If so how effective will he be? Smid and his $3.5 million contract will play a big role in what Treliving can do in the offseason. What do we do with Schlemko and Diaz going forward? Both are solid 7th defenseman but neither are players you want in your top 6 everyday. The prospect pool isn't great, Wotherspoon got some great experience in the playoffs, hopefully he can take that experience and build on it. He looked OK, but not great. Morrison is an interesting case, he had a great start to his pro career, but how close is he to being NHL? Culkin, Kulak and Ramage all took steps forward this year, but all are a ways away from being ready for the next step.

If you can get a player that is 6'3" or bigger and can skate like Brodie or Russell, then you have it made. The problem is that there isn't too many of those guys around and when there is there are 29 other teams trying to sign him. At the end of the day I will take the skating ability over size. I would say that Wideman is one if our worst skaters on the back end and he seemed to have the most trouble against Anaheim's forecheck.

I used to be a big proponent of size on the back end, but these playoffs have me changing my mind on that. Skating ability is the most important asset on the back end. Vancouver's back end couldn't skate and ended up getting killed by our forecheck. Anaheim has plenty of guys who aren't the biggest but they can skate and we had a lot of trouble getting in on the forecheck because their D was able to move the puck before we could get anything going. If we are looking at the UFA market I would be interested in any of the following: Paul Martin Johnny Oduya Andrej Sekera All these guys are able to skate.

Did anyone else see the video they showed of Gio skating and stick handling. He looked good. What a huge boost it would be to get him back.

Ramo is 28 and will be 29 by the time next season starts. I wouldn't be mad if we re-signed Ramo, it's just not what I would do. I think we need to start grooming Ortio to be our next NHL starter, or at least find out if he's capable.

I agree with the fact that we should go with Hiller and Ortio next year, but mostly because I see Ramo as too inconsistent to be a number 1 goalie. Ramo has more abiltiy to flat out steal a game for you than Hiller, but I see Hiller as being more consistent and more of a steadying influence in the net which I think is very important for a young team.

First off he wasn't 24th out 30 he was 24th out of 68 goalies who played 10 or more games. And you can also put it this way its a tie with Fleury, Quick and Bobrovsky, pretty elite company.As far as Ramo goes I am not convinced that he is anything more than a backup. Though last year I still would have chosen to keep Ramo and take the 2nd rounder for Berra. I am not sure I would bring Ramo back though.

How good has Jonas Hiller been this year for us. He is a big reason why we are in the playoffs this year and he was arguably the best player on the ice for game one. I was just checking out his career playoffs stats and he has a .933 sv% in 27 career playoff games. Signing Hiller might be Treliving's best move to date.

http://www.lawinsport.com/articles/employment-law/item/nhl-cba-effects-european-players-and-international-ice-hockey

This player is still draft eligible, even he wasn't I believe the Finnish league is still ongoing and he would be under contract with them. Very rarely if at all are players from Swedish and Finnish leagues brought over mid season.

I stand corrected. Thanks for the link to the article. Adirondack has signed University of Calgary goalie Jacob DeSerres to an ATO. He was a former 3rd round pick of Philadelphia.

Gillies isn't eligible to play in the playoffs if he signs, as he wasn't under contract before the trade deadline. At best he can help Adirondack this year.

Brad Thiessen is a proven AHL starting goalie, he is having a down year this year, but signing him was solid depth move this year. If they had signed Gillies he would have had to play in the ECHL to get playing time. There are only so many spots to give goalies in the minors. If you want to develop Ortio as a starter then you have to play him as a starter in the AHL. Adirondack has signed Doug Carr and Clay Witt as college free agents to try and develop goaltending prospects.

What is Calgary supposed to do? Play with no backup goaltender?

I think he has jumped to the top of our defense prospect list. He might be the most NHL ready. I think he will be pushing for a roster spot next year.

This would classify as an emergency situation. The league won't let you play without just one goalie. I think that if team has so many injuries that they would have to play short players, the league will allow an emergency callup.