Backups no longer window dressing
No. 2 goalies, once little more than a ‘good guy in the room,’ taking on much more important roles
In terms of importance, it used to be a position that fell somewhere between the seventh defenceman and the 13th forward.
The backup goalie was an end-ofthe-bench afterthought. He provided an NHL team with depth and not much else. Rarely used and rarely seen without a baseball hat on his head, it was often more important to find someone who was a good guy in the dressing room than actually good at stopping the puck.
Perhaps that is why the Toronto Maple Leafs settled on Jhonas Enroth. Then again, it’s not like they rushed out to get him.
Last summer, the Leafs wasted no time in acquiring Frederik Andersen, whom they traded first- and second-round picks for and signed to a five-year, $25-million extension on June 20. It wasn’t until Aug. 22 — exactly one month before training camp — that the team spent $750,000 on Andersen’s backup.
As the saying goes, you get what you pay for.
Without a win in four starts this season, Enroth gave up two goals in the first minute of a 3-0 loss Wednesday to the Calgary Flames. His struggles were only magnified because Chad Johnson, the goalie Calgary paid $1.7 million to back up Brian Elliott, stopped all 39 Toronto shots for his third shutout of the year.
“Honestly, disappointed,” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock told reporters after the game. “I mean, I thought we were playing well, we came in here, obviously weren’t ready — as a team, as a coaching staff, as a goaltender, not ready.”
While Enroth has become the goalie you use in only emergency scenarios, Johnson, with an 8-41 record and a .930 save percentage, has morphed into the goalie you take out only if you absolutely have to.
Along with Anaheim’s Jonathan Bernier (4-1-1 with a .933 save percentage), Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy (6-2-1 with a .940 save percentage) and Los Angeles’s Peter Budaj, tied for second in the league with 12 wins after the Kings lost Jonathan Quick to a lower-body injury, they have blurred the line between what we thought a traditional backup was.
“You look at the importance of what Budaj has done for the L.A. Kings and you’ve got to be two deep and in some cases three deep,” said Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland, whose team has relied equally on Petr Mrazek and Jimmy Howard this season.
“Every two points is critical for all 30 teams to make the playoffs or secure home-ice (advantage). We made the playoffs with the same amount of points as Boston, but we had more regulation wins. So we’re into photo finishes now.”
The importance of the backup goalie was best exemplified last year when Montreal’s Carey Price went down with a season-ending injury. At the time, the Canadiens were the best team in the NHL. But with Mike Condon and Ben Scrivens taking over starting duties, the team finished with the fourth-worst record in the Eastern Conference.
The threat of an injury — or in the case of Calgary, sub-standard play — might explain why 18 teams are paying their backup goalie more than $1 million this season.
Florida, which has Roberto Luongo under contract through 2021-22, signed James Reimer to a five-year contract with a $3.4-million cap hit. That’s a higher hit than starters in Buffalo, Calgary, Carolina, St. Louis, San Jose and Winnipeg.
“You’re not seeing the backup as just a good guy in the room who can give you 10 games a year,” said TSN analyst and former NHL backup goalie Jamie McLennan.
“You need somebody that in the event of an injury can be a shortterm starter. If there’s a bump in the road or a guy goes down with a groin injury, you need someone that can give you games. Even two weeks is eight games. That can be the difference between the playoffs or not.”
When the Leafs signed Enroth to a one-year contract in the midst of a rebuild, they probably didn’t expect or even care if they made the playoffs. He was merely a stopgap.
But with Toronto’s youngsters developing faster than expected and the team sitting one point out of a playoff spot, things may have changed in that regard.
Enroth’s starts don’t seem so meaningless nowadays.
“Due to the parity of the league, all these games count. And they really count,” said Holland. “I think if you’ve got a 60-game goalie, then you’re probably looking for your backup to be .500 or a tad over.”
In other words, the Leafs need more from their backup, but they don’t need him to be Price or even Andersen.
“I’m not going to absolve Enroth and make excuses for him because when you’re a backup, you’re going to get crappy assignments,” said McLennan.
“That happens. It’s part of the job description.”