NHL goalie-go-round leaves 8 teams with a new starter in net
Jake Oettinger did not have a contract with Dallas for much of the summer, but as a restricted free agent he knew he would be playing for the Stars this season.
With that certainty in mind, Oettinger watched with fascination as other goaltenders shuffled around the NHL.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “I’m just a hockey fan, too, so it’s fun. I love free agency and all that stuff to see where guys go.”
While Oettinger has a No. 1 job going into a season for the first time, Eight other teams are expected to have new starting goalies, and 23 veterans are with new teams, just one fewer than 2021. It’s the second consecutive offseason hockey’s most important position has been overhauled across the league.
COLORADO AVALANCHE
After Darcy Kuemper backstopped the Avalanche to the Stanley Cup, they had too many other players to re-sign and not enough salary cap space to bring him back.
So Joe Sakic and the front office turned their attention to bringing in a third starter in as many years, trading draft picks to the New York Rangers for Alexandar Georgiev, who backed up Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin last season.
“Alex, he was a priority for us,” said Sakic, the general manager of the year who is now Colorado’s president of hockey operations. “He’s a guy that from our scouting to our analytics department that we all see a lot of upside. And he’s proven it that when he’s staring and playing a lot of games, that’s when he’s at his best.”
Georgiev, who signed a $10.2 million, three-year contract, will share time with Czech veteran Pavel Francouz but is the clear starter.
WASHINGTON CAPITALS
The 32-year-old Kuemper, too expensive for the Avalanche to retain, signed a $26.25 million, five-year deal with Washington after Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan committed to changing his team’s entire picture in goal.
“Then obviously you start getting excited for the new chapter, another new adventure,” Kuemper said.
The Capitals also added Charlie Lindgren as Kumeper’s backup and hope to make another long playoff run after four consecutive first-round exits since winning the Cup in 2018. Bringing in the goalie who most recently did it is not a bad first step.
“It’s a team that has won it recently,” Kuemper said. “And I think we have a good chance of winning it here. Once you kind of get that taste of winning, you want to do it again.”