Over the next week or so, I’ll be looking at six free agents who the Hurricanes could target this offseason. Recently, I’ve looked at the possibility of signing either Corey Crawford, Evgenii Dadonov or Mike Hoffman and going alphabetically, today’s player profile will focus on Braden Holtby.
Holtby will be somewhat of a polarizing free agent this year. On one hand, he’s just two years removed from leading the Washington Capitals to a Stanley Cup, posting a .922 save percentage across 23 playoff games in the process. Overall, he’s been one of the best goalies in the league through much of this decade.
However, obviously his play is not at the level that it was a few seasons ago. He’s struggled for much of the last few years and has posted a combined .906 save percentage over the last three seasons. His .897 save percentage in 48 games this year certainly won’t be attractive to teams either.
The one thing about Holtby’s performance over the last few seasons, however, will mean his price is quite low. He’s not too old to recover and if he was able to bounce back, he could be a steal in free agency. I think a comparable contract for Holtby could be Semyon Varlamov, where the maximum term he’d get would likely be four years and I think the maximum AAV he’d command would be around $6 million, a bit higher than Varlamov's AAV.
That said, much more importantly, it means you’d be signing a 31-year-old goalie who’s statistically been in decline for the last three seasons. Obviously, Holtby will be a risky signing, it’s a matter or whether the Hurricanes would be willing to take that risk.
While he may not be my first option, considering his price probably won’t be overly high, Holtby could provide huge reward for the risk if he was able to bounce back to an extent.
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Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
Would you be in favour of the Hurricanes signing Braden Holtby?
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