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UPDATED: Wild Goalie Search Ends With Talbot |
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We know that the Wild are in the market for a goalie as Bill Guerin made it clear he is not going to go into next season with a tandem of Kaapo Kahkonen and Alex Stalock. We have all heard the rumors of Marc Andre Fleury and of course the natural relationship that he has with Guerin from their Pittsburgh days.
Fleury is no real upgrade over Devin Dubnyk based on his recent performance and at $7M per season that is a tough pill to swallow for the next two seasons. The word is that Vegas is going to have to eat some of that contract as well as sweeten the pot with a draft choice.
On one hand it is nice to see that the Vegas honeymoon is over and they are now just one of the 31 NHL teams with all the same cap and player personnel issues, on the other doing what is best for the Wild is far more important in the long run.
The Wild have Kahkonen and Hunter Jones in the pipe for the future between the pipes but in the short term neither is quite ready to be handed the reigns.
So is obtaining a veteran one year option better than any deal that includes Fleury?
We will have to wait and see what happens today and over the course of the next several weeks to get our answers.
Guerin has acted boldly and his moves have put the organization in better position, now trying to compete and better the overall organizational depth are two very different objectives. Both of which Guerin has stated, he wants to win and he wants the Wild to become a contender.
Not exactly sure that can be accomplished at the same time without sacrificing the long term plan, but we will see. The moves that have been made as far as personnel goes for the upcoming roster they do not at all favor a win now model in my opinion.
UPDATE: Cam Talbot is the Wild's answer in goal as the 33 year old netminder was signed today for $11M over 3 years. Talbot's signing makes far greater sense than the much more involved Marc Andre Fleury option proposed, especially at this point in the Wild's rebuild/makeover.
Talbot will fit in well with a Wild defense that is still one of the best units top to bottom in the league. Guerin is moving steadily through the process of putting his own stamp on the roster and Talbot is another piece to the interim roster transition process.