Craig Anderson Info from the Denver Post

I'm not sure why the notion of signing Leclaire again was even brought up. It's ludicrous. He's like Hasek, except with half the skills and forty times the injury-risk. You just can't afford to have a goalie that unreliable.

here's a list of low end UFA goalies coming up July 1, would take any of them before Leclaire, even if they have less potential/talent.

Auld, Alex » G MTL 30 $1,000,000 2011 (UFA)
Boucher, Brian » G PHI 34 $925,000 2011 (UFA)
Climie, Matt » G PHO 28 $725,000 2011 (UFA)
Howard, Jimmy » G DET 26 $716,667 2011 (UFA)
Lalime, Patrick » G BUF 36 $650,000 2011 (UFA)
Brodeur, Mike » G OTT 27 $600,000 2011 (UFA)
Nabokov, Evgeni » G NYI 35 $570,000 2011 (UFA)
Leneveu, David » G CLB 27 $550,000 2011 (UFA)
Toivonen, Hannu » G CHI 26 $550,000 2011 (UFA)
Sanford, Curtis » G MTL 31 $550,000 2011 (UFA)
MacDonald, Joey » G DET 31 $550,000 2011 (UFA)
McElhinney, Curtis » G TBL 27 $535,000 2011 (UFA)
Sabourin, Dany » G WAS 30 $525,000 2011 (UFA)
McKenna, Mike » G NJD 27 $500,000 2011 (UFA)
Curry, John » G PIT 26 $500,000 2011 (UFA)
MacIntyre, Drew » G ATL 27 $500,000 2011 (UFA)
Gerber, Martin » G EDM 36 $500,000 2011 (UFA)
Grahame, John » G COL 35 $500,000 2011 (UFA)
Karlsson, Henrik » G CGY 27 $500,000 2011 (UFA)
Krahn, Brent » G DAL 28 $500,000 2011 (UFA)
Emery, Ray » G ANA 28 $500,000 2011 (UFA)
Bacashihua, Jason »G COL 28 $500,000 2011 (UFA)
Weiman, Tyler » G VAN 26 $500,000 2011 (UFA)
Martin, Joel » G NYI 28 $500,000 2011 (UFA)
Lawson, Nathan » G NYI 27 $500,000 2011 (UFA)
Schaefer, Nolan » G BOS 31 $500,000 2011 (UFA)

You can scratch Nabokov off that list, but yeah, I'd take ANY of those guys over Leclaire.

tim1_2 wrote:I'm not sure why the notion of signing Leclaire again was even brought up. It's ludicrous. He's like Hasek, except with half the skills and forty times the injury-risk. You just can't afford to have a goalie that unreliable.

Leclaire has all the skill in the world. If you look at it a little outside of the box in the sense you are signing him to see if he can try and regain his form and stay healthy. It's not as a "backup" per say but as a potential number 1 for some team down the line.

Anyways, I understand people saying no chance no hell, part of me says it too, but the risk is pretty minimal at this point. Obviously another goalie would have to be signed as well to a two way deal.

I don't think Leclaire will get a contract anywhere. I think he's KHL bound.

tim1_2 wrote:You can scratch Nabokov off that list, but yeah, I'd take ANY of those guys over Leclaire.

Probably Lalime and Gerber too, they didn't have a good time last time through here, I highlighted the two I would like Ottawa to gun for, but I can't see Howard leaving Detriot, same with Karlsson leaving Calgary, Kiprusoff can't play forever.

Keeping Leclaire would just be bad, I can imagine every fan why that joke of a goalie is still here.

Maybe try and land Theodore or Josh Harding.

Hoags wrote:Keeping Leclaire would just be bad, I can imagine every fan why that joke of a goalie is still here.

Maybe try and land Theodore or Josh Harding.

Harding would be a nice option if he's cheap. Anderson and he would make a nice tandem IMO.

Jimmy Howard seems like the second coming of Chris Osgood in Detroit, so he’s probably a lifer. Henrik Karlsson is a big boy that would be a good backup, me thinks. He’d come cheap too. Boucher’s also not a bad option, but Philly will probably keep him with Bobrovsky (playoff meltdown withstanding).

Jimmy Howard seems like the second coming of Chris Osgood in Detroit, so he’s probably a lifer. Henrik Karlsson is a big boy that would be a good backup, me thinks. He’d come cheap too. Boucher’s also not a bad option, but Philly will probably keep him with Bobrovsky (playoff meltdown withstanding).

Leclaire will get a contract. Too much talent for some team not to take a shot on especially at league min. Chicago is the team that comes to mind.

tim1_2 wrote:Jimmy Howard seems like the second coming of Chris Osgood in Detroit, so he’s probably a lifer. Henrik Karlsson is a big boy that would be a good backup, me thinks. He’d come cheap too. Boucher’s also not a bad option, but Philly will probably keep him with Bobrovsky (playoff meltdown withstanding).

2nd coming of Brian Elliott. The two guys are exactly the same goaltender in every way.

Sorry about the double post. I think Howard's got more upside than Elliot, but it's always amazing how a great team defence can make an average goalie look terrific...we did it here for years.

NEELY wrote:Well, I am not one to say Leclaire should be part of the team going forward... but having Anderson changes a lot. If people want to say "no way Leclaire should be back, get rid of him", it's tough to disagree and that's probably the right way to go about it in all honestly. BUT could signing Leclaire at his lowest value and perhaps building him up to the point he has value again a risk worth taking?

Having an Anderson/Leclaire duo next year would be a small risk, but nothing crazy or totally out of the ordinary. Obviously they would need to sign a guy like Brust or Sandford, someone like that as a little insurance. They need depth in goal and having 2 goalies that are capable of being number 1's (insert Leclaire joke) would not be a bad thing. Having two goalies who have the ability to steal games on any given night might be the way to go.

If they don't resign Leclaire than obviously they really don't want him, but IMO, the risk is minimal if they have a true number 1 and have the ability to lave Lehner down in Bingo to play a large portion of games.

The true risk to signing Leclaire as a backup, is that he is so unreliable you almost have to keep a spare goalie in the organization. Let him go and get someone who can stay healthy. The organization needs Lehner to have a nice stable year, not being bounced around like a superball.

Jimmy Howard is absolutely not Brian Elliott in any way. I'm sure he's being insulated in Detroit and he has had a rough stretch this year, but the potential in this kid is just unreal. I'm not saying he'll ever be a top-five goaltender, but he is certainly a legitimate #1 goaltender (closer to Anderson level then Elliott). That being said style wise they are kinda-ish similar so a comparison can be made in that regard.

I agree that the backup needs to be dependable, but Anderson has proven he can play 70 games... the risk in Ottawa is a lot lower than it would be if they had Elliott, Lehner, or someone else stepping in.

Either way, I think there is upside to signing Leclaire at this point but if they walked away I get it.

NEELY wrote:I agree that the backup needs to be dependable, but Anderson has proven he can play 70 games... the risk in Ottawa is a lot lower than it would be if they had Elliott, Lehner, or someone else stepping in.

Either way, I think there is upside to signing Leclaire at this point but if they walked away I get it.

Anderson hasn't proven he can play 70 games a year in the city where goalies come to die though

I think it's important for a backup to be healthy enough to be able to go into games when called upon, and for that reason alone I wouldn't go near Glasscal with a ten foot pole when there are literally a dozen other options (think of it as trading off skill for reliability, as long as we aren't doing that with our starter I'm fine with that).

hemlock wrote:
Harding would be a nice option if he's cheap. Anderson and he would make a nice tandem IMO.

Harding is a good choice for #2 job here. He seems to have some potential to be a #1. He's been playing behind Backstrom so there's no chance he'll be #1 ever in Minny, they have some good prospects there as well if I recall (Lindback ?).

Injury concerns are the only big negative. He blew out his knee in preseason and hasn't played all year. Hard to tell if that will be an issue going forward and if his game will suffer long term.

Jimmy Howard is a good one as well but I can't imagine Detroit not resigning him nor do I see him wanting to leave.