Calgary Flames must end the Mike Smith experiment now
Mike Smith has ran his course as the Calgary Flames starting goaltender. It’s time for the Flames to move on, as he’s clearly not the answer.
The Calgary Flames have struggled to find a franchise goalie throughout their existence as a franchise. From 1983 to 2013, they were pretty set, as they had Mike Vernon and then Miikka Kiprusoff (mixed in with a season from the forgettable Roman Turek and Jamie McLennan tandem).
Since Kiprusoff’s retirement, they’ve been trying to find their next franchise goaltender. Their latest attempt is Mike Smith. However, it’s clear the Smith experiment has failed.
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To his credit, it started off quite well. Smith started his tenure with the Flames with four solid months with at least a .910 save percentage. Two of those months saw a save percentage of over .930. However, after Smith returned from injury in February, he wasn’t the same.
The Flames were hoping his struggles were due to his health and nothing more. So it’s not surprising Smith got a second chance to guard the net in Calgary. But he has wasted it, as the Flames have gotten sub-par goaltending from him.
Through 13 games, Smith has a league-high seven losses with a save percentage of .876. That’s simply not good enough. Especially not when the Flames have assembled a very strong roster around him. Luckily, moving on from Smith shouldn’t be hard since he’ll be a free agent after the 2018-19 season.
What’s Next?
Backup goalie David Rittich ought to get most of the starts moving forward. He’s been excellent in a backup role, posting a .935 save percentage (third-best in the NHL as of Nov. 16) in eight appearances. The Flames need to figure out what they have in him and need to discover if the 26-year-old is capable of handling a starting role. Yes, he’s 26. But you can throw convention out the window when it comes to goalies.
If Rittich can handle a starting role, the Flames will have a relatively cheap goalie moving forward. Though he’s a restricted free agent after this season, his lack of a track record will likely keep his cost down. At worst, Rittich has proven he’s an NHL caliber goalie, so he deserves a shot at the starting job. If nothing else, it’s not likely he’ll do any worse than Smith.
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However, if Rittich can’t handle the starting role, the Flames carousel of goaltenders will continue. Also, the Flames uncertain future in net would become even murkier and more unclear. One thing is for certain though – Smith is not the answer to Calgary’s goaltending woes. Rittich might well be. It would be far better for the Flames to figure out if Rittich is the answer rather than go with someone who clearly isn’t the answer.