St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington once played for the Boston Bruins AHL team. In some ironic twist of fate, he’s set to face his former team in the Stanley Cup Final.
Last night, the St. Louis Blues clinched their first appearance in the Stanley Cup Final since 1970. They’ll face off against the highly favored Boston Bruins. As with any great matchup, there are a few stories worth following.
It’s always interesting to look at is when players face off against their former team, especially with hockey’s ultimate prize on the line. This is the case with former St. Louis Blues captain and current Bruins forward David Backes.
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Backes explained that he was hoping his Blues would be their opponent in the Stanley Cup Final, although he still hopes Boston emerges victorious for his first chance to win the Stanley Cup.
On the opposite end of the matchup, rookie goaltending sensation Jordan Binnington faces off against his old team in the Bruins. Before he played a major role in turning the Blues season around, he played for the Providence Bruins (Boston’s AHL affiliate) last season.
During his playing days in Providence, Binnington’s NHL rights were never obtained by Boston, and he always remained property of the Blues. Instead, Providence acquired him on loan as a temporary player.
Why would a St. Louis Blues prospect play for a different team’s farm team? Well, last year was the first year the NHL had 31 teams with the addition of the Vegas Golden Knights, but there were still only 30 American Hockey League farm teams.
Vegas signed an affiliation agreement with the Chicago Wolves, who formerly served the St. Louis Blues. This left the Blues minor leaguers with no definite AHL landing ground, so loaning them to different farm teams was the best way for Blues prospects to see playing time during their development.
Binnington played incredibly well as part of the Bruins, with 17 wins through 28 games, in addition to a 2.05 goals against average and 0.926 save percentage. He also saw limited action compared to his previous AHL campaigns, as he was still fighting for playing time with actual Bruins prospects. Binnington’s 28 games played was the lowest in his AHL career, aside from this past season when he was called up to the big club in St. Louis.
The presence of Binnington created a unique dilemma for the Bruins, and controversy arose on if they should play him over their own players they were trying to develop. He made the choice harder, as even though he was technically playing backup for Providence, his play eclipsed that of starter Zane McIntyre on numerous occasions. This is how the final verdict came down.
"So even though Binnington has likely earned more time in net for Providence, there’s really no advantage to the P-Bruins playing him over someone who they would like to develop into a goaltending option for the near future.Although he’s only seeing the ice once a week to give McIntyre a breather, Binnington has excelled, winning his last five starts while allowing two or fewer goals in each of those games."
Providence was in a tough situation. They could either play the goalie that wasn’t theirs for the success of the AHL team or they could play a goalie that was theirs and help in the development of their organization. There was a plus side, and negative side, for either choice.
Binnington’s presence on the Providence squad was made possible by Malcolm Subban’s departure to Vegas. Boston took too much time to “develop” the young netminder to the point that years after he was drafted, he was still an AHL player while the Bruins went with a cast of characters of everyone but Malcolm Subban to play back up to Tuukka Rask.
Since St. Louis technically didn’t have their own AHL team, it was the perfect place for Binnington to spend the 2018-2018 season.
Binnington’s tenure with the “Bruins” was short-lived but memorable. In addition to his solid play, he didn’t get in a few exciting goalie fights. Those memories most likely have quickly faded in his newfound success with the team that drafted him. Don’t expect Binnington to feel sentimental when the puck drops in game one.