GENTLE BEN

One of the pieces of news we received during the free-agent spree on July 1 was the knowledge that Edmonton was interested in another goaltender. It would be easy to assume that Cam Talbot—Ben Scrivens is the tandem for next season, and it may well be at the end of the day. The shopping news suggests we keep an eye out for change.

After arriving during the 2013-14 season and flattening the competition around him, Edmonton’s Craig MacTavish signed Ben Scrivens to a two-year deal at reasonable money. Edmontonians slept well all summer, secure in the knowledge that the goalie problem had been solved. The wheels fell off early and often in year two and the numbers for Scrivens were alarming and drastic:

Scrivens was poor for Edmonton last season and he wouldn’t have been in 57 games if his backup was better (or healthy). Scrivens is a younger player, has been healthy and his resume suggests a save percentage of .897 is an anomaly. Scrivens’ four seasons of college featured good SP’s (.911, .930, .931,
.934) after year one and he had some interesting postings in the minors.
Reading (ECHL) for 13 games (.938) followed by parts of three seasons
with the Marlies (.924, .926, .917). He’s extremely likely to regress to the mean. 

He had a terrible year and may never get another chance at a starting job, and that’s a
fact.The question for Edmonton is can he backup Cam Talbot? Ideally, an NHL coach might want a more proven player and that may well be what happens over the course of the summer. 

Brossoit photo by Rob Ferguson. All rights reserved.

Laurent Brossoit had a fine AHL season but the smart play there is to have him play another year in the AHL (this time Bakersfield) with perhaps another cup of coffee (he was brilliant in his NHL debut) in the coming season.

One thing is certain: the additions of Cam Talbot and Miroslav Svoboda may be the first Peter Chiarelli adds at the position but they won’t be the last. Those two added to Eetu Laurikainen will give Edmonton a different look this fall but it’s just the beginning. Edmonton’s quality and depth in goal have been questionable every year of this century.