GRIN AND BERRA
By Lowetide
7 years agoReto Berra is on waivers tonight, the Florida Panthers finding themselves with an embarrassment of riches in net as the season nears. For the Edmonton Oilers and Peter Chiarelli, it is an extreme opportunity to right a possible wrong of summer—and shore up an extremely important position.
WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?
Among goalies who started 10 or more games in 2015-16, Reto Berra led the entire NHL in even-strength save percentage, .941. He stopped 289 of 307, allowing 18 total goals. Let’s compare his numbers to Jonas Gustavsson’s:
- Berra allowed 18 goals in 307 even-strength shots.
- Gustavsson allowed 45 goals in 525 even-strength shots.
- Source
Using Berra’s SP and applying it to Gustavsson’s work load, the Colorado goalie would have allowed 31 goals—or 14 fewer when the teams were playing level hockey.
How much are 14 goals-against worth? A lot, I would think. Now, there are no guarantees that Berra is going to repeat those numbers, but he has posted two year’s worth of solid numbers. He had a blazing start last year, then broke his ankle, missing most of three months.
WHAT ABOUT THE 50-MAN LIST?
As I understand it, the Oilers 50-man list is at 46, plus two PTO items (Eric Gryba, Kris Versteeg):
- G Cam Talbot
- G Jonas Gustavsson
- G Laurent Brossoit
- G Eetu Laurikainen
- G Nick Ellis
- D Oscar Klefbom
- D Adam Larsson
- D Andrej Sekera
- D Mark Fayne
- D Darnell Nurse
- D Brandon Davidson
- D Griffin Reinhart
- D Matt Benning
- D Eric Gryba (PTO)
- D Jordan Oesterle
- D Dillon Simpson
- D David Musil
- D Joey Laleggia
- D Mark Fraser
- D Andrew Ference (LTIR)
- D Ben Betker
- C Connor McDavid
- C Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
- C Leon Draisaitl
- C Mark Letestu
- C Anton Lander
- C Drake Caggiula
- C Jujhar Khaira
- C Kyle Platzer
- C Bogdan Yakimov (still counts on 50-man)
- L Milan Lucic
- L Benoit Pouliot
- L Patrick Maroon
- L Matt Hendricks
- L Anton Slepyshev
- L Jere Sallinen
- L Mitchell Moroz
- L Braden Christoffer
- R Jordan Eberle
- R Jesse Puljujarvi
- R Kris Versteeg (PTO)
- R Nail Yakupov
- R Zack Kassian
- R Iiro Pakarinen
- R Tyler Pitlick
- R Taylor Beck
- R Patrick Russell
- R Greg Chase
If my math is correct, claiming Reto Berra is possoble, even if the team decides to sign both Gryba and Versteeg. Berra has a cap hit of $1.45M compared to $800,000 for Jonas Gustavsson. I think that difference is substantial—$650,000 is a big deal in the cap world. That said, I would make the claim. Would you?
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