Hockey Update: Top 5 NHL Free Agent Goal Tenders
This year there has been so much fuss regarding the NHL free agency, fans are curious on what teams their favourite players would go to. With so many rumours flying around and the athletes, on purpose not disclosing details concerning their future plans, it has left everyone on the tip of their toes.
This coming week will determine the future for many goal tenders by the likes of many NHL teams. As more than, 10 teams this year are going to try to fish out the best goal tenders NHL has to offer this year.
Let’s see who the top 5 seeding goal tenders available this year are and what teams they might end up in.
Vesa Toskala’s save percentage might be varying over the years, sometimes high, sometimes low. He still poses a few qualities, a lot of other goal tenders don’t. The former Calgary Flames goaltenders downfall is blamed on the Toronto Maple Leafs by the fans, as they say the team never got out of the rebuilding their team process over the years, which affected Vesa as a player.
While it is suspected that since, the player seems to be deteriorating as years pass by and might not be a great prospect, he still does have some potential suitor’s mainly low-ranked teams such as: Carolina Hurricanes, New York Islanders, Columbus Blue Jackets and Tampa Bay Lightning.
Antero Niitymake seems to be in the top prospect as his performance last season was exceptional with a .909 save percentage. In fact, he is one of those tenders who you don’t know what he’ll do next, as he is one of the most unpredictable players in the NHL. Many rumours were that he’ll be joining the Atlanta Thrashers or New Jersey Devils, although both were proven wrong, when Nittymaki surprised everyone by signing a contract with the San Jose Sharks and was really happy with it. Antero Niitymake stated "If you get a chance to play for one of the best teams in the league, you can't really pass that up.”
Truth be told, no one has remained under the spotlight as a free agent as much as Marty Biron has. Despite his awful performance with New York Islanders last season, he wasn’t expected to be given so much importance but he proved the critics wrong. This year he certainly made the headlines again and many big teams planned on banking the player. Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins all had eyes on him but the only successful team to break the deal with the royal highness were the New York rangers, offering him almost a million per season.
Michael Leighton made it to the news quite a lot last season with an implausible 9-1-1-run, leading his team Philadelphia Flyers to the Stanley Cup against the undisputed Chicago Blackhawks. All the determined player has done ever since he joined the Flyers is winning. What Michael really needed to do was to tie himself down to a specific team, instead of prancing around like a rabbit from one team to another, so he could show his true potential to the world.
Remarkably, the player seemed to have realized that this year after signing up a two year contract with his last team Philadelphia Flyers, just a day before he became an unrestricted free agent.
Jose Theodore’s past two years have been quite notable, with a .900 and .911 save percentage. Theodore achieved the Masterson Trophy this year and certainly deserved it. Starting this year, Theodore became a free agent after serving the Washington Capitals for two years, making him a great prospect for the teams who are desperate for fresh goal tenders. Big teams like Edmonton oilers and Boston Bruins already have eyes on the Jose.
With wrapping this up, some players have joined the teams they longed for and some are still confused on what their next move should be. Let’s just hope this year’s playoffs would bring as much hype as last years did.
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