Detroit Red Wings: Potential Landing Spots for Jimmy Howard
By Bob Heyrman
The Calgary Flames are currently the top team in the Western Conference Pacific Division so they must be doing something right–right? They are a team with a lot of young talent, a benefit from high draft choices over the last few seasons, combined with a handful of critical impact veteran players.
The Flames have five– count them five players operating a nearly a point per game clip. That alone helps the overall record. Imagine if they had a “steady Eddie” type goaltender to go with all of that offensive production.
When you think of the “current” Calgary Flames, I assume you think of the man they call “Johnny hockey” Johnny Gaudreau, and Matthew Tkachuk (son of Keith), Sean Monahan and the newest member to the club Elias Lindholm, rightly so but a lot of people overlook the captain.
Mark Giordano is the captain of the Flames, and he is arguably off to the best start to any season of his career. He has achieved 24 points in his first 25 games of the season, also recording a plus 12 rating. The Toronto native is often overlooked, but the career-long Flame is on pace to eclipse his previous career high point total of 56 in 2015/16.
The big free agent forward James Neal has yet to make much of an impact on the offensive side of things only recording 5 points to this point. He is a valuable mentor and leader to these young impactful forwards. Neal is a guy that the Flames can afford to wait on, he is expected to get going, and once he does start to produce on a regular basis, it just betters the club that much more, perhaps creating some division separation.
SO, you are thinking why would the Flames be looking at Jimmy Howard while they have Mike Smith between the pipes? Well, Mike Smith has not been the same player this season as he once was.
Smith actually lost his starting job to David Rittich. Who? He has fared well for the Flames, but they should consider a more “stable” Jimmy Howard for the stretch run. Rittich has posted an impressive 2.21 GAA, and .924% Save percentage after his first 13 starts.
Mike Smith has not been impressive at all this season posting a 3.19 GAA, and .883% Save percentage in his 14 starts. Yikes! The current play of Rittich buys the Flames time to wait before rushing to make a move, but Ken Holland should entertain the thought of moving Howard while his value continues to be on the rise. Yet he is set to become a free agent so his 5.25 million cap hit becomes tradable but could be complicated.
Ken Holland has recently suggested he is willing to wait it out with Howard until someone phones with a first-round draft selection. The Flames according to CapFriendly.com currently sit with 1.36 million in free space, meaning the Detroit Red Wings would need to either retain salary for the rest of the season if they were able to get a first-rounder in return.
Maybe Mike Smith would waive his modified no-trade clause as he is expected to submit an eight-team list to the franchise in which he would accept a trade to upon request. I don’t think he would be willing to play for the Detroit Red Wings so bringing Smith into work with Bernier to finish the season along with a draft choice would not be a realistic option.
Anyhow the Flames are currently a Stanley Cup Contender with solid goaltending at the moment but could definitely use the insurance policy that Jimmy Howard would provide the franchise.