I think the all-star game is a great experience for players and nice way to introduce a break into the NHL schedule. I also think it's pretty boring and largely irrelevant, so I'm therefore ignoring it on the blog.
To fill space, I figured I would take some time to pat myself on the back. You see, way back in July I made some snide, off-hand comment about JFJ acquiring Raycroft that set off a bit of a firestorm in the comments section:
"keep in mind that JFJ decided to trade for Andrew Raycroft: a deal that won him probably the worst tender in the NHL last season AND cost him a top-notch propsect in Rask."
Was the sentence that proved too offensive for some of my friends and readers to let pass by without comment.
The ensuing battle, readable at the end of the post, was waged over whether the Raycroft deal was a sensible one. For my part, I felt trading a top-notch prospect for a tender who had enjoyed one good year and suffered through one terrible year (the latter being the most recent) was a probably a bad move. There were lots of goalies available in the summer, and JFJ decided to trade for the one with the worst stats in the league from the prior season. My friends argued that Raycroft proved his pedigree during his rookie campaign in Boston, was ill-treated and hobbled by injury during the 05/06 season and therefore had a good chance of finding his form again in Toronto...
As it Stands now:
over half way through the season and how is old Andrew doing? Let's take a look...
40 games played, 20 wins, and an ugly 3.10 GAA to go with his 0.892 Sv%.
On one side, the above stats are better than his previous seasons #'s (3.71 GAA, 0.879 Sv%). on the other side, he is currently 31st in the league in terms of GAA and 36th in terms of Sv%. The Maple Leafs are currently tied with the Pittsbugh Penguins for the final play-off spot in the East, but have played 3 more games than the flightless birds. All this despite the fact that JFJ has a $20 million blueline.
Hmmm...not looking too good now is it? Of course, it's difficult to seperate a goalie's peformance from the team around him. Perhaps any goalie would be suffering behind the likes of Belak, Gill and McCabe?
Comparing Raycroft to 'tenders in similar situations can be helpful, though. Consider MA Fleury has managed a 2.87 GAA and .905 Sv% behind the similarly ranked Penguins. And he has arguably a worse blueline corps operating in front of him. Ed Belfour, he who so resembles a dried up mummy husk, has played 29 games for a team that has 4 less wins than the Buds and has managed superior numbers (2.62 GAA, .902 SV%). Manny Legace, who was the original topic in the aforementioned post, has been a significant part of the Blues current winning streak. That said, St. Louis is still 2 games below .500 and hovering south of the play-off mark in the West - his stats? 2.69 GAA and .907 Sv% (I'd also like to point out that Legace was had for nothing via free agency AND makes six hundred thousand less than Raycroft).
Overall, Andrew is ahead of only 5 other goalies that have played 30 or more games thus far in the GAA category. Of those 5, three have a superior Sv% to Raycroft's (Kolzig - .910, Thomas - .901, Nittymaki - .893). Take a look at that last name - Antero Nittymaki, who has all of 6 wins ALL YEAR, has a slightly better Sv%. Ouch.
There's potentially some good excuses one could use to defend Raycroft: JFJ clearly spent wildly but not wisely on the blueline corps in the offseason. So while Raycroft has a lot of millionaires protecting him, few of them are actually that good at it. Further, the Maple Leafs have been frequently struck by injury this season, undermining the strength of the team and contributing to his ill-fortunes...
Spare me. Nittymaki plays for a much worse team, hobbled by many more injuries and yet has managed to stop the puck at a slightly greater rate than Raycroft. Quick, can you name 3 defensemen for the Washington Capitals? Who are the bottom four blueliners in Pittsburgh? St. Louis? Anyone...?
The fact is, Raycroft has struggled and it shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone. Take a gander at his career stats. His best season of pro hockey came in 03/04 with the Bruins. Before that time, Raycroft never put up startling numbers, even at the AHL level (or the OHL level, for that matter). During his best season in Providence, he managed a GAA of 2.50 and a Sv% of .917. To put that in perspective, 6 of the top 10 goaltenders in the AHL this year have superior Sv%, while all 10 have better GAA's.
Haha!
I suppose I should cage my guffaws and self-congratulations until the end of the year, when the big, red "failure!" stamp can be officially applied to the Raycroft acquisition. However I'm fairly certain, as I was in July, that this is an inevitability anyways. So why delay the gratification?
