During the Hawks cup run, if you saw what their salary cap situation was like for the following year, the dismantling of a Stanley Cup winning team is not as big of a shock to the system. However, those who looked ahead and those who didn’t go could both agree that if Antti Niemi was available at a reasonable price, he would still be Chicago’s goaltender for years to come.
The million dollar question was, “What is reasonable?” To fans and others outside the Hawks organization, 2.75 million would seem to be pretty reasonable. After all, he won 26 out of 39 in the regular season and all 16 playoff games in the Stanley Cup run. There are way more goaltenders out there that are making more and have accomplished much less despite being in the league for a lot longer than Niemi.
But I guess to the Chicago Blackhawks, 2.75 million wasn’t reasonable considering their salary cap situation and the thought that they could get a goaltender to do the exact same job as Niemi did, but for half the price. Bring in Marty Turco. Now, you guys who read the blog on a consistent basis know what I like to do at this point. Let’s get inside the numbers!
Now, the first thing people point to is the fact that Turco actually had a better save percentage than Niemi in the regular season as he edged him out .913 to .912. It’s a fair point considering Turco was on a much more inconsistent team with the Stars than Niemi was with the Hawks.
But if you want to go down the save percentage route, you can’t ignore the fact that Turco has had 2 seasons out of 5 in which he had a save percentage of under .900. You look even deeper and see that in 4 seasons with the Stars before the lockout, his lowest save percentage for a season was .913. That lends some evidence to the argument that he’s lost a step as he plays in his 30’s.
Another problem is that despite all the years in which the Stars made the playoffs and Turco was the goaltender, they weren’t really all that successful. Turco was 21-26 in five playoff runs for the Stars. 10 of those wins came in one playoff run. The other four years, the Stars made it to the second round once and were one and done 3 times. Antti Niemi was able to amass 16 wins in one playoff run. He showed that he was able to handle the pressure. Turco has not lifted his team high enough in the multiple times that he’s had a chance to.
I think people are also forgetting the long-term loss of Niemi. At 26, this is a guy that still has time to get even better than what he is now. With Turco, we’re already seeing the effects of diminishing skills as Father Time wins the battle yet again. Niemi will be a cornerstone for a team come September or October, but I never thought it would be for someone other than the Chicago Blackhawks.