Arizona Coyotes Should Target Flames Goalie Jonas Hiller
With Mike Smith out for 8-10 weeks, the Arizona Coyotes need some goaltending help; enter Jonas Hiller.
When starting goalie Mike Smith went under the knife to repair an abdomen core muscle injury, GM Don Maloney made it know he would be actively checking available net-minders to make the Arizona Coyotes stronger.
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Now, there aren’t a lot of choices out there, but one he may be interested in is Jonas Hiller of the Calgary Flames. Hiller has effectively lost his starting job to Karri Ramo, who has a good record this season with 10-8-1, and a .903 Save percentage, with a .903 Goals against average.
Hiller’s numbers are not quite as impressive, and perhaps it’s one of those things where the team just doesn’t play that well in front of him. Hiller has a 4-4 record, with a less than impressive .862 Save percentage, and a really poor 3.76 Goals against average. The catch may be his salary, at $4.5 million, expiring in 2016. The other factor is his age…he’s 33 just like Mike Smith.
Could the Arizona Coyotes afford two goalie contracts that expensive, for aging goalies?
The plan will more than likely be to see how well Anders Lindback does as a starter, with Louis Domingue as his backup. But, don’t count Hiller out, his career numbers are pretty impressive. He has a 192-133-36 record with a .915 Save percentage, and a better than average 2.52 Goals against average in this his ninth season.
He was instrumental in the Flames run to the playoffs last season, winning 26 games, and a .918 Save percentage, and a 2.36 Goals against average. Those are numbers hard to ignore, yet for some reason I doubt that Maloney will bite. He would need to put together a trade, and I’m sure he doesn’t want to give up his gold mine of prospects he is developing in the juniors, or AHL level.
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Maloney is a cool customer when it comes to these types of situations. He sits back and takes in his options before he acts. This will be no different, and he knows darn well the rest of the General Managers know of his goalie situation, and may just approach him without him exerting much effort seeking them out.
Let’s get behind Anders Lindback, who has shown some signs of being a pretty good goalie. He may just surprise us enough to forget about Mike Smith, which some fans are already doing.