The old saying “The most popular player in town is the backup quarterback” applies to goalies too. The backup is the sentimental favorite, the “C’mon, give the guy a shot, let’s see what he can do” people’s choice. Then, they become the starter and when he has his first bad game, the peanut gallery starts up again for his backup.
Calvin Pickard never proved, in his time with the Avalanche, that he was worthy of any other designation than “backup.” In 80 career games with Colorado, his numbers were: 28 victories, 44 losses, six overtime losses. His goals-against average was 2.77, the saves percentage .914.
In the one season he was given true No. 1 playing status, 2016-17, when Semyon Varlamov was lost the rest of the way to injury, Pickard failed to show he was No. 1 material. Sure, he had some excellent games (a rousing home win over Detroit comes to mind, a strong showing against Chicago), but his goals-against average finished at .904 – well below the league average. Yes, we know: he played on a lousy team. It wasn’t all his fault. But he certainly wasn’t the solution around here either, was he?
He was a nice backup for the Avs in his time, but that was it. He had some nice saves percentages his first couple years, it was too small a sample size to get too excited about.
Originally, I was of the opinion that the Avs should protect Pickard in the NHL expansion draft and expose Semyon Varlamov. But I was of that opinion with the following proviso: that there was no way Las Vegas would take Varlamov, if available.
Well, guess what? Las Vegas GM George McPhee, my sources tell me, would have taken Varlamov if he’d been available. In that case, the Avs did the smart thing and protected him. Losing Varlamov for nothing would have been a much bigger front-office disaster than anything regarding Pickard.
We know, we know: Varly was terrible last year too. He’s got a big contract ($5.9 million the next two years). Granted.
But: Varly was hurt all last year. He tried to play with the wonky groin/hip issues until he couldn’t anymore. He’s nearing 100 percent health again, I’m told, and feeling great. The Avs don’t have any pressing salary cap issues, so his contract was always a red herring in any argument to expose him.
Varly has proven he is No. 1 material before. He carried the Avs to their last playoff appearance, 2013-14, finishing as a Vezina Trophy finalist. He’s got elite skill. Has he had trouble consistently showing them? At times, yes. Look, I’m not arguing here that Varlamov is Patrick Roy. I’m not even saying he’s an elite goalie at the moment. But I am saying that, unlike Pickard, based on what I’ve seen, he has the chance to become elite again. He’s still fairly young and he’s healthy again.
A lot has been made over the fact that Pickard is a nice guy, nice teammate, good to the media, etc. And that’s all true. But the Avs don’t need just nice guys. They need talent. Varlamov has more of that than Calvin Pickard. Las Vegas and McPhee, the guy who drafted him when he was in Washington, knew that and would have gladly taken him for nothing.
That’s why Joe Sakic and the Avs made the right decision in not allowing that to happen.
0 Comments (7 conversations)
xdikkx
Oh how I beg to differ. Varly is only the right choice if the Avs feel they can complete in the upcoming season or next and I can’t imagine that’s the case. Let Pickard get some reps with a better, healthier team (Let’s not forget that EJ missed a ton of time last year. You can’t reasonably expect a green goaltender to play lights out hockey if you’re missing your top defender.) and if he still underperforms, move on next year. If the team sucks again, you’ll have another high pick.
ljp78
Let the dissenters dissent. I agree with this opinion. Time for new blood in Colorado, and not over-valuing their own talent.
Hey Adrian, quick editorial: Paragraph 3 reads “but his goals against average was at .904” I’m assuming that was supposed to be save percentage, although with the way the Avs lost games last year… it could be either
hockeyhacker5
You’re right about the save percentage. Pickard’s career pct is 91.4 (I like math; it’s stupid to write it with the decimal in the wrong place like the NHL does) and Varlamov’s is a whopping 91.6. That means every 14 games or so (based on an average of 35 shots per game), Pickard will allow one more goal. Apparently that makes it worth paying Varlamov $5.9 million compared to Pickard’s $1 million. Hardly. And why has nobody mentioned Pickard’s silver medal showing in the world championships? He proved he’s potential #1 material there. Maybe the surgery will be magical and Varlamov will be healthy and return to his level of play when he was the age Pickard is now; or maybe we’ll end up with two goalies less ready for the NHL than Pickard has proven. Why didn’t Sakic make a deal with Vegas to take Soderberg? Other teams managed tougher deals but there wasn’t even a rumor about the Avs attempting something like that. Sad. Very sad.
Daniel Henderson
Because the World Championships are completely meaningless. Its a stacked team Canada playing mainly against competition that would lose to AHL teams. Silver medal for Canada is a bad finish too, not something to boast about.
Why would he make a deal with Vegas to take Soderberg when they have oceans of cap space? Teams that did dump contracts paid a hell of a lot to do it. I’d rather keep those assets and see if he can rebound. If he can’t buy him out – nbd.
hockeyhacker5
I don’t think you’ve been paying attention to the World Championships. Sweden had Lundqvist, Hedman, Ekman-Larsson, Klingberg, Backstrom, Nylander, Landeskog and more. Good luck beating them with an AHL team; silver against that team is hardly an embarrassment. They’d beat a lot of NHL teams, primarily because they were made up of mostly above-average NHL players.
Sakic should have made a deal for Vegas to take Soderberg because he has underperformed, he still has three years left at $4.75 m and that money could be better utilized. That would have guaranteed that the Avs wouldn’t lose Pickard, Barberio or anyone else. Soderberg is a 31-year-old who averages nine goals a year for the Avs. I’d gladly give up the second-round pick to keep Pickard and dump a bad contract, freeing a roster spot for a young forward and providing more cap space to pursue another defenseman.
It’s not worth giving up an asset to get rid of Soderberg. The Avs need all the draft picks and prospects they can find and also the Avs have the Cap space to just let his contract run out. Sakic made the right call to just let LV take whoever they wanted.
I’d rather cross my fingers that Soderberg return to his form in his first season with the team than give up draft pick just to get rid of him. The Avs don’t need his roster spot either to just let him play out his deal. Maybe he’ll even be good enough that someone will want to trade for him at the deadline.
hockeyhacker5
My point was not just to get rid of Soderberg, though. Draft picks are useless unless you get actual players out of them. We had Pickard, a 25-year-old goalie on the rise. It would have been better to keep him than to spend a draft pick on another goalie and wait a couple of years to see if that guy will work out. Think of it as drafting Pickard, but saving $14 million as a bonus and making room for someone like Grimaldi to see if he can truly play.
Daniel Henderson
Obviously other than the top couple teams.
Pickard is way overrated. There are plenty of UFA goalies who can step into his role and provide the same or better results.
hockeyhacker5
For $1 million or less? Doubtful. Maybe Mike Condon. Most free agents will cost more, they’re all older, and they won’t do much better. But, too each his own. He’s gone anyway.
B
Disagree. I don’t think there is enough emphasis that Pickard was on a HISTORICALLY bad team. They could have easily convinced Vegas to not take Pickard or Varly. Then if Varly has a good year, trade him away at the deadline for picks. Now we can’t do that because we have no potential starter after that (like Pickard).
pixelrebirth
So much rage… you guys should be Vegas fans, follow the talent if you believe in it so much.
He is a backup goalie! A possible average starter some unknown year.
I will keep the possible elite over the possible starter.
Stop the hate, lets move this conversation to the Duchene trade questions already.
Couldn’t agree with you more. Everyone is acting like losing our backup goalie is going to be undoing of the team. The over reactions is so strange to me considering how many other problems the Avs have.
Chris DeMott
Good article, good argument — you changed my opinion.
I agree Varly overall is the better goalie I’m sorry but countless of times has Pickard cost them so many shady goals yes Varly has done that a lot but that’s because his groin wasn’t 100% if this surgery is working as well as they are saying it is then Pickard won’t be a Starter until Varly is gone