He won exactly one game in his first season with the Avalanche. But what a win it was, right? For a couple days there, Hamburglar Fever gripped the Mile High City. And then it didn’t.
Andrew Hammond played four games with the Avs, so, like the grade we did Tuesday for Rocco Grimaldi, this will be shorter than the rest.
Let’s get to it:
OVERVIEW
He was considered a throw-in to the Nov. 5 Matt Duchene trade. He went on an incredible 20-1-2 run as a new goalie with the Ottawa Senators in 2014-15, earning the nickname “The Hamburglar.” Injuries and some subsequent subpar play with the Senators were an unfortunate aftermath of that amazing run.
He spent most of his time right after the trade with Belleville of the AHL, then moved to the San Antonio Rampage. When injuries struck both Avs’ goalies, Hammond was called up and got a March 28 start at home against Philadelphia. After a slow start, he played well from there, but got the loss, 2-1 against the Flyers.
He served out the rest of the regular season, and into the playoffs, as the backup to Jonathan Bernier. When he went down in Game 4, he became the new starter.
BIGGEST MOMENT
Well, duhhhhh. That would be April 20 – just last month still – Game 5 of the first round against Nashville. Hammond was amazing, making 44 saves in a 2-1 Avs victory. He was the toast of the town – for 48 hours. The next game didn’t go as well.
It was a great story while it lasted, though. Everybody loves a good underdog story, and this was a great one. The fact that it came in a hostile building, in a potential closeout game, made it that much better.
WHAT’S NEXT
After his huge season with Ottawa, Hammond signed a three-year, $4.05 million contract with the Senators. It was a one-way deal, so even though he spent most of last season in the minors, Hammond still made $1.5 million. That contract has run out, however.
He can be an unrestricted free agent July 1. At 30, he’s not a kid anymore, but he’s not old either. Goalies tend to have longer shelf lives than position players. I think he’ll find employment in the NHL next season, or at least a two-way deal that could put him back in the league at any moment.
Could he return to the Avs? Well, that’s an unknown at the moment. If Bernier leaves as a UFA, the chances of him getting an offer from the Avs go up. If he re-signs, it’s highly unlikely Hammond comes back here.
FINAL GRADE
A-
Hey, any guy who can come off the shelf like he did and win a playoff game on the road gets an A from me. He only allowed two goals in the loss to Philly, in his one regular-season start. Yeah, I know he was pretty bad in Game 6, but the whole team was awful.
If that’s all there was to Hammond’s Avalanche career, it wasn’t much. But we’ll always have April 20.
0 Comments (3 conversations)
NoMoreRats
Don’t forget he also shut Nashville out in the 3rd period of game four and gave the Avs a chance to win that one. Right now he sits at #5 in Save % for the playoffs behind Saros, Schneider, Quick and Fleury at .933. For a salary dump, the Avs could have won 3 of the 4 games he played in this year, pretty good return on a salary dump. Hell, he had more great moments in this year’s playoffs then Duchene did. Godspeed Hamburglar, it was fun.
http://www.nhl.com/stats/player?report=goaliesummary&reportType=season&seasonFrom=20172018&seasonTo=20172018&gameType=3&filter=timeOnIce,gte,50&sort=savePctg
Nels
I have not forgotten Sir. Though everyone else seems to have. Aside from the VERY understandably rusty first period against Philly, he locked down that high-powered offense and gave the Avs a chance to win that game too. He wasn’t even that bad in game 6, the only real goals to fault him on came off of BREAKAWAYS by Arvidson and Forsberg. This guy is an NHL wizard, forgive me for not caring about the AHL.
NoMoreRats
It’s an interesting thought. One caveat is Bednar’s reluctance to play him during the win streak to give Bernier a break. Or at the end of the season/earlier in the Nashville series when it seemed pretty clear Bernier was not right. Which was the ‘real’ Hammond? Game 5 or Game 6? Or somewhere in between.
If I were Joe I’d check with Carolina to see how badly they want to dump Scott Darling – maybe as part of a Jeff Skinner trade. Darling had several years of good numbers as a back up in Chicago and the same sort of questions go with him – was last year the anomaly or all the other years? I’m betting Landy would love to have his old Kitchener Rangers line mate back as well. Give ’em Nashville’s 2018 2nd on our 2019 3rd for the right to have Skinner’s 30 goals for a season and first crack at re-signing him and tell them we’ll take Darling’s 4 M a year cap hit off their hands. We get secondary scoring in a good young winger plus a 1B in goal and hold on to TB4.
Nels
Why would we not want this guy back for cheap? Considering how well he played in his 10 periods this season (and it was very well, by the numbers), the Avs cap space, lack of depth at goalie, Varly’s injury issues and expiring contract, why would they not be ALL OVER resigning Hamburgler AND Bernie? This seems like a no-brainer to me. Aren’t the Avs going to have a hard time even making it to the salary FLOOR if they don’t sign a BIG free agent? Why not lock down the goalies that helped us get to the playoffs and mess up the Preds face? I’m so confused….
AvsFinn
I don’t think there’s any chance he’ll return. The Avs had a tonn of opportunities to try him out during the regular season but didn’t untill they really had to. Sure the Avs were chasing the playoff spot most of the time but at some point it wasn’t smart at all to ride Varly or Bernie like they did. So the Avs clearly don’t care too much about him and showed that to him too. That’s why I don’t think Hamburgler would even care to come back if there’s anyone else out there that’d take him. Definitely wouldn’t even look at a two way contract with Avs.
Game 5 doesn’t change this, especially not after game 6 which was horrible.
Nels
He wasn’t any worse than the rest of the team in game 6.