Calgary Flames: Jimmy Howard should be plan B

With Ben Bishop no longer an option, the Calgary Flames should look at Detroit Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard as their new number one netminder.

The Calgary Flames early first-round elimination can easily be attributed to the struggles of Brian Elliott — who is two months away from free agency and unlikely come back for 2017-18.

Luckily for general manager Brad Treliving, this year’s goalie market is extremely high — both in free agency and in trading. The logical fit would have been unrestricted free agent Ben Bishop, but the Dallas Stars acquired his rights earlier this week, and Sportsnet’s John Shannon dropped this news:

Also told that Bishop had a no trade list. Calgary was on that list.
— John Shannon (@JShannonhl) May 9, 2017

So even if the Stars don’t manage to sign Bishop before he becomes a UFA, it seems like he has zero desire to come to Calgary. That would make Pittsburgh Penguins netminder Marc-Andre Fleury the next option, right?

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Well, Fleury’s performance throughout the 2017 playoffs will surely sky rocket his trade value. He’s gone 8-4-0 with a .927 save percentage and 2.55 goals against average. Pittsburgh is in the Eastern Conference Final for a second-straight year, thanks to Fleury finding his 2009 playoff form.

Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford is surely going to demand a king’s ransom for Fleury (assuming they choose to keep Matthew Murray), so the Flames may want to stay away and find a cheaper option.

So why not go for Detroit Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard? TSN’s Pierre LeBrun had this to report:

With Darling/Bishop traded, we'll see if teams in need of a G come calling on Detroit for Mrazek/Howard. Wings I think would listen on each
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) May 10, 2017

The Red Wings have to rebuild and clear out as much cap space as possible. The 33-year-old Howard has just two years left on his deal that carry $5.291 million cap hits in each. No need for Detroit to hang onto him as they enter an unfamiliar rebuilding stage.

It only makes sense for Detroit to keep Petr Mrazek — who is eight years younger and has outplayed Howard over the last three seasons. If the Red Wings don’t trade Howard before the Vegas expansion draft, they risk losing him for nothing.

Now, we don’t know what general manager Ken Holland’s asking price would be for Howard. But one has to assume it will be fairly cheap. There are only a handful of teams looking for an upgrade in net. And whoever wants Howard would be dealing from a position of strength. They can tell Holland to either get something for Howard or risk losing him to Vegas without any compensation.

With a trio of 30-win seasons under his belt, Howard has the experience necessary to be an undisputed number one for the Flames. Most Red Wing teams he played on barely qualified for the playoffs. But he’d play on a team that is just missing a suitable number one goalie to contend for Stanley Cups.

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So if the Calgary Flames are looking at acquiring a number one netminder without having to pay too much, then they should do business with Detroit and trade for Jimmy Howard — should the price not be too high.